Car finance calculator

When applying for finance through Zuto, we'll perform a soft credit check which reviews your income and affordability, and reviews your credit history, determining how much you can borrow and what sort of rates you may be offered. Typically, our lenders will offer anything from £2,000 to £50,000, but feel free to get in touch over the phone if you would like to borrow more, and we'll see how we could help.

One thing to consider is the vehicle you choose to finance; depending on the age and condition of the vehicle, you may be required to put a deposit down, which means you'll borrow less against the vehicle. If this is the case, our team will explain everything to you and discuss your options in detail.

Your car finance payments will depend on the value of the vehicle you're hoping to drive, as well as factors such as your credit rating and how long you want the repayment period to be. However, the interest rates  vary from as low as 9% APR to 19%+ depending on your credit history.

We work with a number of lenders on our panel who can offer finance to people who are self-employed. You may need to provide additional documentation to the lender that shows your income - you can find out more about self employed car finance here. We work with hundreds of trusted dealers across the UK so whether you're looking for a car for home or a van for work, we may be able to help with that too.

No deposit car finance options are available which means an upfront cash payment is not always required. However, putting down a deposit will reduce the amount you need to borrow, which would mean your repayments would be less or you may be able to take the finance over a shorter period of time.

When applying for car finance, you'll have three main options:

• Hire Purchase finance: this involves making regular monthly payments, while the finance is secured against the vehicle. Our car HP calculator above will give you an indication of the type of car you could be eligible for. One of the benefits of this type of finance is that you'll know your monthly payments in advance, and there is no 'balloon' fee at the end. 
• Personal Contract Purchase: this involves regular monthly payments and the finance is secured against the vehicle but you only pay off the depreciation. You can hand the keys back at the end of the contract period, or make a balloon payment to keep it. 
• Personal Loan: this involves regular monthly payments, but the loan isn't secured against the vehicle.

When looking at your car finance options, we follow a straight forward process (you can find out more about how our process works here) . When you apply, we'll run an initial soft credit check on your profile (which won't impact your score) to make a preliminary decision on your eligibility.

We'll then compare the finance options offered by our panel of lenders, to find the deal that suits your circumstances best. Your car expert will then get in touch to talk through your quote, how much you can borrow, and what kind of car you want to drive.

The average cost of car finance can vary from person to person. It can be affected by things such as whether you have a deposit available or a part exchange, and what your credit score looks like. The length of time you want to borrow the money for will also affect how much your monthly repayments will be. Using our calculator will allow you to change the term and credit score banding so you can see how much you could borrow.

When applying for car finance, your payment will vary not just depending on the car's value and the repayment period, but also the Annual Percentage Rate or APR. The APR you'll pay is based on your personal circumstances and how you've handled credit in the past. You'll generally pay a lower APR - less interest - the better your credit score is. Those with bad credit scores will usually pay higher interest rates, although that doesn't mean they're excluded from car finance. Find out more about car finance for bad credit here.