Your eligibility depends on your credit rating. The better your credit rating, the more chance you’ll have of being accepted for a loan or securing a better deal. It’s important to consider what you can afford and budget accordingly to factor in any monthly repayments and the costs of running your new vehicle. If you have a lower credit rating, you may still be able to secure a deal, but it might include higher monthly repayments or interest rates.

Who owns the car will depend on the agreement. For hire purchase (HP) and personal contract purchase (PCP), the lender owns the car until you make the final payment (or balloon payment for PCP). With a personal loan, you own the car from day one.

There is no credit rating limit, but the better your score, the more likely you’ll get approved at a lower rate.

If you’re looking for initial quotes, no. When you apply with VU Compare, we run an initial assessment of your credit file and check this against our lenders’ criteria to see if you’re going to be eligible. This is what’s known as a ‘soft search’, and it won’t appear on your records or impact your credit score in any way. It’s then up to you which deal you choose to apply for – if at all. Once the application’s made and you’ve consented, the lender will need to perform a full credit search, and this will be noted on your credit history. But this never happens without your consent.

Yes, just because your credit history isn’t perfect doesn’t mean lenders will turn you away. At VU Compare we've been helping customers get on the road for over 15 years and work with a large panel of lenders, some of whom specialise in bad credit car finance.

A finance broker helps customers find finance deals – it doesn’t lend any money itself. At VU Compare, we work with a large panel of lenders and we share their finance offers with you.

Any charges we incur are covered by the fees we receive from the lenders for arranging your finance with them. This means we can offer our services to you totally free of charge.

Our panel of lenders will finance cars, motorcycles, vans and touring caravans. If you don’t have a car in mind, but you’ve already been pre-approved for finance, you can use the stock search tool in My VU Compare, your online account area. This allows you to search for cars that you think you might like to buy from any reputable dealer. When you find something, you can add it to your shortlist and we’ll carry out the vehicle checks and provide a finance quote specifically for that car.