I'm struggling to add anything other than Fiamold has offered.

You have been what's called in the industry "Rate For Risk". A&L believe there is a slight risk to lending you the money, so to mitigate their losses, they increase the APR.

And as Fiamold says, it might not be that you have poor credit, it might be that you don't have enough.

Have you asked Experian/Equifax for your credit report to see if there is anything untoward on it?

Tim