Compare car finance

You generally have to be over 18 to get a car loan, and lenders will often have their own specific requirements. You can find out more by looking at their website or contacting them directly, by phone, email, or post.

To apply for a loan you’ll need your address, contact details, details about your incomings, expenditures and employment. You’ll also need to mention how much you want to borrow, and for how long.

This depends on the lender. Some loan providers will charge you extra fees if you start making higher repayments than have been agreed, but others may allow it.

A secured loan is a loan you can take out that’s tied to an asset of yours as security. For example a mortgage is a type of secured loan, and the asset would be the house you take the mortgage out on – when you repay the loan the house is yours, but if you don’t repay then the lender could seize your house. These are uncommon for car loans.

An unsecured loan isn’t tied to any collateral, and as a result you normally need at least a fair credit score to qualify. There is also often a maximum amount you’ll be allowed to borrow.

A soft-search or soft-application is a way of finding out where you stand in terms of getting a loan without leaving a mark on your credit report. It’s a useful way of finding a loan you’ll be eligible for without harming your chances of being accepted. MoneySuperMarket’s loan Eligibility Checker uses a soft search.

Missing repayments will have several negative effects. It will harm your credit score, and could result in a County Court Judgement. Any assets secured against the loan could eventually be repossessed.

It will almost certainly make borrowing harder and more expensive in the future.

APR, or your Annual Percentage Rate, is the interest rate at which you pay back money you’ve borrowed. It takes into account the actual interest rate you pay, plus any other fees or charges involved in the deal, to give you a more complete picture of what you loan will cost.

When you see a rate advertised as the representative APR, this means the lender is required to offer this rate to at least 51% of applicants – however it doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to receive this interest rate yourself.

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So how do we make our money? In a nutshell, when you use us to buy a product, we get a reward from the company you’re buying from.

But you might have other questions. Do we provide access to all the companies operating in a given market? Do we have commercial relationships or ownership ties that might make us feature one company above another?

We commit to providing you with clear and informative answers on all points such as this, so we have gathered the relevant information on this page.