Car finance or personal loan help please!

tlc275

Hi All,

Just after some advice please. We need a new car, we have worked out that we can afford a £5k loan repaid over about 2 years (poss 30 months) depending on rate. Hubby has been offered a personal loan for £5,000 from Barclays but their actual rate versus the rate that was advertised is higher than we would like at 16.9%.

He has also been accepted by Zuto Car Finance, but before they can quote us figures they need the ins and outs of a ducks behind on any prospective car - we haven't even started properly looking yet - but I am uncomfortable about looking without having a better idea re figures? But they have said that it "shouldn't" be any more than 8.5%.

So, first question is does anyone have any experience of Zuto - do they seem to be a reputable company? Or should we shop around further for another personal loan? We have never done car finance before so its all a bit new! I know that if we shop around too much it might have a negative effect on the credit score so want to avoid that as far as possible.

Any advice or input would be very gratefully received! Feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing at the moment.

Thanks in advance,

Teri

TadleyBaggie

Be careful, it's very common for car finance to be quoted as flat rate, which would work out a roughly double as an APR.

[Deleted User]

From their website, Zuto are nothing more than a broker, so they'll jusdt be farming your details out to other, fairly high cost lenders.

I'd avoid.

tlc275

Hi,

Thank you for your replies, yes, I feel extremely wary of them and didn't feel that they gave me a "full and frank" reply when I questioned them about it. It was just "go and find your perfect car and we can talk about that later" ?!?! Seemed a bit odd even to my inexperienced ears!

Thanks again.

Teri

Nearlyold

HP from a Car dealers might be better than Barclays APR (though probably not by much) just make absolutely sure they are quoting you the APR not the Flat rate.

~Brock~

With motor finance HP it's not just you that gets underwritten, it's the car as well. This is why they need the car details in order to complete the picture and be able to give you a quote.

Thing is, if you go to a motor dealer to choose your car the dealer themselves may also want to suggest that you take out their own finance offers instead, which might not be a bad thing because if you have got two alternative HP sources fighting over your business the interest rates may drop before your eyes....:T

MEM62

Are Barclays is own bank? If so they may well be offering as good a rate as he will get. If not, try your own bank. Zuto are almost certainly not going to be the best option.

thescouselander

Why not just get a straight personal loan instead of one secured on the car? I would have thought a good interest rate would be around 4% APR assuming you've got a reasonable credit rating.

Hsbc and Sainsburys bank had good deals last time I looked but check some comparison sites for other options.

Nearlyold

I think the OP's issue was they applied for a straight personal loan with Barclays and only got offered 16.9%

thescouselander

Nearlyold wrote: »

I think the OP's issue was they applied for a straight personal loan with Barclays and only got offered 16.9%

Yea, maybe you're right. Just a quick look at Barclays website shows their representative rates are very high and not competitive.


OP - I'd suggest you shop around for a better personal loan.

DUTR

thescouselander wrote: »

Yea, maybe you're right. Just a quick look at Barclays website shows their representative rates are very high and not competitive.


OP - I'd suggest you shop around for a better personal loan.

Also the rate drops quite a lot for principal above £7500.