Car loan quote different to terms offered

jj42

Hi

I applied for a (PCP-style) loan using a car finance broker online. I filled in a form on their site and was emailed a quotation from a sales representative with terms I had discussed on the phone with them, with stated repayment amount and representative APR that I was asked to accept electronically which I then did.

When the loan agreement came through from the lender the APR was higher with higher monthly repayments.

I understand that generally advertised APR can be different based on amount borrowed and risk, but this was a direct quotation and the former was known at quotation and Credit Karma and others tell me I have an excellent credit score regarding the latter, which makes the situation baffling for me.

Do I have any options here for getting the originally quoted loan terms? They say they are FCA regulated, but being unfamiliar with how this work I don't know what this means.

Many thanks

DrEskimo

No.

The first quote was a representative APR. It is only through a full application can they assess your personal circumstances and determine the APR they are willing to offer you specifically. Your credit score, and even more so what others tell you about your credit score, is utterly meaningless as it is not used by that finance company to determine your credit worthiness.

If you are unhappy with the terms offered, reject the offer and look elsewhere. It may be prudent to check your various credit files to determine where you might be considered as higher risk, and where things can be improved.

Chris_English

If the original quote was with a “representative” APR then no, they’ve done nothing wrong.

This is exactly how a representative rate works, the quote shows what the payments would be for a customer who gets that rate but your own personal rate and payments can differ.

As an aside it’s generally cheaper to save up and buy a less expensive used car outright than to take our a loan on a new or nearly new one.

jj42

Thanks.

I do feel a bit mislead as the original quotation email and discussion stated nothing regarding those exact terms not being offered (I plead my own ignorance here that I was expecting the quotation to be as offered), which is why I went ahead and a credit lookup has now appeared on my credit history which is likely to affect future applications.

I assume there is no course for discussion with this lender regarding the fact that the quotation didn't contain anything implying that the terms offered could/would be different? They seem to have excellent reviews on TrustPilot, so I'd rather work with them if possible, but obviously I don't want to pay more than offered.

Chris_English

jj42 said:

Thanks.

I do feel a bit mislead as the original quotation email and discussion stated nothing regarding those exact terms not being offered (I plead my own ignorance here that I was expecting the quotation to be as offered), which is why I went ahead and a credit lookup has now appeared on my credit history which is likely to affect future applications.

I assume there is no course for discussion with this lender regarding the fact that the quotation didn't contain anything implying that the terms offered could/would be different? They seem to have excellent reviews on TrustPilot, so I'd rather work with them if possible, but obviously I don't want to pay more than offered.

It’s the word “representative” that’s key here.

There’s no reason that you should have known this, but that explicitly means that it’s not necessarily the final amount.

The credit check is the point where they have a look at your file to see if you’re one of the 51% of successful applicants that get the headline rate.

I’d not worry about a single check, by the way, it’s very unlikely to have a negative effect on future borrowing.

jj42

Thanks for the helpful reply!

jj42

Just to update this post, I queried the APR difference with the lender anyway who "went dark" for a week or so, then came back to me with the originally quoted APR. I'm not sure if they were trying to pull a fast one here or it was a genuine mistake but hey 🤷‍♂️