Van Finance With Poor Credit

We cannot promise you finance, and nobody honest can

You will see “guaranteed van finance” and “no credit check van finance” advertised. Both are worth understanding before you go further.

Guaranteed acceptance does not exist in regulated lending. Every lender must assess whether the agreement is affordable for you. A firm promising approval before looking at your circumstances is either not doing that assessment, or not being straight with you.

Neither does no-credit-check finance. A regulated lender is required to check creditworthiness. What does exist is lenders who weigh the file differently — who look at recent conduct rather than something from six years ago. That is the real distinction, and the useful one.

What lenders look at besides the score

• How recent the problems are — five years ago reads very differently from five months
• What caused them — a single event during a difficult period versus a sustained pattern
• What has happened since — two years of clean conduct carries real weight
• Affordability now — what the business currently earns
• The deposit — more down reduces the lender’s exposure
• The van itself — it is the security

Why applying everywhere makes it worse

Each full application typically leaves a hard search, and a cluster of them in a short period reads badly to the next lender. That is the main practical reason to use a broker with adverse credit: we look once, then approach the lenders whose policy fits, rather than damaging your file on the way.

What we will tell you

If it is fundable, we will tell you which lenders are realistic. If a bigger deposit or waiting a few months would materially change things, we will say so even though it means no deal today. And if we do not think anyone on our panel will fund it, we will tell you that too. A straight no is more useful than five more declines.

See also: van finance generally, or self-employed van finance if the issue is trading history rather than credit.