Here are five of the most common questions we get from Armed Forces finance applicants, and answers in brief. (more…)

Overseas postings can be disruptive to your financial life. One of the questions we are often asked is what do I do if I am mid-way through my agreement, get posted abroad, and no longer need the car? (more…)

If you are ranked above CPL, married and in quarters, over 30, based in the UK, and have a good credit history, you probably don’t need to use a broker.

Car dealers, especially new car dealers, are under significant pressure often to firstly sell cars, but also to keep registering new cars. This means that they can often have very attractive finance offers, and often these are subsidised by the profit from the sale of the car to show very low APR figures. This means that the dealer actually pays the finance company in some cases to provide a very low APR figure to encourage you to buy a new car, and the money to do this either comes from the profit of the car, or the manufacturer will pay this money as a bonus payment to the finance company or dealer, to compensate them for this cost.

However… (more…)

For a long time there have been two camps in the Armed Forces as far as mainstream financial services are concerned. In our experience this issue does appear to affect the Army more acutely than the other services, but the RAF and Navy are far from excluded from the issue. (more…)

Yes is the short answer.

Lots of our customers apply from Germany or other countries to purchase vehicles. You can usually take the vehicle back as well, although in some places this isn’t practical for obvious reasons. It is quite common for people to contact us from abroad, and prepare everything remotely so when they return on leave, or for good, they can collect their new car when they land. (more…)

NERP status stands for New Entrant Rate of Pay.

If you look at your payslip, you will see a section about three lines down, in the middle, and it will say Or Main/NERP of 7, or it will say Or Main/02 for example. If your payslip says NERP you are still considered a new entrant, or trainee if you like, if it says 02 for example, that means you are on pay grade 2 of 7 and you are a fully employed member of the forces. (more…)

Yes it can, but it doesn’t need to.

If you go abroad for a period, when you return there can be a sort of black hole in your credit history as you have not been here, and this can potentially lower your credit score and make it harder for you to obtain finance when you return. But it doesn’t need to be this way. (more…)

Firstly, you very much should bother. Number one, it’s free so you have nothing to lose, number two, one of the biggest reasons we see people either being declined for finance, or being offered a higher rate of interest for finance, is small items of adverse credit the applicant is unaware of, or active information at multiple simultaneous addresses. (more…)

When you join the forces, it can feel as though you are penalised by the banks and credit providers for choosing the job you have. You are certainly not alone, particularly if you are not in married quarters, and aged under 30 years old, in feeling that it is almost pointless applying for finance. Also, the rumour around the base is that military applications are frowned upon and very difficult to get approved so things can feel stacked against you.

So, the question is, do finance companies routinely avoid armed forces? (more…)

You may have heard of people handing cars back to finance companies, or doing what is called a Voluntary Termination. This is where you are able to return the vehicle to the company that financed the car and not make any further payments. Yes it does exist, yes it is legal, and no, it does not really damage your credit report if you do it, but there are some rules to follow. (more…)