Getting ripped off with car finance to get credit score - shall I?

Get over to checkmyfile.com - this is free for the first month and £5.99/month after that but gives you credit scores from all 3 major CRA's as well as your likelihood of getting approved for certain credit products.

Even if you only use it for that one month it'll allow you to see your credit score for free and every file based on credit. Even if you have none as you say, it'll give you guidance on how to get reasonable credit also.

I never had a shred of credit when I was 18, went into the bank and asked about how CC's work etc and ended up with a 2k limit at 24.9%, which for a first card was a reasonable rate.
 
Either get a car loan from a high street bank (for example) or buy a cheaper car, get a credit card and put the petrol on it every week and pay it off in full each month. That way you will build up a credit history for much less overall cost.

For the record the APR is often determined by more than just your credit rating. It is a large part of it but other factors come into play for some larger lenders (such as your propensity to default on the loan, propensity to pay back early, propensity to take a competitors loan instead of theirs, etc, etc).
 
Just get and use a credit card on a daily basis. I'm 22 and have a couple of credit cards for different uses. Currently enjoying 12 months interest free from barclays, after 6 months interest free from nationwide. All good!
 
Being 22...have you checked how much the insurance is for this 4k car? Could be ridiculous...
Also, don't forget to factor in possibly higher tax.
And average petrol/diesel costs.
Easy things to overlook when setting budgets for borrowing money.
 
Was looking at http://www.carloan4u.co.uk/ in particular.

All of the figures are based off 60 months and for £4k.

This is what the credit actually costs:

Bad score: £3399 (£56.65/ month)
Poor score: £2899 (£48.31/ month)
Average score: £2399 (£39.98/ month)
Good score: £1399 (£23.31/ month)
Excellent score: £599 (£9/month)

You realise 60 months is 5 years?

You also realise with that loan it looks like you have to buy your car from one of their "approved" dealers? (i.e. probably at a massively inflated price).

So what will happen is, even with an average score, you'll pay almost £6.5k for a car which you could probably buy elsewhere for £2-3k, and probably wont last you the full 5 years, or at least not without throwing up a couple of biggish bills.

A far better idea would be:

Buy a 1k banger with 1 years MOT.

Even if you scrap it when it fails the MOT, and buy another banger for £1k, you'll have spent less after 5 years.
 
Buy car from me, your rating only dictates if you get finance or not. It has nothing to do with the rate.

No history isn't a bad thing in my experience, just make sure you're on the electoral roll.

As Fox said your rating can make a massive difference on the APR they decide to charge you, take a look at a credit card application and a lot of the time it gives at least 3 levels of APR/0% interest periods which is dictated by your credit rating.
 
Go to your own bank to get a credit card, it should be much easier to be approved than going to other companies.

That's what I had to do in order to get my first credit card as I never had any student loans or normal loans etc.
 
Or apply for a bank loan, it will have better rate than car dealers. Or get your parents to lend you money and you pay them back.

And also, don't be stupid using anyone with a name car loan 4 you, straight away sounds like payday loan rip off type of place!
 
Approach your bank first, and try other mainstream loan providers. Those car finance "deals" you're looking at are for complete muppets, or those who have exhausted all sensible options.

And steer clear of finance providers with text speak in their names - they're aimed at morons
 
Provided you've never defaulted on payments and stuff like that it's unlikely you'd have a bad credit rating.

I wouldn't buy a £4000 car at your age, buy a £4-500 old common banger and learn how to do the work yourself, preferably something with lots of spares at the scrappy - that's worth more than all the cheap loans in the world.

Have you factored in all the costs of running? Tax, MOT, Petrol, repairs, insurance/ insurance excess if you bin it, servicing, tyres. All the while you're paying a car loan.

I'm constantly amazed at how people get drawn into this crap - even if you get "0% interest" on a car, it doesn't mean you just got cheap credit, it means they put the interest cost on the buying price of the car. A mate of mine recently bought a poverty spec corsa, he's paying £150 a month and it'll be worth nothing at the end of 5 years. His argument "Yeah but it's cheap to run, £30 road tax and no mot for 3 years".

Yeah and you're paying £150 a month, every month, for something which won't have any value at the end of it AND you have to take it to the dealer to keep your warranty so you're paying hundreds for the 16 year old apprentice to do your maintenance instead of doing it yourself/ taking it to a vastly cheaper independent.
 
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Mobile phone, monthly bill, goes towards your scredit score.
Not pay any utilities bills?
Goto the bank your current account is with and ask them for a basic CC, the limit doesnt matter they may only give you 250-500 limit, and the APR doesn't matter either (some might flog me for saying that lol) Essentially when your out and about anythign you would normally pay for with your debit card pay for with the CC then when you get home pay the CC off in full. Again this will add to your credit score.

Also go register on noddle and see what details they have on you, not 100% but then again no credit score agency will be as most companies seem to have some form of mythical credit referral system anyway.

IF you are on either topcashback or quidco keep an eye on there for free trials of other credit agencies.

Theres also a nice little tool on MSE:
https://creditcards.moneysavingexpert.com/?cashback

Does a quick scrape that doesn't class as a check on your file so no one else will see it.
Also have a read of some of the stuff over on MSE but bear in mind your first CC may have a horrendously high APR the thing to remember is NEVER take out cash on your CC, remember to pay in full each month
 
Honestly don't go and get a credit score from the CRA's as it is totally pointless and won't mean a damn thing. The banks etc use their own scoring system which is completely different to what the CRA's use. DON'T waste your money on joining up to them for a credit score!! DO pay the £2 fee on the CRA's website to get a copy of your credit FILE and check it to make sure that there is nothing wrong etc on it. Also join Noddle to get a look at the credit file for free, then pay £2 to the other CRA's for your file. And get on the electoral roll if your not already.

As for the car follow what everyone is saying and save up for a new car or keep your old car going.
 
Get a credit card and use it for everything, but make sure to pay it off in full every month!

That's what i had to do a few years back as I also didn't have any credit history. I was even getting turned down for mobile phone contracts because of it.

My credit history is good now.
 
Also sign up to a credit card like everyone is saying, as you have no credit history you will probably have to go with a high interest CC designed for people with no credit history or bad history. One is the Vanquish card the other I think is the Capital One card, their interest is around the 40% marks so you MUST pay these off every month or your going to get in trouble. I would try your bank first as they may well give you a credit card, if not try the ones I mentioned.
 
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