What (if any) are my car finance options?

[CognitiveDissonance]

I have in the past been crap with money, defaulted payments etc etc.

I am now debt free but still have a low credit score (231). I have recently returned to the UK after a few years living overseas. I am technically still employed by my overseas employer until the end of July and have a contract for my new job commencing in September.

I am in desperate need of a car. I have around £2k that I can put towards one but would ideally like to finance around £3k to ensure I don't end up with an old banger so can spend around £5k in total.

Do I have any chance of this happening at all? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

First of all ignore your score. It doesn’t exist. No one sees it apart from you. What lenders do see if your credit history, and if you have missed / lates payments in the last 6 years then you’re not going to be an attractive applicant, unfortunately.

With your history I think you will struggle to get finance TBH. Use your £2k to buy a car, there’s nothing to say something won’t go wrong with a 5k car anyway.

£2k should get you something decent if you take your time to look about, especially if you don’t want something trendy.
Ideally take someone with you who knows a bit about cars, but look for something with a full service history and I always find that if a car is nice and clean with good brand, all matching tyres, it’s a good indication as to whether the car has been looked after mechanically too.

Stick a bit of money away each month and then you will be in a position to upgrade in a year or so, should you wish.

A £5k is no less likely to cost you money and be unreliable than a £2k car. Seriously.

With cars I would either spend not very much and regard it as disposable if something expensive needs doing, or have a new one under warranty. What I would not do would be to spend a decent sum of money on something that could go expensively wrong and I would feel obliged to repair it because it cost me a lot of money. And especially not if I needed finance to get it, which is likely to be very expensive in your position.

If you aren't in a positon to get a new car, I would get an old small car for £1-2k (make sure you have a few hundred pounds available in case it needs tyres etc or if other things go wrong) and hope for the best. And then once you are working, start saving so you can buy a new car in the future when you need one.

Thanks for the replies :)

If you did want to see who would lend you money and at what cost (not saying you SHOULD borrow btw) then go to money supermarket or money saving expert and search for a loan / credit card in there. No credit search so won't harm your file.