Dead ends trying to sort a car...any advice?

Hi all, we arrived in the UK a few weeks ago and have been driving a hire car. Now that the dust has settled from the holidays I am trying to sort out either a purchased or leased car...it seems impossible to do! We don't have 3 years of UK address history nor UK employment history. Even though I have someone willing to act as a guarantor for us, it doesn't seem to help much. I am a British citizen, we have plenty of cash for a car, and our credit is excellent (but it's all in the US, not here). It is mad to me that we had to prove our financial fitness and creditworthiness to come here (for the visas for my family) but we can't get a car (or a mobile phone contract, for that matter). It can't surely be the case that all UK arrivals must purchase a car outright if they're to have one at all, can it? We can buy one cash if we need to, but I feel like I must surely be missing something...I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction!

PS I did some Googling (on top of phoning a dozen or so lease companies and local dealers) as well as searching on here so I hope I haven't missed something obvious. :-)

-Ben

Cash.  Only option, I'm afraid.

You won't get credit for some time (I'd bank on at least a year and even then, unlikely to be a car loan.  More likely to be able to get a small loan for furniture or carpet, that kind of thing).

Hi KFdancer, thanks for the info.

Insanity...I'm trusted to bring my entire family into the country for 2.5 years but not to get a mobile phone contract?! Oh well. We'll make do.

I thought for sure that a guarantor would help with financing but it sounds like it won't help much, if at all?

-Ben

To be fair, I'm not sure about a guarantor for a car loan.  I moved here on my own, so I didn't have anyone able to help.  I paid cash for my car.  Bought my phone outright and was able to get a sim-only plan with Three as I had a bank account.  Getting the bank account was fun!   

You could certainly explore the guarantor for a car loan.  But personally, I'd recommend just buying outright even if it's not as nice as what you had in mind.  Cars depreciate something fierce in this country (which I love to take advantage of -  I've had some fun cars here).

We're doing a pay-as-you-go on our phones, which I don't mind...since we own our phones, £60/month for all 4 beats the heck out of $250/month, which is what we were paying on contract with Verizon in the US! I have tried SIM-only but we don't pass the credit checks...even though we have a bank account here, and excellent credit (albeit US-based).

Gotcha on the car. If we need to buy one cash we will. It would be great to not have a car payment, that's for sure. If I get anywhere using a guarantor I will feed back the info...that might present additional opportunities for some other folks struggling with the same frustrations.

-Ben

Hi KFdancer, thanks for the info.

Insanity...I'm trusted to bring my entire family into the country for 2.5 years but not to get a mobile phone contract?! Oh well. We'll make do.

I thought for sure that a guarantor would help with financing but it sounds like it won't help much, if at all?

-Ben

I once phoned for a Next catalog to be delivered to my house back in 1999. Because I wasn't on the electoral roll, I wasn't "allowed" to have one. My husband tried to order one but because we were six months into our "new build" house we couldn't get one delivered because our house "didn't exist".  Argh.

I had a similar problem as you when I returned to the US after nearly nine years in England. I had a job and my father was willing to co-sign and I had 50% down for it (I didn't want to use all my money and I needed to build credit) but no one wanted to finance me a car. Eventually, I found someone who did but at an eye-watering 17% over 7 years! No, thank you.

We are moving back to England in 2019-2020 and my spouse would have been away from England for 15 years. We are having to budget cash for a car when we arrive. I feel your pain!


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Ben, do you have a US American Express account?  You can have that converted to a GBP account which can help too!

I do in fact...in fact I was planning to see about having all our cards converted to UK cards. I suppose that would help build credit over time, though it wouldn't probably help in the short term?

I think AmEx is the only one you can convert.  It was relatively easy to do.  Have a look online.  Had to fill out the UK application, send my US card details, a copy of my passport and such.  But worth it.  Probably took a month? 

Although I was able to get a UK credit builder card after my first year here, the limit on that card is still only £2k after all these years.  And I like to use a credit card if it's a "big" purchase for the protection and £2k doesn't really cut it.  I had a $20k limit on my US AmEx which translated to a £15k limit here.  That does the job!

I guess it depends on your job? I was offered a CC after being in country a month by HSBC. After being here about 4 months I was able to get a personal loan.

Maybe coming over on a work visa may change the odds? I'm not taking on any more debt.

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I guess it depends on your job? I was offered a CC after being in country a month by HSBC. After being here about 4 months I was able to get a personal loan.

Maybe coming over on a work visa may change the odds? I'm not taking on any more debt.

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I was a work visa.  If anything that was much more difficult than having a UKC partner!

I was a work visa.  If anything that was much more difficult than having a UKC partner!

Nods. I'm not sure why it's been so easy for me.

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Try to get a lease.  I had problems but was able to go through Lex Autolease (not an endorsement though).  They will be higher since you don't have credit though.  Good luck.

I thought Lex only did fleet vehicles? I looked at their website but didn't get the impression they did vehicles for individuals.

They do individuals.  PM me and I'll send you the contact details.