UK Car Loan For a Recent Arrival

Hello,

This is a funny one for me to be typing here as I am actually from the UK and lived and worked here until as recently as 2014.  After going away to Houston for 5 years I'm back now and finding that most used car lenders want 3 years residency before they will extend a loan.

This must make it really difficult for any new arrival.  I have been back for 3 months and I'm still waiting on my wife arriving from the USA.  We will need two cars in fairly short order and I don't have the cash to buy them outright.

Is anyone aware of a lender that makes an exception in this case?  What do other recent arrivals do?

Hello,

This is a funny one for me to be typing here as I am actually from the UK and lived and worked here until as recently as 2014.  After going away to Houston for 5 years I'm back now and finding that most used car lenders want 3 years residency before they will extend a loan.

This must make it really difficult for any new arrival.  I have been back for 3 months and I'm still waiting on my wife arriving from the USA.  We will need two cars in fairly short order and I don't have the cash to buy them outright.

Is anyone aware of a lender that makes an exception in this case?  What do other recent arrivals do?

 I got my car (paid cash) from an independent lot rather than from a dealership and got a much better price doing it that way. Private sales are probably better value still, if you know a bit about cars.

If you can't find a loan, initially you might just need to get something older or higher mileage or a cheaper model, until you have built up a bit of money behind you.

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/loans/car-finance/

I had a promotion on a US-based credit card... paid something like 3% initiation fee, then 0% on a cash advance to cover the price of a used car in the UK, and then paid that off after I sold my US car.

(I'm referring here to my Honda s2000 that I bought when I was here visiting in 2012 before I went back to apply for my fiance visa.  We paid cash for our Panda we bought in 2018.)