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57 guides, each with its sources on the page , 81 answers to the questions around them , and the comparison.

• MOT history check: The MOT history of any GB-registered vehicle is public and free.
• Check car tax: Whether a vehicle is taxed is a public fact, checkable free on GOV.UK against the DVLA's own record with nothing but the registration number.
• Number plate check: Every check in this market starts from the registration number, so a "number plate check" is really a question about how much the plate unlocks.
• Car insurance check: Insurance checks answer two different questions, and mixing them up wastes money.
• Car mileage check: A car's mileage history is public, free, and better than most buyers realise: the DVSA records the odometer at every MOT test, so the free GOV.UK history gives you a reading for every year of the vehicle's tested life.
• Bad credit car finance: A thin or damaged credit file does not close the market, it moves you to a different set of lenders with different pricing.
• Van finance: A van bought on finance is usually a working asset rather than a purchase, and that changes the agreement, the paperwork and the tax treatment.
• PCP vs HP: PCP and hire purchase are both hire purchase in law, so the rights are the same and the difference is arithmetic.
• PCP calculator: A PCP payment is set by four numbers and nothing else: the amount financed after deposit, the term, the interest rate, and the deferred final payment.
• Car finance eligibility: An eligibility check and an application are different events on your credit file, and confusing the two is the most expensive mistake in this part of the market.
• No deposit car finance: A no-deposit agreement does not reduce what the car costs.
• Guarantor car finance: A guarantor is not a character reference.
• Refinance a car loan: Refinancing replaces one agreement with another.
• CCJ and IVA car finance: An individual voluntary arrangement and a county court judgment are different problems.
• Car finance on benefits: Benefit income is not automatically discounted.
• Selling a car on finance: Under hire purchase or a PCP the lender owns the car until the final payment, so it is not yours to sell.
• Settlement figure: A settlement figure is what it costs to end the agreement today, and it is not the sum of the payments you have left.
• Voluntary termination: There is a statutory right to hand back a car on a regulated hire purchase or conditional sale agreement, and a PCP normally is one.
• Negative equity: Negative equity is simply owing more on the agreement than the car is worth.
• Motorbike finance: A motorbike is financed through the same agreements as a car, on the same statutory terms, but the market behaves differently: smaller balances, shorter terms and a much larger share of manufacturer-supported deals.
• Halal car finance: Conventional hire purchase, PCP and personal loans all charge interest, which is what puts them outside what many Muslim buyers will use.
• Written off on finance: When a financed car is written off, the insurer pays the market value to the party with the interest in the car, which is the lender.
• Joint car finance: Joint car finance is rarer than a joint mortgage or a joint bank account, and where lenders do offer it both parties are liable for the whole agreement rather than for half of it each.
• Private sale finance: Most hire purchase and PCP lenders will only fund a car bought from a trader, because they are buying the car themselves and need a seller they can hold to account.
• Hire purchase: Hire purchase is the oldest and plainest of the motor agreements: the lender buys the car, hires it to you across the term, and title passes when the last payment and the option fee are paid.
• Apply for car finance: A car finance application is short, and almost all of it is verification.
• Car loans: A personal loan and a motor finance agreement buy the same car and are not the same product.
• Young and provisional drivers: Age is not the barrier people expect.
• Electric, classic and older cars: Lenders underwrite the car as well as the borrower, because under hire purchase they are buying it.
• PCP deals: A PCP advertisement is built around one number, and that number is the least informative thing in the offer.
• Self employed: Self-employment is not an obstacle to motor finance; unverifiable income is.
• Missed payments: Missing one payment is a problem with a process attached, and the process is slower and more negotiable than most people expect.
• Outstanding finance check: An outstanding finance marker is not a public record.
• Buying a car with finance on it: A car with an agreement still registered against it does not belong to the seller outright.
• Car finance by city: Motor finance in Great Britain is written by national lenders against a national credit file.
• Car finance in Northern Ireland: The Consumer Credit Act 1974 and the Financial Conduct Authority's rules apply across the United Kingdom, so a Northern Ireland borrower has the same withdrawal, early settlement and voluntary termination rights as one in England.
• Provisional licence car finance: A provisional licence does not stop a lender writing an agreement, and a full licence does not guarantee one.
• NHS and key worker car finance: Lenders underwrite income, not job titles.
• Taxi and PCO car finance: A car used for hire and reward is a working asset, and both the insurer and the lender need to know that before it carries a passenger.
• Car finance on disability benefits: If you receive the higher or enhanced rate mobility component of a qualifying benefit, the Motability Scheme lets you exchange that allowance for a leased car, insurance, servicing and breakdown cover included.
• Modifying a financed car: On hire purchase and PCP the finance house is the legal owner until the agreement ends.
• Cancelling car finance: Section 66A of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 gives you 14 days to withdraw from a regulated credit agreement.
• Rejecting a faulty financed car: When a car is bought on hire purchase or PCP the finance house buys it from the dealer and supplies it to you.
• Balloon payment: A PCP defers a large part of the car's price to a single payment at the end of the term.
• Credit score for car finance: There is no pass mark.
• No credit check car finance: A lender writing regulated consumer credit has to assess creditworthiness before it lends.
• Car finance pre approval: A pre approval is an indication, not an agreement.
• Car finance declined: A lender does not have to tell you why it declined you, and most will not give a specific reason.
• Guaranteed car finance: No firm can guarantee acceptance before it has assessed you, because the assessment is compulsory and its outcome is not known in advance.
• Is car finance worth it: There are four ways to pay for a car: cash, a personal loan, hire purchase and PCP.
• Car leasing vs PCP: Contract hire is a rental with a fixed term and a fixed mileage, and you hand the car back at the end with no option to buy.
• Car finance on a monthly budget: A monthly payment is an output, not a product.
• Changing a PCP car early: You can leave a regulated motor finance agreement at any point.
• Hire purchase calculator: Hire purchase has no deferred payment, so the arithmetic is plain amortisation: a balance, a rate and a term, repaid to zero.
• Car finance types and providers: Almost every way of paying monthly for a car is one of five agreements, and almost every firm involved is one of three kinds.
• SUV and sports car finance: A larger balance changes the underwriting, but the bigger differences are the car itself.
• Car finance for someone else: Financing a car that somebody else will drive is common and often perfectly proper.

Where the figures come from

GB vehicle-check prices verified against each vendor's own published pages on 2026-08-26 by hubs/knownvehicle.com/ingest_vendors.py: every quoted figure re-fetched and matched verbatim (hash-pinned); class coverage evidenced by the vendor's live product page.

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