Car Finance Eligibility Checker
Find out whether you are likely to be approved for car finance before you commit to anything. The check uses a soft search, which means no impact on your credit score, no entry visible to other lenders, and no risk in looking. It works whatever your credit history looks like.
What the eligibility check does
The check looks at your circumstances and your credit profile and tells you whether a lender on Hero's panel is likely to approve you, before any formal application is made. It is the answer to the question everyone with an imperfect file asks first: is it even worth applying? With a soft search, finding out costs nothing, on your file or otherwise. Hero specialises in finding finance for a wider range of customers than most companies, including people turned away elsewhere. The panel includes lenders who handle bad credit, CCJs, IVAs, and circumstances mainstream lenders decline by default. The eligibility check routes your details to that panel rather than to a one-size-fits-all rulebook.
Soft search vs hard search: the difference that matters
A soft search is a look at your credit file that leaves no visible trace. You can see it if you check your own report, but other lenders cannot, and it has no effect on your credit score. You could run soft checks every week and your file would look exactly the same to a lender. A hard search is a formal credit application check. It is recorded on your file, visible to other lenders, and a cluster of them in a short period reads as financial pressure. Hard searches are the reason applying to lender after lender damages the very file being judged. The Hero journey is built around that difference. The eligibility check is a soft search. A hard search only enters the picture if you are approved and decide to go ahead with an offer, at which point the lender may run one before issuing your documents. Until that moment, nothing lands on your file.
What affects your eligibility
- Income and outgoings, because the decision is fundamentally about whether the monthly payment is affordable for you.
- Your credit history, with recent behaviour counting more than old problems.
- Employment status. Employed, self-employed, and other situations each have lenders who accept them.
- Deposit, optional but helpful. Equity in a part exchange counts.
- The car and the size of the loan against your budget. Realistic asks get approved more often.
- The baseline requirements are being at least 18, holding a valid driving licence, and a minimum monthly income of £1,000.
Checked your eligibility? Here is what happens next
- If the result looks positive, continue into the application: personal details, employment, income.
- Hero searches its panel of lenders for the agreement that fits your situation.
- Approved in principle? You see the shape of the offer and choose your car from hundreds in stock at Oakwood Motor Company group.
- Go ahead, and the lender may run a hard search before issuing documents on your chosen car.
- Sign and collect the keys. Finance and car from the same place, start to finish.
Frequently asked questions
No. It uses a soft search, which is invisible to other lenders and has no effect on your score. You can check, think about it, and come back later without your file changing at all.
No, and be wary of anyone who says otherwise. The check tells you whether approval is likely based on your circumstances. The formal decision is made by the lender on the full application. What the check removes is the blind risk of applying with no idea where you stand.
Yes, and that is exactly who the check is most useful for. Hero's panel includes bad credit specialists, and the soft search means a refusal risk costs you nothing to explore. Our bad credit car finance options cover how lenders weigh CCJs, IVAs, defaults, and past refusals.
Pre approval means a lender has indicated, based on a soft search, that they would likely approve you up to a certain amount, before you formally apply. It is the same principle as the eligibility check: know where you stand first, apply second, and keep your credit file clean while you decide.
Check now, decide later
A soft search, with no footprint on your file. Whatever the state of your credit history, knowing where you stand beats guessing.
See what you can afford