Graduate and student car loan

Whether you are a fresh graduate or a college student, chances are that you will have to apply for a car loan if you’re looking to buy your own car. You don’t need to get a very expensive car but what you need is a car which is going to be reliable and not break down when you need it most. With a few thousand pounds, you will be able to afford a used car which is a couple of years old or even a new one, if you spend the time to do a thorough research.

Is there any student/graduate car loan product on the market?

Currently, there’s no specific graduate car loan or student car loan product but what’s available on the market is as good as what you are looking for. If you are a university graduate, you can apply for a graduate account with high street banks which will enable you to get car loans at really attractive rates. The same applies for students – that is they must open a student account with building societies or banks. Once you are all set, getting a car loan will be so much easier.

Though there is no predefined car loan product for students and graduates like we have for 'graduate mortgage', you will still be able to take out an unsecured loan from your bank but benefit from the low interest rates. For example, if you have a graduate account with HSBC, you can take a car loan at 7.6% APR compared to 11.9% APR for normal current accounts. This means that if you take a £5000 car loan for a period of 4 years, you will save roughly £500 with the lower interest rate. Now that's a good saving, right?

If you can’t get a car loan with your bank, then you might consider online lenders. Sites like Zopa allow people who have cash to spare to lend money to others in need and they offer better interest rates, so spend some time shopping around on the internet and you will surely find a great deal for you.

Things you should know before taking a car loan

You should remember that traditional banks and building societies make it difficult for fresh university graduates and college students to get car loans because their income are not guaranteed and they are the ones who are more likely to default on their payments, that is, being unable to pay back the car loan by missing repayments. Therefore you need to sit down and think carefully before actually applying for a car loan since there is more to it than just the car loan repayment – for example expenses like fuel, car insurance, MOT, road tax, service and maintenance of the car etc. all add up to the running costs of the vehicle along with the loan repayments and your costs of living. So make sure you know what you're getting yourself into as this can leave a bad credit rating on your file later on if you cannot afford the repayments.