How to use the online car finance calculator
Four inputs. Thirty seconds. Instant results. Our car finance calculator strips away the guesswork and shows your estimated monthly payments across both HP and PCP, before you speak to anyone.
- Enter how much you want to borrow. Type in the amount you need, anywhere between £3,000 and £50,000. This is the total you're looking to finance, not the price of the car itself.
- Add your deposit. Put in your deposit amount, between £100 and £10,000. A larger deposit reduces the amount you're financing, which directly lowers your monthly repayments.
- Select your credit rating. Choose from the dropdown, Excellent through to Poor. Your credit rating shapes the APR a lender's likely to offer you, so pick the option that honestly reflects your situation.
- Choose your loan term. Pick 24, 36, 48 or 60 monthly instalments. Longer terms spread the cost further, but you'll pay more interest overall, and the calculator shows you both sides instantly.
- Hit "Get car finance quote" and compare. Results appear side by side for Hire Purchase and Personal Contract Purchase. You'll see the monthly payment, interest rate, total interest, and total amount repayable for each, so you can choose the right type of finance with confidence.
Explaining credit scores and the car finance calculator
Your credit score determines what car finance options are available to you. It shapes your APR, monthly repayments and the total cost of your finance, since lenders use it to judge how reliably you'll repay.
Our calculator shows you exactly how that plays out. Select your credit rating in the tool, and you'll get an instant estimate, so you can see what a lower score means for your repayments before you apply.
Several scoring systems operate across the UK, but most lenders group borrowers along the same broad scale. Here's what each band typically means:
- Excellent: extensive credit history, no missed payments, no outstanding County Court Judgements (CCJs), and no past credit denials. This typically gets you the lowest interest rates and the strongest finance options.
- Good: very few missed payments and rare loan denials. Lenders usually offer competitive rates here, though not always the lowest available.
- Fair: some missed payments, or the odd instance of going over a credit limit. Expect fewer choices and higher interest rates than someone with a stronger profile.
- Poor: past loans taken out at high interest, a run of missed payments, or a history of credit difficulties. Financing a car is still possible, but lenders will price that risk into your APR.
- Bad: multiple missed payments, defaults, or past financial difficulties such as bankruptcy. We still offer bad credit car finance here at Carplus, so it's worth using the calculator to see how much you could borrow.
How does a car finance calculator work?
The car finance calculator estimates your monthly payments, based on how much you want to borrow, your deposit, your credit rating and your loan term. It lets you compare two of the most popular car finance options side by side, hire purchase and PCP, and the figures each one produces can look very different.
Hire purchase (HP) spreads the full cost of the car across fixed monthly payments. It ties the finance to the car as security throughout the agreement, so you don't own the car outright until you make the final payment. Once you do, it's yours, with nothing left to settle.
Personal contract purchase (PCP) keeps your monthly payments lower instead, by deferring a large part of the cost to the end of the agreement. That deferred amount is the balloon payment. Once the term ends, you choose to pay the balloon and buy the car, hand it back, or put its value toward your next one.
The APR shapes the total cost of your finance either way. A lower one reduces what you pay over the loan term, while a higher one increases it. Our calculator helps you find the right balance, and the figures it produces reflect your specific inputs, not a generic estimate.
What do I need to apply for car financing at Carplus?
To make an application for car finance, we need very little data:
To apply for car finance you need to:
- Your name
- Date of birth and nationality
- Your recent address history
- Tour employment status
- Your income and expenses
Your requirements:
- Be aged 18-75 years old
- Initial deposit
- Receive a monthly income of £1,000 or above
Car requirements:
- Costs between £4,000 and £40,000
- No more than 120,000 miles on the clock
