The Small Print

Glossary Of Terms

Non Status Finance: Non Status Finance is finance which is provided for people and businesses that have a less than perfect credit record. In the course of modern life it is very easy to miss a payment, default on a loan or get overloaded with debt and go bankrupt. More people than ever find them in this position and these problems are recorded on credit files for up to six years, which will affect the ability of the individual to gain credit. With non status finance these circumstances are know and accepted, although the lending risk is higher.

Status Finance: Status finance is also referred to as prime finance, it is finance which is provided to people and clients with a perfect credit record. That means no missed payments, defaults, CCJ's etc, for the last six years. Clients with this kind of credit record can expect to gain cheaper interest rates for any borrowing.

Passport: We require a copy of your UK passport for identification purposes, and when you collect your car you will also need to bring this with you. If you do not have a UK passport you will need to make the application with a UK passport holder, we are unable to underwrite any applications for non status finance unless you have one. You may however apply for status finance if you do not have a UK passport. On a final point, if your passport has expired, that will be fine.

Driving Licence: All applications need to have a UK driving licence, even if it a provisional. A copy of this will be needed with the application and when you collect your car, so please bring it with you.


A Utility Bill: All applications require a copy of a utility bill; this can be a Gas Bill, Electric Bill, Water Rates, Council Tax or a B.T. phone bill. The bill must be dated within the last three months and be in the same name as the person making the application. In some cases the underwriters will at some point require to see an original, which of course will be returned.

Bank Statements: With all applications, both status and non status our underwriters will need to see your last 3 months bank statements. These are used to confirm your identity and the underwriters are lending responsibly. We cannot just accept summaries, the statements must be full and complete. Having said that, we accept building society books and statements from any bank or building society. Also we have a much more open approach to bank statements, so please send us what you have as many of our clients have bank statements, which show low balances, returned cheques, missed payments and a low level of activity. If you have and can prove other forms of income they may not be used solely to judge you can afford the car.

Mortgage Statement: If you are a home buyer currently, we will need a copy of your mortgage statement, if you have not received a statement yet a letter from the mortgage company will do. However, mortgage offers will not be enough, the letter has to show you have a mortgage currently. If you own your property outright we can do a land registry check to confirm ownership, just let us know.

Tenancy Agreement: If you are a tenant we will need to see a copy of your tenancy agreement, which you signed when you moved in to your address. For people living with parents, please speak to our staff, but as long as we can confirm their identity that should be fine.

Verification of Proofs: To protect each applicant from I.D. theft proofs of ID will have to be verified. This means in simple terms a 3rd party will have to check to see if the person making the application is indeed the person on the proofs of ID. They can be verified by a car dealership, a Solicitor, a Police Officer or any anyone is a position of responsibility who can send us original documents or we can do it for you. If you do this please send them by recorded mail for security and we will return them the same day by recorded.

On Line Application Form Information: Please complete this as much as possible, it will help with your application, if you prefer we can take this application over the phone and answer your questions as we complete it.

Deposits - Non Status Applications: For tenants and clients who do not wish to secure their loan we can offer non-status car finance with deposits from 3 payments up front. These are vehicles from our stock lists. For clients looking for new or more specific cars and cars which they have located themselves deposits are around the 20% area. In simple terms we underwrite the trade value of the vehicle, the balance will equate to the deposit. Every car is different, so speak to our team for an exact quote. For lower lends, i.e. less than £10,000 we can lend up to 110% of the value.

We are able to offer no deposit deals for non status customers, who are home owners and have the loan secured on their house. Your home will be at risk should you fail to keep up with mortgage payments. Please see our personal finance section for details.

Adverse Information: Adverse information is recorded on your file for up to 6 years and is available to lenders to see whenever they run a credit check against your name or address. This information is very detailed and be sure they do find just about everything, however please be assured non-status finance does allow us to lend despite having any of these areas of adverse history.

Defaults: These are recorded on your file when you have missed a number of payments on an agreement and the company propose to take action against you to recover the debt.

Bad Credit: Every person has a credit file which is held by credit reference agencies, such as Experian and Equifax. On your file is information which lenders use to confirm the status of your location and credit prospects, the information is detailed and easily accessed. Every credit check that is done against your name and address is recorded; whether or not you are on the voters register, your credit history and so on. If this history is not "perfect" it can lead to a bad credit file or a low credit score.

Low Credit Scores: As with bad credit, low credit scores happen for many reasons, one of the main problems is that many finance brokers place applications with many lenders at once. This results in point being deducted from your file, as we all know points make prices! So by going to the wrong broker your file can look far worse than it really is, you will be please to know that we do not do that. We speak to you first; from the information you give us we place the application with the best underwriter from day one.
With non status applications we do not even look for missed payments or excessive credit checks when checking your file, as we feel this can give a false impression of your true circumstances.

Missed or Late Payments: Missed or late payments are recorded on your credit file and traditional underwriters will take these in to account when deciding to loan money. Many will turn down an application because of these; we on the other hand do not. If you have missed payments it will not effect your application to us.

County Court Judgements (CCJ's): CCJ's are judgements that a county court has made against you or your business. They normally are issued by people or companies that you owe money to and have failed to pay, however you can get CCJ's from the tax man and other bodies much more freely nowadays. In one month in 2006, the DVLC issued 36,000 in one month! Is it any wonder so many people have judgements?
The majority of lenders will not lend money if you have a CCJ, we on the other hand will and to date we have never turned down an application because of CCJ's. The largest was in excess of £300,000. We may ask you to explain what it is for, but other than that having judgements with us is fine!

Bankrupts: For 99% of lenders being bankrupt or a discharged bankrupt would mean an automatic decline for any application; however at Big Blue Finance we are happy to accept bankrupts. If you are a discharged bankrupt, your application will be treated just like any other, however if you are still in bankruptcy we will approve your application, subject to one condition, we can only provide vehicles on a contract hire basis. This does not mean you are unable to buy the vehicle of your choice, it just means the way you get your vehicle is limited to contract hire. Our contract hire plans are available to private individuals and companies. We can also lend to clients who are going into IVA's, just speak to our team for more information.

Loans Outside Normal Criteria: The vast majority of non-status lenders have limits on the amount they will lend, this can vary between £15,000 and £25,000, some considerably less. At Big Blue Finance we have no upper limit to the amount you can borrow, so if you can afford it, we will lend it! This applies to a one car purchase or a multi car purchase.
Been refused elsewhere: No matter how many times you have been refused credit, that will not effect your application to us. We lend finance when others say no all day, every day.

Start-up Companies: No matter how new your company is we are pleased to say we can help get you in to a new vehicle. With all company applications no matter your status, unless you have been trading sometime and you have company accounts at company’s house, finance houses will not lend to the company alone. Instead they will look at the owners of the company. When approved the contract will be in the company name, with the owner or director signing as well to guarantee the loan. In this way the company pays the bill for the loan as well as qualifying for any tax breaks or benefits, but the underwriter has a secured the loan agreement with you directly.

Private Hire: We are more than happy to provide finance for the private hire industry. We do not charge any extra or put any restrictions on the loan and in fact we do make allowances for this fine profession. We are also able to provide finance and supply saloon cars, people carriers, mini buses and the TX range of cabs.

Re-Finance Packages: If you have finance on your current car and you are having problems we will be happy to re-finance your current car.

Equity Release: On a regular basis we provide finance for clients who have purchases their cars outright, then for whatever reason would like to draw on the equity of their car. Again we have no upper limit on the amount we will lend, subject to the value of your car. It is very quick and easy.

Credit Crunch: There has been a lot of talk about a credit crunch, so what is it? Well in the good old US of A millions of people took out non status mortgages, however as they pay more for their mortgages than status borrowers they were the first to be hit by higher interest rates, any many, many defaulted. This caused lots of financial institutions to panic and stop lending money to, well just about every one, in simple terms they thought they could loose lots of cash! It is one reason Northern Rock had so much fun last year and cost us UK tax payers £100,000,000,000. So in tern lending has become tighter and more difficult for allow borrowers status and non status, for mortgages, loans and car credit. This increased difficulty has been referred to as a “credit crunch”.

Is Big Blue Finance affected by the credit crunch? The simple answer is no, in fact our business is increasing as many small lenders struggle to find the money to lend to their clients and tighten their restrictions on lending. Because our business is designed to help people with difficulties we are better equipped to deal with such problems as the credit crunch and we have an unlimited amount of funds available. And because we have a business designed as we do we are better able than anyone else to help when people and businesses find themselves looking for non status finance.

What is a CCL? A CCL is a credit consumer licence, all dealers who sell and provide finance must have one. Follow this link to learn more:

http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/credit-licence

Data Protection

Data Protection Notice:
This statements describes how we, Big Blue Finance and Credit Reference Agencies (CRA’s) will use your personal and business information.

Who We Are:

Big Blue Finance Limited.

Uses of your information Big Blue Finance Ltd will share information about you with other members of our group. Our group which is referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” will record, use, update, analyse and assess your information to provide products and services to you and maintain and develop our relationships with you.

Credit References Agencies: CRA’s collect and maintain information on consumers’ and businesses’ credit behaviour, on behalf of lenders in the UK. Although you have applied to us and we will check our own records, we will also contact CRAs to get information on your credit behaviour with other organisations. This will help us to make the best possible assessment of your overall situation before we make a decision. CRTA's obtain information from sources, which are publicly available, for example the electoral register at local authorities, court judgements from registry trust and bankruptcy information from the Insolvency Service. They also obtain fraud information from fraud prevention agencies, credit information from information on applications to banks, building societies, credit card companies etc and also from the conduct of those accounts. Organisations are only allowed to send information to CRAs and/or fraud prevention agencies with your agreement and knowledge. You were told when you apply for the account if your data will be supplied.

We and other organisations want to make the best possible decisions we can in order to make sure that you, or your business, will be able to repay us. Some organisations may also use the information to check your identity. In this way we can ensure that we make all responsible decisions. At the same time we want to make decisions quickly and easily and, by using up to date information, provided electronically, we are able to make the most reliable and fair decisions possible. All organisations that collect and process personal data are regulated by Data Protection Act 1998, overseen by the Office of the Information Commissioner. Access to your personal information is very strictly controlled and only those who are entitled to do so, may see it. Usually that will be with your agreement or (very occasionally) if there is a legal requirement.

When you apply to us to open a business or private account, we may;-
(a) Check our own records for information on; (i) you and your business partners’ personal accounts and (ii) Your business accounts.
(b) Search at credit references agencies for information on (i) Public data on you and your business partners’ personal credit behaviour (ii) Information on the conduct of you and your business partners’ personal credit accounts if you are proprictors of a small business. (iii) Your business accounts.
(c) Search a fraud preventation agency for information on you, your business partners’ and other members of your/their household.

What we do with the information you supply to us as part of the application:
(a) Information that is supplied to us will be sent to the credit reference agencies, and
(b) If you give false or inaccurate information and we suspect fraud, we will record this and may also pass this information on to financial and other organisations involved in fraud preventation to protect us, them and our respective customers from theft and fraud.

With the information that we obtain we will:
(a) Assess your application for credit and/or
(b) verify your identity of other directors/partners and/or
(c) Undertake checks for the preventation and detection of fraud and/or money laundering.
(d) We may use scoring methods to assess this application and to verify your identity.
(e) Manage your personal and/or business account (if you have one) with us.
(f) Undertake periodic statistical analysis or testing to ensure the Accuracy of existing and future products and services.

What we do when you have an account:
(a) Where you borrow and may borrow from us, we will give details of your business account, including names and parties to the account, and how you manage it to CRAs.
(b) If you borrow and do not repay in full and on time, we will tell the CRAs.
(c) We may make periodic searches of our own group records, credit reference and fraud prevention agencies to manage your account with us, to take decisions regarding your identity and also credit, including whether to make credit available or to continue or extend existing credit.
(d) If you have borrowed from us and do not make any payments that you owe us, we will trace your whereabouts When credit reference agencies receive a search from us they will:
(a) Place a search “footprint” on your company credit file weather or not this application proceeds. If the search was for a credit application the record of that search (but not the organisation that carried it out) may be seen by the other organisations when you apply for credit in the future.
(b) Link together the previous and subsequent names advised by you, of anyone that is a party to the account.

The CRAs will supply to us:
(a) Information about your company such as previous applications for credit and the conduct of accounts and also similar personal credit information in your name and of your business partners
(b) Public information such as Court Judgements and bankruptcies.
(c) Electoral Register Information on you and your business partners.

When information is supplied to us, to the CRAs on your account(s):
(a) The CRAs will record the details that are supplied on your account and how you manage it/them.
(b) If your business borrows and does not repay in full and on time, the CRAs will record the outstanding debt.
(c) Records shared with credit reference agencies remain on your file for 6 years after they are closed weather settled

How your data will NOT be used by credit reference agencies:
(a) It will not be used to create a blacklist.

How your data WILL be used by credit reference agencies:
(a) The information which we, other organisations and fraud preventation agencies provide to the credit reference agencies about you, your business associates and your business may be supplied by credit reference agencies to other organisations and used by them to:-
(b) Verify your identity if you or your financial or business associate applies for other facilities including all types of finance applications.
(c) Trace your whereabouts and recover payment if you do not make the payments you owe.
(d) Conduct checks for the preventation and detection of crime including fraud and/or money laundering.
(e) Manage your personal, your partners and/or business account.
(f) Undertake statistical analysis and system testing.
(g) Your data may also be used for other purposes for which you give specific permission or, in very limited circumstances, when required by law or where permitted under the terms of the Data Protection ACT 1998.

We will use you information for marketing purposes: During the course of your agreement we may write to you or contact you by telephone about other services and products provided by us or others which we think may be of interest to you.
Telephone calls: When you telephone us or we telephone you those telephone calls may be recorded for your protection, staff training, service quality issues, crime preventation and security purposes.
Our commitment to you: We are committed to respecting your personal information and to meeting your service expectations on all occasions. To do so we need the information we hold about you to be accurate and kept up to date. Please help us by informing us promptly of any changes to your personal circumstances.

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