Finance companies and banks are like elephants – they never forget, says Simon Gray, of Credo Asset Finance.

Every month we see credit searches where payment problems, going back three years or more, still result in finance companies declining credit for cars and vans.

Late payments, mortgage arrears, defaults, bankruptcy or a voluntary arrangement stay on your credit file for years and some automated credit systems will simply kick the deal out of touch without a human being ever seeing it.

Sometimes these are a result of genuine hardship, sickness, loss of work, businesses being left high and dry by large customers not paying. How long do you have to suffer for mistakes of the past?

Now you may be back on the straight and narrow, happily repaying mistakes of the past, and making or earning good money again but still banks and finance companies will not see past black marks.

At Credo we look at things differently. Yes, we look at the past but we take a greater view and opinion on the present. We look at how past credit issues are being sorted in the present. If someone has genuinely started to repay old creditors this should be seen as a positive. If they now run their bank accounts and credit impeccably why look at the past to make a decision? With careful consideration of current earnings, cash flow and affordability – and with good security in the asset we lend on – we can make flexible, sensible and informed decisions to help people from a dark past to a brighter future.

Most larger finance houses use automated credit systems to dictate credit policy but at Credo, where we lend to local businesses and individuals, we use old-fashioned gut feeling and read credit information in a different way to decide whether to lend or not.

We are not a sub-prime lender, we don’t want to lend to people who may not repay – all our customers are good ones. We are an old-fashioned, flexible lender where all the good practices of the past are brought to modern lending.

Credo Asset Finance is at 85 Yarmouth Road, Norwich, NR7 0HF. Phone 01603 703180, email sales@credoassetfinance.com, log on to the website at www.credoassetfinance.com

Twitter: @CredoFinance

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