Black Box Car Finance

Black box car finance is a type of loan intended to help borrowers keep up with their monthly repayments by sending a reminder a few days before its due date.

A small device – the black box – will be fitted into your car and connected to its internal computer. It’ll usually sit under your dashboard or glove box and can communicate directly with your lender through GPRS.

Unlike black box car insurance, the device won’t track your driving; its design is purely to keep track of your car finance payments.

While not all lenders offer black box car finance, it could be an option worth exploring if you have bad credit or have been refused finance elsewhere, as it gives the lender confidence that they’ll receive your payments on time.

Black box car finance is usually offered with a hire purchase or HP loan. You might need to put down a deposit upfront and then make fixed payments for a term of between one and six years. When the loan term ends, you might need to pay a small ‘Option to Purchase’ fee, but then you’ll become the car’s legal owner.

Throughout the loan term, you’ll receive a monthly reminder every time your payment is due. Different lenders can have other systems, but your reminder usually appears a few days before the payment date.

If your black box has a light, it might turn red and start flashing. You’ll probably also receive a reminder text.

As soon as you make your payment, the black box will either reset itself, or you’ll need to enter an activation code to turn the light off.

The box is removed once you’ve reached the end of your loan term and made all your payments.

If you receive a reminder but still miss your payment date, you usually won’t see any effects straightaway. Black box car finance lenders understand that life happens, and sometimes late payments are out of our control. Most will offer a grace period that can last up to 30 days.

Once this grace period ends, if you haven’t made the payment, the GPRS system connected to the black box can deactivate your car remotely.

Don’t worry, this won’t happen when you’re in the fast lane on the motorway; deactivation will only happen while the car is idle. Once deactivated, you won’t be able to drive the car, and the lender might start proceedings to repossess.

Rates from 8.9% APR. Representative APR 19.9%

Yes, black box car finance might help you secure a loan if you’ve missed payments in the past and now have a bad credit score.

This type of car finance reassures lenders that they’ll receive your repayments and shows that you’re equally committed to making payments on time.

If you successfully manage your car loan repayments, this can help demonstrate that you can be a responsible borrower and could even improve your credit score over time.

No, you won’t get black box car finance without a credit check. These checks are an important part of the car finance process and offer you protection by ensuring you’re only offered loans you can afford to repay.

At Autedia, we’ll carry out a soft credit check when you apply for a quote to assess your eligibility, and it won’t affect your credit score. A hard credit check, which is marked on your credit report, will only happen if you choose to proceed with a loan option.

All car finance loans are subject to eligibility criteria to ensure they’re right for you and your circumstances.

Black box car insurance or telematics also requires a device to be fitted to your car, but instead of finance payments, it monitors your driving.

Black box can be a cheaper car insurance option for young and new drivers. If the black box shows that you drive smoothly, brake safely, and rarely venture out at night, for example, you might qualify for a reduced premium.

If you’re looking for cheap car insurance without a black box, find out how we can help here.