The situation
A refusal can come from something specific and fixable — an error on your credit file, a mismatch between the van's price and your income, or simply that lender's particular criteria — rather than a blanket judgement on your creditworthiness. Applying again immediately with the same details to a similar type of lender often just produces the same result and adds another hard search to your file.
What tends to help
- Get a copy of your credit report and check for errors, especially outdated or duplicated entries.
- Ask (or check the decline letter) whether the refusal was on affordability or credit history grounds — the fix is different for each.
- Consider a specialist lender built for non-standard credit rather than reapplying to a mainstream one with the same profile.
- Space out applications and use a broker's soft-search facility to check likelihood before a full application leaves another mark.
Lenders worth checking
Based on published eligibility criteria and lender positioning — always check current terms directly, as criteria change.