My car required a lot of work done to it last year - money that my wife and I just could not afford. Given our credit history - we had previous financial difficulties - there was no way we were getting credit through a mainstream car dealership. I browsed the net and after a lot of 'should I, or shouldn't I' conflict with myself, I applied to one of these companies.

I e-mailed my, (very few), details to Car Credit UK and within an hour I received a telephone call and was told that they could help me. The salesman was extremely keen for me to go to the dealership that evening, even though it was 5:30pm when he called. He said they had an offer on where they would offer me 6 months free road tax, but only if I responded today. I informed him there was no way I could make it that evening so I arranged an appointment for the next day and went along with my wife. Right from the off I was wary as I had seen an article about one of these companies, (Yes Car Credit), on 'Watchdog'. Their pressure sales tactics were appalling, so I was on guard when we arrived. This is how it works:

They will ask you to bring along a few documents that prove who you are; phone bill, bank statement, drivers license, etc. When you arrive they will take those docs off you and disappear. They tried to get my bank card off me but I refused and gave them a photo ID with a signature on it. They will then ask what sort of car you are looking for and based on your salary, they will tell you what your weekly budget is - you don't tell them what your monthly commitments are, so how they know is beyond me!! We were told we had a budget of £90 a week. That was double our finance on the car we currently had. You are then shown the cars they are willing to sell you. It is not like a normal car dealership where you browse the cars and choose one you want. Oh no, they showed us three cars - all 3 years or older, and all a bit dodgy looking. The 'showroom' held a total of 12 cars!

We had already told them that irrespective of how much they said we could afford to repay each month, we had a budget of £200 per month. But when we opted for one of the three cars we were shown, they tried to make us up our payments. To begin with, we relented even though we were leaving ourselves very tight financially. As well as the car as a trade-in they wanted a £1500 deposit off us. We didn't have any money and made that clear. If we had, we would've just serviced the bloody car! They then said that they would use the £250 cash back offer and the monetary value of the in-car DVD player that was on offer. By this point alarm bells - although muffled - were ringing. However, we were stuck between a rock and a hard place and this seemed to be our only hope of getting a car.

Whilst we were left on our own, my wife and I came to our senses and realised that given our current financial situation we would be stupid to overstretch the budget. Not only that, as I said, we were starting to have a bad feeling about the company and it's sales methods. So, when the salesman came back, we told him we had changed our minds, we didn't want to buy a car after all. This is when they turned on the real pressure!

The salesman rushed off in a panic and another, more senior, salesman returned asking what the problem was. We explained our financial restrictions and our unwillingness to do something stupid. We thought this would appeal to him as they had made a big thing about getting us back on the straight and narrow financially. It soon became clear that all they were interested in was a sale, come hell or high water! The second salesman disappeared and lo and behold, the manager appeared - under the pretence of getting something from another office! On his way back he stopped and enquired as to why we had changed our minds. Again we explained the situation. Then he started making out that he was doing us a great service as we would never get credit anywhere. If we walked away today we would never be able to reapply to the company in the future. When this had no effect. He told us that it was illegal to obtain credit whilst bankrupt and they were going out on a limb to help us. I challenged his claim as we weren't bankrupt, but he insisted they had done a credit check and it flashed up 'bankrupt' on the screen - absolute rubbish!! This made us even more stubborn and the sale was definitely lost.

In the end he gave up, but they still left us sitting for another half hour until they gave us back our documents. No doubt during this time they were trying to think of other ways of how they could push a sale on us. I'm sure it was pure coincidence, but they suddenly reappeared with our docs when I told my wife to use her mobile and find out the telephone number of the local police station. However, we managed to 'escape' and although raging at their appalling attitudes, we learned a valuable lesson on how companies will prey on people with bad credit ratings.

To anyone who is desperate for a car and credit is the only way - DO NOT go to this company!