Blog
Keep up to date with First Response here!
This is where you will find all the latest finance news relating to First Response Finance, including awards, charities, product announcements and general fun and interesting information.
Find a blog by category:
First Response Finance Blogs
Top Tips Blogs
These blogs are designed to give you tips for driving, looking after vehicles or generally enjoying life within your new motor.
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15 Ways to Keep Driving Costs Down If you've just purchased your first car you may be surprised at how much it could cost on a monthly basis but, not to worry, we've found the top 15 tips to keeping the costs of a used car down. Read More Back to top |
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Looking After a Used Car We spoke with our Customer Experience team to find the best advice and tips when it comes to owning and looking after a used car. They've detailed some of the most common issues. Read More Back to top |
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Improving Your Credit File This can be tricky but knowing which factors can affect you will help when it comes to making decisions about finance. Finance companies, whether they are loan companies or mobile phone shops will look at certain factors. Read More Back to top |
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Maintaining Credit Files A blog dedicated to giving you tips on how you can maintain your credit file once it's in a good place. Read why it's important to keep on top of things as well as how easy it is for it to go backwards unless you're watching it. Read More Back to top |
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10 Tips When Purchasing Your Next Vehicle We highlight 10 key tips that you should keep in mind when you're looking at buying or financing your next vehicle. These tips are designed with you in mind to help you get the most out of the motor. Read More Back to top |
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How to Avoid Aggressive Driving As part of our Driver Personas month we're looking into one of the most common driving persons on the road: the aggressive driver. Unfortunately, they're everywhere and sometimes unavoidable. Read how to prevent road rage. Read More Back to top |
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How to Have a Relaxing Commute It's been proven that driving in congestion or peak times can be frustrating and far from relaxing. With schools going back this week we thought we'd spread some of our best tips and ways for keeping your cool during your commute to and from work. Read More Back to top |
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Saving Bots and Apps We look into the world of technology, bots and apps to look at how these can help you save money. If you're no good at having spare cash at the end of the month or need a different way to stop you spending then this is the blog for you. Read More Back to top |
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Knowing Your Car Battery We all have one but how much attention do you actually pay to the health of your car's battery? It's a crucial part of your vehicle do you know how to maintain, replace or even refill your car battery? Read More |
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Alternative to Scrapping Vehicles Sometimes the value of a part exchange or scrap value can come as a shock as its lower than you were expecting. Our social media buffs have interesting ways to upcycle or reuse parts of your old vehicle and keep you reminiscing. Read More |
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Driving Safely in Winter As UK temperatures plummet, it’s important to remember “to be prepared by making sure your vehicle is in good working condition and add plenty of time for your planned journey so you’re less likely to rush". Read More Back to top |
Finance Information Blogs
Aimed at giving you dedicated information on finance, our products and how we help our customers.
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Bad Credit Car Loan At First Response we have been specialising in providing "bad credit" car loans since 1998 and have financed over 130,000 customers with poor credit histories. Read More Back to top |
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Why we Only Work With Selected Dealers You may not know, but in order to sell finance products a company must be registered with the FCA, otherwise they’re trading illegally. Read More Back to top |
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Bad Credit Motorbike Finance With our bad credit motorbike finance, who says your credit history need haunt you when you’re after the bike of your dreams? Back to top |
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Deadline for PPI Claims First Response stopped selling PPI in 2011, but it's useful to know that if you're concerned about how you were sold PPI by any lender, the deadline for claims to be made is approaching. Read More Back to top |
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Your Application...what happens next? Whether you've just submitted an application, waiting for a call, or looking for your favourite vehicle, this handy step-by-step blog let's you know what to expect next! Read More Back to top |
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Our Commissions Statement On the 15th October the FCA published proposals to outlaw Motor Dealers from receiving commission payments linked to the interest rate that customers pay Read More Back to top |
Our Community Blogs
These blogs are about First Response and the community we work in, whether that's in the office or externally in the wider community.
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First Response's Black Dog We separate from Magic Breakfast after 5 years. Read which charity will now be our chosen one, why and how we came to decide on this great cause. We're confident that we'll make a big difference through our internal and external events. Read More Back to top |
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Helping Students Thrive Last year we partnered with Derby College to give a little bit of extra help to their A Level Business students by giving them real life examples of the work that they have learning in their classes, seminars and workshops. Read More Back to top |
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Office Refurbishment On a regular basis you’ll find our CEO and HR Manager giving every member of staff the opportunity to give opinions on the business. One item that was mentioned by a few members of staff was that there weren’t enough spaces to relax. Read More Back to top |
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Team Building & Social Events We put a lot of time into our staff by ensuring their well being is a priority, one way we do this is by encouraging team building and social events outside of work with a quarterly budget for each staff member. Read why this is important and how teams have spent their budgets. Read More Back to top |
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Charity and Fundraising We do a lot of fundraising for our chosen charity SANE as well as our employees chosen charities. We've raised an astonishing amount so far. This blog goes through some of the best ways we've raised money. Read More Back to top |
Our Awards Blogs
The blogs talk through the multiple awards we've won as a company. These are based on customer-facing awards as well as business-focused awards.
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Finance Provider of the Year 2016 We attended the much anticipated award ceremony at Spinnaker Tower to find out whether we had won our nominated award of Finance Provider of the Year. Read the blog to find out if we did! Read More Back to top |
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The Number 1 Car Loan Company We've been the Number 1 Car Loan Company for almost 4 years! We took the top spot on Review Centre in 2014. At the time of reaching the top spot we had over 450 unique reviews. Read More Back to top |
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Best Companies Results 2019 A round up of our Best Company results over the last few years. Currently we are 18th in the UK (mid-size), the fourth year in the top 20. Read how we work, how we look after our staff and what our staff love. Read more. Back to top |
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Number 1 Car Finance Company We've been voted the best car finance company (non-prime). We're very proud to receive this prestigious award as it's voted for by UK dealers. Read More Back to top |
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The Best Car Finance Provider We are the best car finance provider within the UK. Read why we're the best and what you should compare if looking at other companies. Read More Back to top |
Fun Blogs
Lighthearted and fun -the type of blogs you'll love to share with your friends.
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What Your Car Colour Means A part of our Driver Personas month we investigate the differences between car colours and what they usually mean about the driver. We look at the most popular colours to drive and those which are no longer that common. Read More Back to top |
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What Your Car Choice Says About You BMW drivers are aggressive right? Nissan drivers are happy tootling along? We've conducted some research into the most popular driving styles and their associated vehicle to find out if these stereotypes are right. Read More Back to top |
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Car Insurance Myths Unfortunately there are several things you should consider when looking for a new vehicle as they could increase your insurance. Not all cars are equal in the eyes of an insurer and neither are job titles or your accommodation type. Read More Back to top |
Dealer Information Blogs
Blogs perfect for our dealers. These are here to inform dealers of updates or need-to-know details about our exhibitions or even ways in which we can help to assist your dealership.
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Dealer Updates The place to check out all of the improvements we make to our website, the dealer portal, commissions or First Response in general. Read More Back to top |
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CDX We've visited CDX in 2016 and 2017. At the exhibition we were on hand to advise dealers about finance as well as give away some goodies. Read More Back to top |
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Assisting our Dealerships Our assistance with promotional material and advice to improve deals using finance is something many of our dealers have benefited from. Read More Back to top |
Industry Blogs
News from around the automotive and finance industry.
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30% of Drivers Would Fail Their Test We recently ran a survey of 1,000 UK drivers to find out exactly what their knowledge is about different parts under the bonnet. How many knew how to check the oil? How to check the coolant or check the brake fluid? Read More Back to top |
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Driverless Taxis Tested With driverless taxis being tested in Singapore and Google pumping more money into their research into driverless cars, we examine if it really is the future. What's next? Will it succeed? Read the blog to learn more. Read More Back to top |
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Pros and Cons of Electric Cars We look into the true costs of an electric car taking into consideration government grants and help that's available. We used average costs to calculate if it's really worth splashing out on an electric car or to simply stick with what you've got Read More Back to top |
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The Science Behind Sat Navs Sometimes we can blindly follow technology without ever stopping to think about how they actually work. We were curious about the magic of Sat Navs so did some investigating about how they get us from A to B. Read More Back to top |
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An F1 Engine Rules in F1 are more complex than they ever have been before. As the dust settles on the British Grand Prix and the confetti is cleared away after Lewis Hamilton’s victory, we thought we’d take a closer look under the bonnet. Read More Back to top |
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Is Finance Cheaper than Train Travel? At the start of this year the rail networks made their annual price increases taking the overall price increase to 25% in 5 years. We found the stats to be interesting and thought we'd do some investigation to see how the prices compared with driving. Read More Back to top |
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What is HPI? It's a status you'll read on a number of dealer's websites and even on car comparison sites but do you understand what it means? We've simplified the terms 'HPI check' and 'HPI clear' so you can find out if it's something you need to be worried about. Read More Back to top |
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The Rise of Dash Cams in the UK More and more people are using dashboard cameras in order to monitor their driving and the driving of others around them. We didn't know much about them so spent some time investigating exactly why they've become popular and why you might consider buying one. Read More Back to top |
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UK Driving Statistics Who’s better at driving, men or women? No doubt this question has caused a few arguments and heated debates in the past as men claim their parking’s top notch and women claim to be more careful on the road. Well, statistically.. Back to top |
Careers Blogs
Everything you need to know about working at First Response, how we employ and what you should do if you want to work in one of our offices.
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Starting with Why Inspired by a TED Talk we decided to challenge ourselves and ask our staff 'why we do what we do'. We asked our staff and filmed their first response to the question - have a look at what they said. Read More Back to top |
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Understanding our Recruitment If you're looking to get a job role at First Response or are just curious about our process then you can read this handy blog. Here you'll find infor on what to expect from an Open or Assessment Day. Read More Back to top |
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Employee Benefits Read about how, as a company, we ensure all employees are getting a fair deal with their benefits, bonuses and little extras that make working for us an overall great package. Read More Back to top |
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New Job Survival Guide We delve into the unwritten rules of a new office job, from navigating the tea round to simple office politics. A must read if you're looking to make it through the first few weeks of any job! Read More Back to top |
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Do Companies Want Feedback? Why do companies spend time finding out what employees think, do they really care? Is all feedback important or is some just negative? We've shared some thoughts about the subject. Read More Back to top |
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Internal Feedback Sessions We hold regular meetings across the business and across all three sites in order to give staff the chance to speak their mind to the CEO. This means we can act on any issues that the business faces. Read More Back to top |
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Leadership Development We spend time to invest and train our future leaders. We have various ways of doing this from leadership opportunities to a full internal academy. Read More Back to top |
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Should you Share Your Life at Work? Sharing your personal life in work should be encouraged, find out why and how you could be doing it. A simple way to improve your working life. Read More Back to top |
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Understanding Degree Apprenticeships Parents - what do you know about degree apprenticeships? If you're child is looking into one and you have no idea what it is then you need to read this blog. Read More Back to top |
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Setting Personal Goals We look at how goals can benefit you long term at work, whether they're personal or work-focused. Find out why it's important and how to get started. Read More Back to top |
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Navigating the Tea Round The office tea round is something which can strike fear into any new starter, what if you do it wrong? What are the rules? Are there any rules? Read More Back to top |
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Tenure & Retirement We will always look to encourage staff staying as long as they can. These things help our employees feel wanted and happy within their roles. Read More Back to top |
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Getting the Best Ideas Heard We look at the age old debate of extrovertism and introvertism and how you need to balance these within a business to ensure you're moving the business forward and making the best ideas heard. Read More Back to top |
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How to be the Perfect Employee We look at the four traits that make you a perfect employee, whether these are correct and how you can work towards becoming "perfect", and if that's even possible within the workplace. Read More Back to top |
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Is Having Nothing to do a Good Thing? Some people don't enjoy the periods at work where there's down time but what type of things should you do to keep you occupied? We've looked at the ways to optimise this time. Read More Back to top |
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Winning Attitude It may seem like a strange thing to encourage but we actively encourage our staff to fail. We believe failing and learning from your mistakes creates a winning attitude that helps the business thrive. Find out how we encourage failure and learning. Read More Back to top |
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Common Interview Questions Our recruitment team often see the same queries from candidates or people coming for interviews so they've decided to share some of their knowledge. This week they're looking for at the perfect timing for interviews: how early should you arrive? Read More Back to top |
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Internal Development at First Response We talk through the different development opportunities that we offer to our staff and how we can help you progress. There are several different options when it comes to personal development designed to challenge you personally and professionally. Read More Back to top |
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Taking Part in Some Seasonal Reflection It's always good to reflect on how the year's gone and whether we should be helping friends, family or charities a little bit more. We reflect on the work we do internally and for charity. Read More Back to top |
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What Makes a Good Company? As the 7th Best Company to Work For in the UK we decided to do some investigating into three main reasons that people enjoy working for a company. Have a read of what to look for from an employer. Read More Back to top |
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Know Yourself and Your Goals Can understanding yourself really help with your work relationships? We believe it can and it's a great starting point for some self-reflection along with tips and guidance. Read More Back to top |
Other Blogs
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Christmas Opening Hours - 2019-20 Make sure you're aware of our amended opening hours this Christmas and New Year. These opening hours will affect all customers and dealers who are looking to contact all three offices including Renewals, New Business and Account Management. Read More Back to top |
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Advice for Carcraft Customers Carcraft announced that they have been taken into receivership, which means that they will no longer be trading. Carcraft dealerships have now closed and newspaper reports state that they are no longer honouring current or past agreements. Read More Back to top |