Locking in 9.9% car finance now: a fair rate, or a bet you’ll lose against falling costs?

Compare car finance rates in 2026: Is locking in at 9.9% APR smart or overpaying? M&S Bank offers 5.7% for larger loans.

Here is the number that should give anyone pause before they sign: 9.9%. That is the representative APR on a £13,000 car loan over 60 months from a broker like Motiv Finance right now , and according to MoneySuperMarket’s car-loan comparison in June 2026, it is also the very best you will see at the small end of the market, where Tesco Bank tops out borrowing of £3,000 to £4,999 at the same 9.9%. So when a dealer or broker tells you that fixing at 9.9% today protects you from rising rates, the first question I would ask is simple: rising from what? Because at the other end of the same comparison table, M&S Bank is quoting 5.7%.

That gap , almost double the rate for the same act of borrowing , is the whole story. Locking in is only smart when the lock is cheap. At 9.9%, in mid-2026, I think you are far more often paying a premium for certainty you do not actually need.

What 9.9% actually buys you in June 2026 (car finance)

Let me lay the table out as it stands. MoneySuperMarket’s June 2026 figures show M&S Bank at a 5.7% representative APR on loans of £7,500–£15,000 and again on £15,001–£20,000. Drop into the £5,000–£7,500 band and the same lender moves to 6.9%. Only once you are borrowing a smaller sum , £3,000 to £4,999 , does Tesco Bank’s 9.9% become the headline rate. Separately, Motiv Finance advertises deals from 7.9% APR, with that 9.9% representative figure attached to the £13,000-over-60-months example.

So 9.9% is not a “high street is panicking” emergency rate. It is roughly the going representative rate for used-car finance through a broker, and the ceiling for the cheapest personal loans. The trouble is the word representative. As MoneySuperMarket spells out, a representative APR only has to be offered to at least 51% of accepted borrowers , the other 49% can, and routinely do, pay more. Fix at “9.9% representative” and you may find the rate you are actually offered after the credit check is 12%, 14%, higher. The advertised number is a marketing floor, not a promise.

Fixing at 9.9% to dodge a rate rise, when half the market is lending at 5.7%, is paying an insurance premium against a fire in a house you do not live in.

The benchmark nobody quotes in the showroom

Here is the figure the finance desk will not lead with. CarLoan24 reports that as of March 2026 the Bank of England benchmark personal loan rate sat at 4.1% APR, with typical rates for creditworthy borrowers running from 3.2% to 5.8% APR. Read that back against the 9.9% lock and the maths gets uncomfortable. A genuinely strong-credit borrower paying 9.9% is paying somewhere around double the cost of money that the benchmark says they should be able to command.

That benchmark matters for the second half of the pitch, too , the bit where fixing is sold as a hedge against rates climbing. With the BoE personal-loan benchmark at 4.1% and clean-credit pricing already down at 3.2%–5.8%, the market is not signalling a rate that is about to bolt upward away from you. If anything, the spread between that benchmark and a 9.9% car-finance APR suggests there is room for the headline car rates to ease, not surge. Locking long at 9.9% is therefore not buying protection. It is, in plain terms, a bet against falling costs , and on the current numbers, the odds are not with the person taking the lock.

When fixing at 9.9% is genuinely the right call

I want to be fair to the 9.9% lock, because for a real slice of buyers it is the sensible move, not the mistake. The 5.7% from M&S Bank is a personal-loan rate aimed at borrowers with strong files who are buying outright and borrowing £7,500 or more. If your credit history is thin or bruised, if you are buying a used car through a dealer rather than walking in with a bank loan, or if you only need £4,000, that 5.7% is not on your menu at all , Tesco’s 9.9% or Motiv’s representative 9.9% may be the keenest rate you can realistically access.

For that borrower, fixing at 9.9% on a sensible term is defensible. The fixed monthly figure is known, it is budgetable, and the alternative is not 5.7% , it is a worse rate or no finance. The mistake I want people to avoid is the borrower who could qualify near the benchmark talking themselves into 9.9% because a salesperson framed it as prudence. Carsa’s own guidance on locking in a car finance rate in 2026 leans toward securing a deal now, and there is a logic to that if the rate you are being shown is competitive for your profile. The flaw is applying a one-size pitch to every credit file. The right lock depends entirely on which rate band you actually fall into.

The questions I would make the finance desk answer first

Before I signed anything at 9.9%, I would force three things into the open. First, the personalised APR after the hard credit search , not the representative figure on the poster, the number on my agreement. Until you have that, you are comparing a marketing rate to a real one. Second, the total amount payable over the full term, in pounds, not just the monthly payment , 9.9% over 60 months on £13,000 stacks up real interest, and the monthly figure is engineered to look soft. Third, the early-settlement and refinancing terms: if rates do drift down toward that 4.1% benchmark over the next two years, can I refinance without a punishing penalty? A lock you can exit cheaply is a very different proposition from one that traps you at 9.9% while the market moves under you.

And a standing caution that applies to every figure here: these are representative and advertised APRs current to June 2026 (and March 2026 for the Bank of England benchmark), not personal quotes and not a finance offer. Your rate, your term and your total cost are decided by your own credit assessment at the point you apply.

So, would I lock at 9.9%?

If my credit file is strong and I am borrowing £7,500 or more, no , not a chance. I would chase the 5.7% personal-loan route, bank the saving, and treat 9.9% as the number to beat rather than the number to accept. The benchmark says clean borrowers are paying half that, and fixing high to “protect” against a rise the market is not actually pricing is the wrong instinct dressed up as discipline.

If my credit is patchy, I am buying used through a dealer, or 9.9% is genuinely the best rate I can reach, then I would take it , but on the shortest term I can comfortably afford, with the early-settlement terms read in full, so I keep the door open to refinance the moment a better rate comes within reach. The lock is only worth having if you can walk away from it. At 9.9% in mid-2026, that exit route is the most valuable clause in the contract , and it is the one nobody points at across the desk.