About us

British Credit Trust is one of the oldest car finance companies in the UK. It started life as the finance company Bentinck Motor Supply Co. which was incorporated as a limited company in 1911 having been originally established in 1908.

The business was formed to supply and finance Belsize taxis in Manchester, but changed its name to Bentinck in 1931, when these vehicles ceased to be manufactured, and the company was solely engaged in the car finance and motor finance business. Its operations were mainly focussed on providing car credit in the North West, providing Beverley Bentinck with motor credit in the North of England.

The Beverley Finance and Discount Company was formed by Northern Dairies (which has since become Northern Foods) in 1958, to use its substantial cash surpluses to provide motor credit. It was based in Hull and operated from a number of branches in Yorkshire and the North East, providing loans for motor cars and caravans.

The name was changed again in 1964 to Beverley Finance and in 1971 they acquired Bentinck, the Manchester based car finance company, to provide finance for the motor trade. The name was then changed to Beverley Bentinck.

To achieve national coverage, Bristol Merchant Finance was acquired in 1973 to provide motor finance in the South of England. This company was formed in 1958 and merged with Commercial Purchase, a company providing motor finance in London, in 1965 and became a public company in 1971. They brought with them Bear Securities, a company engaged in new and used car credit in Exeter.

Shortly after the acquisition of Bristol Merchant Finance in 1973, Beverley Bentinck changed its name to British Credit Trust. British Credit Trust became a national car finance house during the ensuing years, and continued to thrive as they became associated with Citroen at a time when all successful motor finance houses were forming direct links with motor manufacturers.

In May 1978, British Credit Trust was acquired by Bank of Ireland, which already had its own motor finance house in Ireland (Bank of Ireland Finance (UK)), which specialised in industrial business. The businesses merged to trade under the name of British Credit Trust. At that time there were 36 offices throughout the country specialising in all forms of instalment credit for industrial finance contracts and private car loan customers.

In 1998 British Credit Trust entered the motor Hire Purchase (HP) market using third party brokers to obtain new and used car finance business.

The launch of the Hire Purchase finance option was so successful that British Credit Trust needed a major funding partner and in September 1998 British Credit Trust was sold to Nikko (Europe) plc.

In common with many other financial institutions, British Credit Trust was adversely affected by the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and ceased new lending in 2010. 

In November 2010, existing customers began to be serviced on behalf of British Credit Trust by Target Loan Services in Newport, South Wales.