Car finance at checkout — credit checks, ID and a panel of lenders

The challenge

Cazoo sold cars entirely online, and most car buyers want finance. That meant a finance journey inside the checkout — with Cazoo as the middleman between the customer and a panel of lenders, and every regulated step done right.

What we built

• The customer journey: collect the applicant’s details, run the credit check with Experian, verify identity with Onfido.
• Lender integrations with Santander, Black Horse and Evolution: send the application, get decisions back, present the customer’s finance agreement.
• The backend to manage each agreement after signing, and admin tools for customer services in Next.js.
• The infrastructure to run it: Terraform, CI/CD, and end-to-end tracing and monitoring with Datadog, Honeycomb and Sentry.

The outcome

Customers could apply for, be approved for and sign car finance without leaving the checkout.