cahoot

okinasan

Having seen Cahoot's flexible loan details mentioned on this site, I recently applied for a £15000 flexible loan to purchase a holiday home in Thailand. Both my and my husbands' credit records (checked regularly) are excellent, I have owned my own business for 20 years, my husband is in full employment. A good joint salarry, far more than for our needs, is coming in. Our outgoings are minnmal (just a small mortgage and low home running costs and no credit cards) ,the loan was, to put it mildly, affordable, and would have saved us dipping into my business capital.

After a phone call to Cahoot to check details, I spent half the afternoon filling in their forms, only to be offered £10,500, not the amount I had asked for. I terminated the application, and called Cahoot, finally managing to speak to a team leader, who flatly refused to tell me on what basis the amount I had requested was rejected. Without any indication on their website (or during my initial phone call,) that they would do this, they had already performed a credit check. When I asked them to remove all my details from their database they told me they were not allowed by Data Protection laws to do this.

All in all, an extremely annoying and unsatisfactory episode, so please watch out if you apply to Cahoot for any of their products.

I'm now worried that if I apply with another company, and they refuse me, I shall not be able to get this loan with anyone. With our credit reconds and financial situation this seems crazy.

Moral of this story -- if it looks too good to be true, it probably is!

Okinasan

Rafter

Okinasan,

You are probably let down by the fact that your credit record is so good!

Banks very rarely check income details so rely on your payment on existing or previous borrowings as proof of your credit worthiness.

Because you don't borrow on credit cards and have a very small mortgage there is little evidence to go on.

Did you also declare what you needed the money for? They might think overseas property purchase is a bit risky?

I suggest if you still want a flexible loan you try either Egg or Nationwide and see how you get on with them. One credit application should not mess up your chances of getting a loan elsewhere.

Good luck.

R.

Robert_Sterling_3

You seem to be in a reasonable financial position.
So when they offered you £10,500 why did you not take the loan and top it up to £15,000 yourselves to make the purchase?

gkerr4

Robert,

I know what you are saying - but that doesn't really help does it?

Also - to be honest, I doubt if many foreign properties actually cost £15k - so actually the purchase could have been £100k and they are already stumping up £85!

I have, however, heard that cahoot often do not offer the full requested amount on their flexible loan so this may be a case of policy rather than anything to do with your financial position. I mean, if you had applied for £20,000 you may have got ended up with £15k - if you see what i mean.

johannamse

I am sure you would definitely get a loan with the bank that your current account is with, but it will probably be a higher APR. But...once you get the offer, you could then ring up Cahoot/Egg and say, "could you match it?" (but with obviously lower APR)

Milky_Mocha

Like gkerr4 said its probably more to do with their policy than your financial circumstances. I applied for a £12000 loan with Cahoot and was offered £10,500. However I was pleased because I only then needed £10,000 and was going to blow £2000 on luxuries I had not even thought of yet.