Personal Loans: How to get the UK's cheapest Discussion Area

modgirl

can anyone advise I have a maxed out Co-op credit card I have been offered a Co-op loan repay over 7yrs at a fixed rate this will reduce my payments monthly is this a better deal for me as I can't work now and was using the credit card as a crutch
cheers Modgirl

jamesd

MarkyMarkD, just think of the Zopa lending as working like mortgages with an arrangement fee but no exit fee and it'll seem fine again.

You might also wonder how all lenders should describe the early repayment APR when they add the extra month's interest that they can add to loans with a term longer than a year. That'll probably be more significant than the 0.5% of the loan amount.

I don't know if Zopa charges this optional extra month's interest. I also don't know if it's paid to lenders as part of their loan settlement payment.

Note also that there is no month's penalty for a loan shorter than a year from any lender. Rather, for all loan durations, if you ask for an early settlement figure the early repayment regulations requires lenders to give a calculation valid for 28 days with the interest for that time added. They could choose not to add any interest for the last 28 days but there's no reason for them to do that, since you can keep the money for the whole 28 days and only repay on the last.

A lender could choose to rebate the interest for any payment before the 28 days is elapsed. I don't know if any do.

For all lenders you can eliminate this 28 day's interest requirement by paying too much then getting a rebate of the overpayment, since in this case the interest calculation must end on the date they received the repayment.

Last I knew Zopa didn't actually prevent people from taking out multiple loans, regardless of what the documentation says. You're right that it can produce a reduction of interest, but also note that it produces more credit checks and hence decreases the chance of qualifying for the later loans.

Gemma05

Hi, i'm new to this forum. I have been trying for some time now to get a decent personal loan. All in all my debts add up to £11,000. I have been refused from 3 different loan companies, Halifax, Barclays and Mint. I have checked my credit score on experian and I have a good score although I have missed a credit card payment. I need some advise on the best thing to do next. I don't want to keep trying places and getting refused. Does anyone know the best place to try where I am more likely to be accepted?
Any advice would be appreciated.

chinup_3

contacted zopa twice in 1 week via 2 different email routes re being an introducer for them: result ? O !!. they are obviously doing so very well they don't need any more customers?!? or maybe they just are as inept as their discussion boards allude to ?!:rolleyes: . like another op i'm concerned about their low tech low budget low competence execution of what is a great idea in theory.
shame and sad really

marmites_2

hi, my fixed rate mortgage with halifax ends in april 2008, i have £49,500 to pay, I have 40,000 in my hubby and my premium bonds, planning to withdraw them to pay off most of mortgage. Leaving approx £9.500 £10,000 still to find.
I need to borrow that amount, i can pay it off quite quickly over the next year or two years at most, got a great credit score have no debts at all yipee... what loan is best for me?

jamesd

You're still above the lower limit for some mortgage lenders, so a mortgage would be the best option, probably one of the fees free deals with higher interest rates, since you won't be paying interest on much money and higher interest rate is probably cheaper for you than fees.

You could consider an offset mortgage of 49,500 to keep the cash available. Or less than that but not using the full premium bonds amount, just with partial offsetting. Intelligent Finance and some others do an interesting one where you can offset with cash ISA money and that's one possible way to accumulate tax free savings if you aren't already using your ISA limits. You should check that the mortgage lender will let you offset 100%, some won't.

jkpaul

Great article, just wanted to add what I've found when looking at loans of 10 - 25k on the Tesco website mentioned in the article.

The loan proposals I found go like this:

borrow

---

repay/mth

---

total to pay

---

interest
£10,000

---

£195.16

---

£11,709.60

---

6.60%
£15,000

---

£292.75

---

£17,565.00

---

6.60%
£19,999

---

£390.31

---

£23,418.60

---

6.60%
£20,000

---

£401.33

---

£24,079.80

---

7.80%

So, if you fancy borrowing, say, 20 grand, but don't check the rates below that, not only do you have the honour of repaying an extra £11 in the first month, but also in every one of the 59 months after that - a very expensive extra pound, coming in at more than £ 660 extra after 5 years ... worth noting I thought!

Cheers,
jkp

anruari

February 2008.
I Just got accepted for a loan for 15,000 from Natwest, at a rate of 7.1%
This was as an existing customer, and required that I take out the "Advantage Gold" £12 per month add on to my current account, but I'm free to cancel that with a full refund in the first 90 days, while still keeping the same loan terms. (and the guy on the phone even suggested it... not bad considering it's his job to sell the package).

Furthermore the loans flexible with no limit on overpayment or early repayment.

I was also able to take the loan over 10 years (available if you are using the loan for home improvements). All in all keeping the repayemnts well under £180 per month.

Note: the payment protection insurance they offer is more than 10 times the price of the quotes I got from AntInsurance and the other links from this site, (£50 - £70 / month vs £5/m) so dont ever take the bundled PPI.

anruari

Gemma05 wrote: »

Hi, i'm new to this forum. I have been trying for some time now to get a decent personal loan. All in all my debts add up to £11,000. I have been refused from 3 different loan companies, Halifax, Barclays and Mint. I have checked my credit score on experian and I have a good score although I have missed a credit card payment. I need some advise on the best thing to do next. I don't want to keep trying places and getting refused. Does anyone know the best place to try where I am more likely to be accepted?
Any advice would be appreciated.

This is a late reply I know, but DONT tell the banks it's a consolidation Loan!!! Tell them its' for a home improvement, and car, a Holliday etc. Banks rarely like to take on debts held by other banks.
Some years ago I got refused again and again for consolidation loans. But then my own bank id lend me an extra £2000 for a motorbike, and were willing to incorporate my overdraught and credit card (both with them) the loan, but wouldn’t include a loan I had with another bank.

jamesd

anruari, the common term for taking out a loan for debt consolidation and claiming it is for home improvements is "fraud". Advocating crimes isn't acceptable; this place is about legal money saving, not illegal.

Many lenders will also accept a mixed purpose loan where most of the money goes for a purpose that they accept and the rest is used for consolidation. That's not fraud provided the lender accepts this way of declaring things.