Alliance & Leicester/Santander 7.8% APR rate

bigmofo

A couple of days ago I applied for an Alliance & Leicester (Santander) loan on a link from this site. The APR advertised was 7.8%, I completed the form and submitted it. I immediately received a receipt via e-mail from Santander telling me that a decision would be made soon. My application was successful and received the paperwork today, as I was about to sign however I noticed that there was a small box showing the APR as 8.9%, it was not at all made obvious. I looked at the repayments and found that they were not as advertised either showing an increase of £5.76 per month. Santander are advertising their rates as 8.9% on their own site. I have raised a complaint with Santander and have been told by a calltaker that MSE.com must have an old link as their rates have changed. Can MSE.com advise on the situation here and/or ammend their site ASAP as it is misleading. Incidentally I do not blame MSE.com here as it is Santander that has processed the application.

Tixy

I'd post this on the site feedback part of the forum http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=50 to make sure someone from MSE reads it - probably add at the end of the title something like 'error on MSE' so they can investigate it.

Former_MSE_Alana

Hi bigmofo,

The rates mentioned on the loans page and on the A&L page are 'typical' rates, which means 66% of people will get them, the rest will get a higher rate (depending on credit rating). Also the 7.8% rate only applies for loans between £7,500 and £14,950.

For loans between £5,000-£7,450 the typical rate is 8.8% APR
For loans over £15,000 the typical rate is 8.7% APR

If you haven't signed it yet and you don't want this rate you don't need to accept it, but the credit search will remain on your file. If you have signed you should have some time to cancel the agreement depending on the method by which you applied, check the terms of the loan to be sure.

I hope that helps,

MSE Alana

bigmofo

Hi Alana, thanks for your reply,

Funnily enough thats what Santander said, there are some obvious flaws with this though:

I should have said that the loan that I applied for was for £12,000, therefore the 7.8% rate applied; also I have a perfect credit rating.

The point I making is that Santander (A&L) are not granting the advertised 7.8% to anyone, irrespective of rating.
Ok, lets assume that I personally did not qualify for the 7.8% rate but was granted a loan for 8.9% APR; what Santander should have done was informed me of that fact for my consideration. What actually happened was that they sent me my 'wahoo your successful' e-mail then sent out the paperwork for signing. Only close scrutiny revealed the change. An application form for a 7.8% APR loan that is actually 8.9% APR; mis-selling pure and simple.