'Bloody stupid loan rule from the EU!' blog discussion

oakhouse13

By using any of the paying links to debt products on his website, which are marked with an asterisk.

Olipro

Given that banks are generally quite good at maths and given that the "typical rate" is being marginally lowered, I honestly doubt this is going to make any difference at all.

As it stands at the moment, if the bank has to give its typical rate to at least 66% of people, it will invariably calculate its typical interest rate with that in mind - since that is now lowering, it would stand to reason that typical APRs advertised by lenders will now be reduced, meaning that 53% of people will pay a lower rate of interest than were it the case that lenders had to give that headline offer to 66% of people. Since there is a lot of competition in the lending market, I really don't see this reduction as an issue.

Yevvie

mememememe wrote:

"I don't really think it's appropriate to have bl***y in the title: the word is offensive to many people and it's not really professional to have it showing (virtually) on the front page of this major website!"


Mememememe - are you having a laugh or are you part of the now defunct PC brigade?? Please do yourself a favour & get a life...

MSE - excellent blog post and good to point out that the new rules mean loan companies (for loans taken out after 1 Feb) will have to allow partial overpayments rather than the current full ones.

jamesd

It's possible that this is a deliberate purpose of the rule: to ban different countries from competing with each other, by making protection the same everywhere.

melancholly

oakhouse13 wrote: »

I don't agree. This is like a stronger message on cigarette packets. I welcome it. It will put people off thinking about taking out loans.

i didn't even know it had to be 66% before reading this blog... and i certainly wouldn't have known that the rules were changing. i'm not sure how on earth this will put people off taking out loans since it's not information that most people even know (aside from those who get the MSE email!).

Gorgeous_George

The Independent seem to have missed the point - Good news at last - Change is on the cards.

On 1 February new rules come into force to ensure that lenders advertise more accurate interest rates to customers who want to borrow money through loans or credit cards. One of the most important changes under the new Consumer Credit Directive is that lenders will now have display an interest rate – or annual percentage rate (APR) – that 51 per cent of customers are actually offered.


While this still does not guarantee that the advertised rate will be the one the customer is actually offered, it should be a better guide when sizing up the best available loans in the market.

GG