Loan for person with "fair" credit rating?

bthere79

hi all,
I need a few thousand pounds to complete some renovation works on a property i've recently bought overseas so i've applied for a personal loan with my bank (lloyds tsb) and the guy on the phone after asking me loads of questions eventually tells me "they can't look at my application right now" which initially I didn't even understand it meant the application was rejected, why do they not just say so. I asked him whether going into a branch would make any difference, he said no. He kinda said it's due to my credit rating.

I'm quite cheesed off really, I've lived in the UK for 4 years now, and I've kept an eye on my credit rating regularly, building it up from poor (as I had just moved here and hence I had no history at all) to a "fair" level. It's been like that for more than a year now but it doesn't look like it's going to go any higher and I presume the reason being I'm not a homeowner in the UK. I've never missed any payments whatsoever, and they can see I'm a reliable customer. I pay my credit cards in full every month, and occasionally use my overdraft. My income is substantially above average and I was only applying for 4 times my net monthly salary.

Now my question is what can I do? Looking around it seems to me you either have multiple options if you have an excellent credit rating or you can go with the 60% apr lenders if you're desperate but there doesn't seem to be anything in between. I'd be ok with paying 15% interest as I really need the money now and I'm confident I can pay it back even early within 12 months or so. Is there any lenders with less strict criteria? Any advice is very welcome.

bengalknights

The trick is to say something like buying a car instead of overseas property as banks dont like that bit, what you could try is Zopa.

CLAPTON

what exactly do your credit files say?

what do you earn

how much do you want to borrow?

any existing debts

chanz4

They may have a CPD marker

bthere79

i use checkmyfile.com and for equifax and callcredit my score is 816 - 3 stars (out of 5) - "fair"

it doesn't really say anything... :

Positive Attributes
Aged 31
No Court Judgments
On Electoral Roll
12 Clean Accounts

Negative Attributes
None

it looks like i dont have enough positives rathern than having any negatives....

my income/affordability is not the issue, I also disappointed that I wasn't offered any alternatives, it's not like they offered to lend half or 70% of what i asked, it was just no way we're not giving you anything. I don't have any outstanding debt, just credit cards for the month

whats a cpd marker?

chanz4

lloyds decline all credit marker, ignore credit ref agencys score they mean as much as people who dont pay their bills

Carpi10

Zopa :money:

bthere79

in the meantime my loan application has been declined by santander as well... i've now applied with zopa and keeping my fingers crossed, it's currently "in review" and they gave me a quote of 7.4% APR which would again suggest a decent credit profile.... i just don't get it are they less strict in their criteria than banks such as lloyds and santander?

thanks again everyone

xdm941

I know Zopa tend only to accept people with a perfect / excellent credit record. In my honest opinion if Santander and Lloyds TSB have rejected you then it's highly likely Zopa will too. Zopa is not a bank and lends money that the general public invest and I remember the CEO of Zopa stating that they will only lend to people having the very best of credit records so personally I wouldn't hold out much hope. I wish you luck though. I know exactly where your coming from, unless you have an absolute perfect credit score there is little in the middle and its a massive jump in APR from the advertised 6.6 for example to 20%+. Very frustrating. It all comes down to the economic climate of the last few years and despite what they say banks just don't seem to want to lend!!

Good luck

orcocan

***deleted***

somethingcorporate

If your bank won't touch you it indicates that probably no-one will (except people you don't want to deal with!). It would be worth finding out why since there must be some reason for your declines. Pull your files from all the agencies and have a good look at them.