Loan for £3700 required - best deal?

jatwap

hi, looking for a personal loan of £3700 over 4 year term, with ability to make additional payments to it during the term (I suspect that I will be able to make one payment of £1000 during the first year and another during the second year).

What would the best rate/options be for me?

p.s. I have no adverse credit history, secure job, salary etc...

Rafter

You will pay a premium for a flexible loan which may wipe out any benefits.

Some of the best loan rates may not be available for loans below £5000.

However, here are two options for you.....

Northern Rock at 6.1% with no exit penalty but not truly flexible.

Egg Money or egg loan at 7.9% fully flexible.

Alternatively you could get a zero% credit card which allows transfers to a current account, (like egg card?) but you will pay a 2-2.5% balance transfer fee. You will just need to keep moving the balance every 6-9 months or transfer to a 'life of balance' card which should beat an unsecured loan rate.

Personally I would open the northern rock loan and a high interest cash ISA for the extra payments, then wait til you can pay the whole lot off. The difference between a top isa and the NR loan is only 1% whereas the premium for the egg flexible loan is 1.8% so you should be quids in.

To secure the best northern rock rate, accept their gold payment protection cover, then call up the next day once they have confirmed the rate to you and cancel it and ask them to issue the paperwork.

They won't like it but by law they can't force you to take insurance or change the rate. If they get stroppy say you found similar cover for 20% of the price and you can't believe how expensive their insurance is when their loans look to be such good value!!!!!!

R.