QUICK Help needed re Northern Rock Loan

Walrus

I've just spoken to Northern Rock on the phone and gone through the application process.

It ended with two things that annoyed me:-

a) The idiot on the other end of the phone trying to force me to take PPI. "What would happen tommorrow if...?" Questions applenty, until I told him that I didn't want it false stop.

and b) They offered me the APR of 9.9% which sounds massive, to me and I really didn't think my history was that bad, as well as my steady income and householder status.

The question I've got now is what do I do? I don't really want to pay that huge amount of interest but need to get the loan to get my new car. Do I have to accept Northern Rock's loan now? What effect would it have turning it down? Am I better going with Egg as I have a savings account and credit card with them?

Please help a baffled and concerned Newbie!!!

MarkyMarkD

Assuming you've accepted, you can still cancel at any time because Northern Rock don't charge any repayment penalty IIRC. There's no harm to you in looking around immediately for a cheaper loan, whilst knowing you've got the NR one as a back-stop. If other people question you needing two loans, you can say that the second one is to pay off the NR one at a better rate.

Particularly if you have a slightly dodgy credit history, the lender will see it as a good idea to sell you PPI - as you might be a bit prone to not paying up or having occurences (accidents, sickness, unemployment) which would enable you to claim. But of course, the real reason for the pressure is that the sales staff are hugely bonus-incentivised to sell PPI as it's where lenders make ALL the profit on personal loans.

Walrus

I just can't work out where my bad scoring comes from. I've never missed a payment on a loan or anything. My Equifax report shows nothing up.

Is it likely to get anything cheaper elsewhere? And where is best to go?

jimmysavillelld

I Have A Credit Score Of Over 960 Out Of 1000 With Experian And They Declined Me. I Think They Have Their Own System Of In-house Scoring. If You Are An Existing Customer Of Theirs I Think That May Help And Make Sure You Have No Other Loan Applications Outstanding As It May Look Like You Are Taking Out More Than One Loan.
Hope This Has Been Useful

MarkyMarkD

Absolutely no lender uses the "off-the-shelf" credit scores that people like Experian quote for you. They all use their own scoring techniques and hence it doesn't really matter whether Experian give you 960 or 20. Obviously, it indicates you aren't a bad risk in one person's estimation - but different lenders rank different criteria very differently depending on their experience.