A&L loan @ 24%APR offered - apologies for the long post!

Woodyrocks

I just want to sound this off with you guys before I either cancel the appointment or go ahead with it.I am a bit green so please bear with me. Here is a quick-ish summary -

I popped into my local A&L branch last week to deposit some money in. Its my second a/c (I have a basic account with Nationwide and have the bulk of my in-coming passing through the nationwide a/c) and the best thing about it was that when i applied for it last May or so, they actually gave me a visa electron debit card :T (something that Nationwide refuses to offer even though I have on average £2500 going through my a/c each month and have done regularly for close to 2years)

So, as I was saying, i popped into A&L and deposited a small amount, only to be told by the lovely girl on the counter that the computer informs her that I am eligible for a loan. I was quite taken aback and asked her to recheck (!) which she did, and it seems i am 'eligble' to a loan of £1000 to £2500 the apr she cited was 24%. Even though I don't need a loan, it would be great to have one as it would do wonders for my credit history and I would have no problem paying it off. I got her to work it out and it would only be £91 in interest paid over a year. If i got it that is...

Now to the questions -

What does eligible actually mean?

Are they going to do a credit check on me (again) or are they going to go by the check they did when i opened the account?

I do not want a failed loan application mark on my records, so should i just cancel the appointment?

Would bank statements from nationwide a/c suffice as proof of income as requested for the application?

ITConsultant

If you have £2500 going through your bank each month and they won't offer you anything switch banks...

Try HSBC they seem to be OK at the moment.

If you are eligable you *should* get the loan - but I dont think the £91 @ 24% APR is accurate (well it would depend on how much you wanted to borrow...)

I dont think they will re-check your credit but they *might*

If you have been offered it you shouldn't need your other bank statements, however if it gets sent to the underwriters for whatever reason you can use those as proof (been there... done that...)

CLAPTON

getting a loan at 24% simply because you're offered one seems absolutely madness.

24% is about 2% per month so you can work out the interest fairly easily (i.e. 2% of 2,500 is £50 per month or running at about £600 per year (without taking the decreasing capital into account).

if you need to rebuild your credit rating for whatever reason get a high rate credit card and use it regularly but ALWAYS pay of the full amount each month (set up a DD for the full amount) and this will improve your credit rating without costing you lots of interest.

Woodyrocks

Thanks for the replies so far. I thought it seemed high myself but I figured it was because of my credit history/risk involved to the lenders. I was thinking of borrowing only £1,000 and paying it back in the min time allowed which is 12months. She and a supervisor worked it out a couple of times as I thought £91 was pretty low to repay but it came back the same figure each time.

I am thinking of applying for a vanquis (sp) credit card in a couple of months just not sure if I would get it