Zopa Loans

stutakesphotos

Hi. Anyone taken a Zopa loan?

I'm looking at getting a loan for a new car choosing £4.7. The garage selling the car have said that would do a loan at 5.5 percent over 3.5 years but with a front and back admin fee of 149. Zopa would do a 5,000 loan at 6.4 percent but with no fee.

In short, Zopa works out cheaper but am concerned that they loan to high credit scorers. I have a good score but am concerned that failing the application would damage my credit score.

So does the credit status have to be spotless? I missed two credit card payments just over 3 years ago

Thanks

You-kip

stutakesphotos wrote: »

Hi. Anyone taken a Zopa loan?

I'm looking at getting a loan for a new car choosing £4.7. The garage selling the car have said that would do a loan at 5.5 percent over 3.5 years but with a front and back admin fee of 149. Zopa would do a 5,000 loan at 6.4 percent but with no fee.

In short, Zopa works out cheaper but am concerned that they loan to high credit scorers. I have a good score but am concerned that failing the application would damage my credit score.

So does the credit status have to be spotless? I missed two credit card payments just over 3 years ago

Thanks

You wouldn't know your actual credit score as its private only to lenders accessing an Application.

Also check the garage to make sure that the 5.5% quoted is not the flat rate.

To apply for a Zopa loan check your Experian credit report if they search them and make sure everything's in place like electoral roll no missed/late payments and defiantly no defaults etc.

And make sure your total debt including the 5k doesn't go above half your salary.

Rafter

As You-kip says - make sure you are comparing like with like using the APR.

I believe that Zopa have a service to show you what band you are likely to be in as a borrower.

You can also use a service on the moneysupermarket website to see what products you might qualify for there.

A few one off missed payments on a credit card a while ago shouldn't be a problem. More important is how much debt you have relative to you income, that you are employed and havn't recently changed jobs and that you are on the electoral roll.

Good luck

R.

stutakesphotos

Excuse my ignorance but what is like for like in this context? Thanks

Apples2

Apr against Apr.

Not Apr against flat rate.

Car dealers bend the truth. Your 5.5% may actually be about 11% apr.

patman99

Zopa are basically a social lending platform. ANYONE can deposit & loan money through Zopa. I have a Zopa account & can tell you that those of us that lend can, and do, set which groups of people we lend to.
You can get a loan quote on 2 different days & get 2 different offers. It all depends on how much money is available in each 'zone' at the point of application.

stutakesphotos

Thanks. How damaging is it to a credit rating to get turned for a loan? Just checking in case I get turned by Zopa

patman99

It all depends on the type of search they undertake. A 'soft' search such as that used by Noddle (a free credit history search tool) do not show on your file. If they do a 'hard' search, then this will show-up on your file for upto 6 years.
Use Noddle to check your credit history. It will show-up any searches etc & it is free as long as you don't sign-up for any 'extras'.

Edit:
Just looked on Noddle & it looks like Zopa do not do a hard search as I applied for a loan 3 months back (but didn't take-up the offer) & it does not show on my credit history.
Strangely, 'quote-me-happy' which is a price comparison site does show up. So be careful which price comparison sites you use when getting insurance quotes.

stutakesphotos

Thanks. I've done the soft one and that's fine but if the follow up checks are negative, how damaging is it? Does it then turn a good credit status to a bad one? Suspect somewhere in between

27col

You will find that Zopa do charge the borrower a fee. Not sure what it is at the moment, but their website will say. They also charge the lender a percentage. That is how they make their money. They have strict lending criteria, and rightly so. It is not their money they are lending. It my money and that of small lenders like me. The stricter they are, the better, as far as I am concerned.

pvt

patman99 wrote: »

A 'soft' search such as that used by Noddle (a free credit history search tool) do not show on your file.

Noddle is CallCredit. The free Noddle consumer portal will obviously only show what info CallCredit hold about you. Searches by individuals of their credit records with Equifax and Experian are equally "soft", as in no lenders can see them.

patman99 wrote: »

If they do a 'hard' search, then this will show-up on your file for upto 6 years.

No, I'm pretty sure it's only 2 years. Credit searches are recorded to show other lenders that you are making lots of credit applications over a short space of time - so after a year or so there is no justification to record the search.

patman99 wrote: »

Just looked on Noddle & it looks like Zopa do not do a hard search as I applied for a loan 3 months back (but didn't take-up the offer) & it does not show on my credit history.

That might just show that Zopa don't search CallCredit.

patman99 wrote: »

Strangely, 'quote-me-happy' which is a price comparison site does show up. So be careful which price comparison sites you use when getting insurance quotes.

These are not Credit Searches, they are searches to verify identity and have no impact on you as, like soft searches, cannot be seen by other lenders.