which lender??

tlc123_2

Hi all

I havent posted in a long time and I have no doubt this question has been asked numerous times but...how do you decide which lender to apply to?

We're looking for a personal loan of 13,500 over 5 years. Ideally joint between myself and my husband. We bank with Santander who have sent us both offers of guaranteed 4.3% upon acceptance, and Sainsburys are offering the same rate (representative though).

So how do we choose who to go with? Are either notoriously difficult to get accepted by? We have good credit ratings - would they need to be excellent? So hard to know who to try with!

Thanks in advance

TLC123

Tixy

If the santander rate is guaranteed then it make sense to apply for that first rather than sainsburys I would say.

Pixie5740

I agree with Tixy. You bank with Santander so they know how you handle your finances on a day to day basis. You're probably more likely to get a more favourable rate with Santander.

tlc123_2

Thanks for this. My concern was that the rate has been offered to us both individually via the online application process. I went through the whole application to the end and it didn't give an option to add a second applicant. So the only way to get those rates would be on our own and I think the amount would be too much for one of us alone. Alternatively we could apply for half each but that would put us lower than the 7,500 and therefore below the lower interest rate threshold.

Do they look at your day to day banking when you apply? I only ask because currently I'm on maternity leave - they obviously know my usual take home salary but thats not what I'm getting at the moment and I think I have to declare my CURRENT net income, even if I'm only getting that for another 4 months. My account will show that we're spending more than we're earning because we'd paid off our overdraft in readiness for the maternity leave (effectively we chose to free up the overdraft and not pay interest for a while than save separately if that makes sense). So I am concerned they would think we are living outside our means, when thats not actually the case as such. Well it is, but only till October!

Hope that makes some sense???

Tixy

Yes they are likely to consider your recent banking and how the account is being run as well when making a decision.

In terms of a joint application then possibly consider going in branch to ask them about this if you cannot do it online.

If your income is low then have you considered husband applying in just his name for the full amount?

tlc123_2

Sorry about my late reply! Yes I did consider that and will discuss with the bank - his annual salary is less than mine and my credit rating is better, so we thought we'd balance each other out applying jointly!

Having said that the core issue is income because of my maternity pay. I have, however, lodged a complaint because santander wrongly applied a missed payment to my credit file after disabling my direct debit (credit card) without informing me. They refunded me the charges but 6 weeks on and a number of conversations with them later they still haven't amended my credit file despite 5 members of staff telling me they would.

Of course I have informed them that if this isn't resolved I will refer it to the financial ombudsman. My issue is that had they remedied my credit file when I asked them in May, I would have been able to apply for my loan then, when I was getting 90% of my salary. Income would not have been an issue. As it is I was not prepared to apply knowing there was a red mark on my file, while I wait for them to amend it. So frustrating that there's a good chance I won't get this loan due to my income and in my view that is their fault. I'm guessing there's nothing I can do about this though :-(