'Persuading' Lloyds to offer better APR

MiskonceptioN

Hey folks.

This is my first post so go easy on me! Apologies if this sort of thing has been posted before. I did a quick search of the form but didn't find anything.

Anyway, to get to the point as quickly as I can. At the tail-end of 2013 I had around £6300 of debt to my name thanks to a loan, overdrafts, and my credit card. Seeing this, my bank (Lloyd's) phoned me up and 'offered' me a loan for £6500 at an APR of 26.8% and because of my financial situation at the time I had no choice but to take it.

Jump forward to today and I'm doing much better financially having been able to consolidate my debts into one place and a new job on a better salary has helped out with the repayments.
I was looking at my loan today and I have 26 months remaining to pay back £7038.62 including the interest, or if I settle the balance today it will cost me £5733.57

Using the loan calculator on here, I saw that I could get a £6000 loan over 24 months from Sainsbury's on a better APR, which if I took out, would save me around £600 versus staying with Lloyds, and two months of repayments.

I applied for the Sainsbury's loan and after a quick phone call to them, they're offering me the £6000 at an APR of around 10% and are sending out the paperwork for me to sign.

My question is this: If I take this paperwork into my local branch of Lloyds showing the APR and that they will be losing out on around £1305.05 of interest by me moving my loan to another provider, will they be likely to reduce the interest rate they're currently charging me?

I've done similar things with phone contracts before. Going into the Carphone Warehouse, getting a quote for a phone with a specific provider (O2 for instance), and then going into the O2 shop with the quote and saying "beat this".
Figured it would be worth trying with my bank...

Has anyone tried this?

19lottie82

MiskonceptioN wrote: »

Hey folks.

This is my first post so go easy on me! Apologies if this sort of thing has been posted before. I did a quick search of the form but didn't find anything.

Anyway, to get to the point as quickly as I can. At the tail-end of 2013 I had around £6300 of debt to my name thanks to a loan, overdrafts, and my credit card. Seeing this, my bank (Lloyd's) phoned me up and 'offered' me a loan for £6500 at an APR of 26.8% and because of my financial situation at the time I had no choice but to take it.

Jump forward to today and I'm doing much better financially having been able to consolidate my debts into one place and a new job on a better salary has helped out with the repayments.
I was looking at my loan today and I have 26 months remaining to pay back £7038.62 including the interest, or if I settle the balance today it will cost me £5733.57

Using the loan calculator on here, I saw that I could get a £6000 loan over 24 months from Sainsbury's on a better APR, which if I took out, would save me around £600 versus staying with Lloyds, and two months of repayments.

I applied for the Sainsbury's loan and after a quick phone call to them, they're offering me the £6000 at an APR of around 10% and are sending out the paperwork for me to sign.

My question is this: If I take this paperwork into my local branch of Lloyds showing the APR and that they will be losing out on around £1305.05 of interest by me moving my loan to another provider, will they be likely to reduce the interest rate they're currently charging me?

I've done similar things with phone contracts before. Going into the Carphone Warehouse, getting a quote for a phone with a specific provider (O2 for instance), and then going into the O2 shop with the quote and saying "beat this".
Figured it would be worth trying with my bank...

Has anyone tried this?

I doubt it. You're alredy in mid contract.

MiskonceptioN

19lottie82 wrote: »

I doubt it. You're alredy in mid contract.

Aye, but given the fact that they'll lose out I figured it might be worth a shot.

andyfromotley

what harm can it do? you might get them to shave some off, it will a pretty profitable half hour if you can pull it off.

jonesMUFCforever

They should be able to give you an indication of a loan rate available without a credit search - pop into your local branch.

nicholaswitchell

My guess is no.

But you never know.

Transformers

They won't be able to change the rate mid-loan BUT they may be able to offer you a new loan at a different rate.


The only way to find that rate is to ask them.

PeacefulWaters

If you can get a lower loan rate elsewhere just jump ship.

Stuff "loyalty".

rob404uk

Have you tried the mbna cash transfer credit card. I used it to help clear a loan for less than a 2 per cent fee

MiskonceptioN

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

If you can get a lower loan rate elsewhere just jump ship.

Stuff "loyalty".

Oh believe me, it's nothing to do with loyalty. It's just I'm an incredibly lazy, forgetful person. I'd much rather have all my money managed in one place; in this case, a single internet banking login.

rob404uk wrote: »

Have you tried the mbna cash transfer credit card. I used it to help clear a loan for less than a 2 per cent fee

I looked at doing this but on all the eligibility checkers I tried it came up as a 0% chance of me getting the card

Cpu2007

I will still advise you to apply for the card you're looking for regardless of what the tool says,I don't think it's very accurate.

I searched three cards with this tool
santander 123 cc
santander free balance transfer cc
amex 5% cashback

Chances:
1) 30%
2) 30%
3) 0%

I took the risk and applied, got all three!