Shopping around?

MojoPin

Hi all,

First post here so sorry if I've covered old ground. I'm looking at taking out a loan for my upcoming wedding. I applied for a loan through my bank (Santander) and have been accepted, but at a much higher interest rate than I was expecting.

As applying for a loan affects my credit rating, I was therefore wondering whether it's worth me applying elsewhere (using MSE's calculator to find me something with a higher probability of acceptance rating) to see if I can get a better deal, or if this will adversely affect me and I should just go for the one I applied for?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Herzlos

Soft searches won't affect your rating, but too many other searches will. That said a couple of searches should be OK.

Of course, this is MSE, so I'm going to say this; be careful how much you borrow for a wedding, it's likely a lot of money to be paying off years after your big day has finished. Save as much as you can, exercise some restraint and try to borrow as little as you can, and you'll feel a lot better about it.

It took us a lot of work, but we managed to get married and only ended up borrowing about £600, which is nearly paid off already. You don't want to burden yourself with £1000's of debt over it.

Paully232000

MojoPin wrote: »

Hi all,

First post here so sorry if I've covered old ground. I'm looking at taking out a loan for my upcoming wedding. I applied for a loan through my bank (Santander) and have been accepted, but at a much higher interest rate than I was expecting.

As applying for a loan affects my credit rating, I was therefore wondering whether it's worth me applying elsewhere (using MSE's calculator to find me something with a higher probability of acceptance rating) to see if I can get a better deal, or if this will adversely affect me and I should just go for the one I applied for?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

When you say higher than you were expecting, what is the interest rate as opposed to the one the loan company advertised.

Having one or two searches is not going to do you much harm, it is when you have 3 or more in a short period of time that you start to look a bit desperate and this can lead to declines.
Have you had a look at your credit reference agency files to give you an idea of why you are not getting the advertised rate, high credit useage in comparison to your salary, lots of debts, defaults etc etc.

wiltsguy_2

my personal opinion is dont ever borrow money for a wedding, day one of married life is then started off in debt.

My wife and I have been happily married for 19 years, our wedding cost us £500 which we saved for. I have seen so many couples marry with a huge debt in excess of £10k and the pressure of the loan can cause problems

MojoPin

Thanks for the replies - I have actually applied for the loan already so I'm not so worried about the soft searches - I was just wondering whether it was worth me fully applying at another provider to see if I can get a better rate, or whether this would have a negative impact on me. Going to have a look at my credit file to see what's going on - it's a joint application we're making so it might be something with one of us specifically.

Also, while I appreciate the concern - I'm not asking about whether I should borrow money for a wedding. We're already putting every penny we possibly can towards it and cutting the costs at every corner so aren't looking at a ridiculous £10k+ debt or anywhere near that. A loan would clear our credit cards and leave us with one much more manageable monthly repayment while also enabling us to go on a nice honeymoon. We've been together over a decade already, are more than comfortable with each other, share our finances and have been through plenty already in our relationship so I'm not too worried about a loan putting extra stress on us.

What I am concerned about is my initial enquiry - whether it's worth applying at a secondary provider in an attempt to get a more competitive rate.

Again, thanks for the opinions!

DCFC79

What debts do you currently have ?

What loan amount are you looking for ?

These 2 may well have some effect on the Apr you can get.

dealer_wins

IMO madness. Dont borrow for a lavish wedding/honeymoon, especially as you already have credit card debts!

Remember a £10K wedding will cost you £12-£15K if you take a loan out for it. Look at it another way, you are robbing your 1st few years of married life of £15000 you could be using to live and enjoy!!

andyfromotley

well its not going to kill you to apply for a loan with whoever comes top of the eligibility checker. At least then you will know you have tried to get the best deal you can.

Just as a thought if have you considered putting it on a card then transferring to a 0% BT deal (obviously make sure that you have this card before you spend it!!) or less preferably a o% purchase card (only less preferable as the deals aren't as long) This would almost certainly be cheaper than a loan.

lynz68

The OP never mentioned applying for £10k. While I don't agree for borrowing for a wedding it's the OPs choice.

What I would say is you can apply elsewhere nobody can tell you what interest rate you could be offered the risk you take is applying getting a higher interest offer and returning to your original lender to find that the original offer no longer applies and you have an offer at an even higher rate.

I would check both your credit records and total up your outstanding debt and compare with your salaries. If outstanding debt added to the new loan is more than 50% of income that could be the issue. Lenders cannot guarantee you will pay off the debt you already have.

This of course may not be the case for you but just a thought.