Advice on best APR

joel232

Hey guys,

Wonder if you can help?

My partner and I bought a home together in December. We needed to do some work on the house (a lot of which I have done myself) but now need to get the builders in! Anyway, we wanted to get a loan of £10K to support this. The mortgage is with Santander so we applied with them about 2/3 months ago. The rate advertised was 4.2%. As I'm 24 but my parter was only 20 at the time, we couldn't apply together. I applied and was accepted at 14.9%! I turned this down as it was over 3 times as advertised.

I asked Santander why it was so high (I have good credit, never missed a payment and used 0% finace in the past so do have a credit record) but they just said.. We don't know.

My partner is now 21. As she has actually had a house before this, with her sister, she has great credit, even better than mine. She turned 21 recently so we have a meeting with the bank today.

My question... Do you think it would now be best to apply for a joint loan, at the same 10K or for her to do it on her own?

Many thanks!

[Deleted User]

It depends on your credit files and incomes. What do your files say?

joel232

Sorry I don't follow. What do you mean, what does it say? In what respect?

joel232

My partner does earn more than me and has been in her job for a year longer however, she is younger but her credit score is around the 980 mark

forgotmyname

The actual score given is meaningless, They dont even know if your working nevermind being on a decent wage.

The lenders dont see or use that score. If your paying for it stop.

DCFC79

The 14.9% might be the best you can get.

joel232

DCFC79 wrote: »

The 14.9% might be the best you can get.

What are you basing that on?

Tixy

You could try doing some soft searches such as the eligibility checker here on MSE to get an indication as to what you might get accepted for.

Potential lenders assess the risk factor when offering credit and deciding what rate to offer.

Certainly in the first few months after taking on a big new commitment in a mortgage and moving house / changing electoral roll etc these items can have a big impact on a person's ability to get credit or the rates they may be accepted.

Very difficult to advise whether you'd have more chance one on your own or jointly, as it will depend on your incomes, your current level of debts and commitments, your credit history etc.