try elsewhere or stuck

memaggie2

I enqired about a loan (santander ) and was accepted , i have the paperwork and just need to return it in order to get the money BUT
when i enquired they were advertising a 3.1% interest rate which sounded fine
they put me on hold while they checked my credit rating ( which was excellent )
then came back with an interest rate 0f 9.9% which is not fine at all.

now i know that the application will have adversely affected my credit rating so have i got to accept this or is it worth trying elsewhere before i commit myself

any suggestions of who else i could ask about this would also be welcome

Money_Rollercoaster

That headline rate of 3.1% is not a guaranteed rate and was always going to be subject to status. It might also be that you're not a good fit for Santander's preferred customer profile and you got offered a less than stellar rate as a result.


At present, you've not taken on credit, just made an application. You might use the MSE eligibility tool to look at other options and your and chance one more application. It could be that someone like Sainsbury's might be a better bet.


However, it's also worth thinking now how much you actually need a loan. 9.9% is a comparatively high rate and if you're looking at debt consolidation, it could be that with some other jiggling and budgeting you could do away with the need for a loan. Just a thought.

ashp_2

They only have to give a certain amount of customers the advertised rate. There's nothing to stop any other lender doing exactly the same unfortunatly. You may or may not get a better rate elsewhere.

Chappaz

It might be worth pulling your credit file just to check that the hard search is on there. They may have only ran a soft search first (which other lenders can't see) and will then do a hard search when the loan is formally agreed.

It's probably unlikely, truth be told, but worth checking anyway just to be sure, as Santander do have "decision in principle" arrangements where they can do this for things like mortgages, albeit online only:

http://www.santander.co.uk/info/decisioninprinciple

But as mentioned above, there's nothing stopping other lenders doing this as well, and if Santander did it, I'd say it's more likely than not that others will too, although they won't necessarily up the interest rate that high.

You should check the terms and conditions though, because if you've already agreed to anything, you may be obligated to complete the application once accepted. It's not necessarily the case that you can just walk away because you haven't returned the paperwork yet.