M&S Loan - no instant decision - should I try elsewhere

troubleonline

Put a deposit on a car last yesterday and applied for an M&S loan online last night expecting an instant decision but at end of process I got a message saying 3-5 days to process. I've just called and they said it will have been referred to an underwriters and that is actually them taking around a week to process application. Not sure how much longer to get funds.

Apparently they are having a huge backlog of applications - prob because they have the best rates - and advisor said it wont even be with the underwriters yet.

I don't have a particular concern about being accepted as I have an excellent credit rating and we have plenty available income to afford the monthly repayments. (I know that credit score doesn't always factor and they might offer a different rate in which case I may not take it).

How risky am I in quickly running another application with Sainsburys Bank to see if they give me an instant decision and cancel the M&S application? Maybe even doing by phone with them

Am now regretting not going with Sainsburys bank who I had last car loan with about 3 years ago as I prob would have got an instant decision. Difference in advertised rate was 0.1% so pretty negligible but my default is always to go with decent lowest rate. Now I see M&S Bank get pretty crappy reviews online to boot.........

Willing2Learn

There is no harm in applying to Sainsbury too. It'll just mean an extra 'hard' search being recorded on your credit file.

Good luck!!

troubleonline

I decided to go for it and did another application with sainsbury’s bank and got it approved instantly online and funds were in my account within an hour. Did a BACS to the dealership and get car tomorrow evening. Happy days!

I suspect cancelling the M&S application will not be easy given what they said on the phone - ago least not until it gets to the underwriters or further into their system. I haven't even had an acknowledgement of the application after nearly 24 hours so have no reference number. If I let it run and they offer at 2.9% as quoted I could put in a price promise request with Sainsburys and get the interest in the loan reduced from 3% to 2.8% but we are talking probably about £1 a month so may not bother since I am happy with rate and service. (I called before to get advice on whether to do online or by phone and advisor said with an online application you can usually do an electronic signature/acceptance so went for that and indeed it was the case).

Not inclined to recommend M&S though - seem swamped and disorganised.