16.9 apr loan?

Ben8282

shiwen55 wrote: »

I was just on the phone with Halifax and they said keep an eye on your credit score, once improved (?) say after 6 months, then call Halifax again and ask to refinance the loan and reduce APR


PS: It's Barclays fault can't find me, same address on all three credit agencies, checked

shiwen55 wrote: »

I tried Barclays, but their excuse was they couldn't find my address and turned me down !! That's another search on file.

shiwen55 wrote: »

Barclays has recorded a search that lowered my score, also I was still within my 6 months of opening my Costco Amex. I checked and Experian score was fair, that's why I think I have been offered this rate, but I'm happy, if Halifax is promising to reduce APR later, then it's a matter of waiting a bit more until my score has gone up again. At least they didn't offer me their 24 something APR !!
Thank you

Isn't this a bit contradictory? How can Barclays have recorded a search on the credit files of somebody that they couldn't find?
I think you have been misinformed by Halifax. When you take out a loan the interest rate is fixed for the period of the loan. I have never heard of the interest rate being reduced six months after the loan has been taken out because the borrowers credit score has improved!
Although the credit score generated by the CRA's is meaningless, the fact that Experian only rate your credit as fair would imply that everything on your credit files is not exactly as it should be. Some missed or late payments perhaps? A very high credit utilisation on your cards? Large increasing balances and minimum payments?
Do you already have a loan? You can't realistically expect to get a good rate on a second loan if you already have one.
If none of the above applies, perhaps you could look at the information contained in your credit files and suggest why your credit is only rated as fair.

enthusiasticsaver

The rate of interest you are offered on a loan depends on lots of different things.

The amount of debt you already have outstanding in proportion to the limits of the cards/loans you already hold. The amount of debt to your income and your credit history.

How long you have lived in your current address, whether you are registered on the electoral roll and how long you have worked for your current employer.

Whether you have any financial associations like a joint account with someone with a bad credit history. If you have defaults or late payments that will affect the rate as will the amount you want to borrow and what it is for.


If you do not fit the banks profile for the type of borrower they are looking for or they have already met targets and are not pushing unsecured lending.


Lots of variables but from your conversation with Halifax that indicates you have something they don't like on your credit file. Check Noddle. I would certainly not pay 16.9% interest on something that is not urgent. £4000 sounds a lot to have a wall taken down. Have you got a number of quotes from builders and can it wait 6 months? They will not reduce the rate once the loan is offered.

shiwen55

Okay, I'm dodgy !! I trust what I heard (Halifax) that's it, you guys don't need to generalise whoever comes on MSE is clueless, thank you

I gave a bit of information about my file, now you think you can say whatever you want?

missile

Chill dude, these people are only trying to help you :money:

jonesMUFCforever

shiwen55 wrote: »

£4000 over 48 months, I was looking for 6 etc. APR. I know big loans have lesser APRs

Well I have the answer for you - you have not applied for a big enough loan to get single digit percentage rate.

Those rates are normally reserved for £5k or even £7.5k

If you knew that bigger loans had lesser APR's why did you apply for a lower amount?

shiwen55

missile wrote: »

Chill dude, these people are only trying to help you :money:

I meant last two posts with their patronizing tone !!

shiwen55

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Well I have the answer for you - you have not applied for a big enough loan to get single digit percentage rate.

Those rates are normally reserved for £5k or even £7.5k

If you knew that bigger loans had lesser APR's why did you apply for a lower amount?

3-4 APR for loans above or around £7000 and around 6 APR for less. I said I was looking for 6 APR, please read.


I didn't need that much and I wouldn't put myself in bigger debt because of lower APR


Thank you

Gaz83

shiwen55 wrote: »

3-4 APR for loans above or around £7000 and around 6 APR for less. I said I was looking for 6 APR, please read.


I didn't need that much and I wouldn't put myself in bigger debt because of lower APR


Thank you

You just borrow more and then immediately overpay by the excess.

Also: "3-4 APR for loans above or around £7000 and around 6 APR for less" - has a lender told you that?

Jami74

shiwen55 wrote: »

First I tried Barclays and couple of weeks later Halifax meantime Barclays has recorded a search that lowered my score, also I was still within my 6 months of opening my Costco Amex. I checked and Experian score was fair

Don't worry too much about the score. I applied for three loans and then a credit card all within the space of three weeks and got accepted for all (obviously took the loan with the best APR of 6.9). Then, four months later applied for another (big name) credit card and a current account and got accepted. I don't think my score has ever been better than 'Fair'.

Obviously it is different for everybody, but I think income, current debt and payment history play a bigger factor than score

Gaz83 wrote: »

You just borrow more and then immediately overpay by the excess.

This ^^

This is a cool calculator which works out how much interest you'll pay and how it reduces if you overpay:

https://www.affordablecfo.com/Loan_calculator_with_extra_payments.xlt

If you play about with it you can see that borrowing £5000 at 10.9% over 4 years would cost you about an extra £15 a month, but if you made an extra payment of £1000 in the second month it would reduce the amount of interest you'd have to pay by about half and shorten your loan length by nearly a year. Or maybe you could keep the loan length and just reduce the monthly payments.

I know it might be too late if you've already accepted the loan OP but posting it anyway as that calculator has helped me so much.

Clive_Woody

As mentioned, many people apply for a loan for a higher amount (£) to get a lower APR (%) - they then immediately make a big over repayment on the loan to reduce the balance owed.

It might be too late now to try this but you can always make overpayments to reduce how much interest you pay.