We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
Have you applied for a personal loan, then been offered one with a higher APR than advertised?


We need your help. Have you applied for a personal loan and then been offered one with a higher APR than the advertised rate? What happened? How did you feel and what did you do?
Would you rather email us? Send your story to campaigns@moneysavingexpert.com.
We asked a similar question on the Forum last year about credit cards:
Have you applied for a credit card and NOT ended up with the advertised APR?
Thank you to the people who replied to that one. This time we're focussing on personal loans.
Comments
-
I predict that 49% of respondents will say "Yes, I got offered a higher rate than the advertised representative APR"OK, to answer the questions:Have you applied for a personal loan and then been offered one with a higher APR than the advertised rate? Yes, years ago when my credit history was somewhat less than ideal.What happened? I got offered a loan at a higher rateHow did you feel and what did you do? I felt happy that I'd got a loan, and I spent it on a car as planned.If I'm honest, I find this a somewhat strange post, not really sure what useful information you're trying to gather?
8 -
No No No No No
1 -
A campaign to try and get banks to accept loan requests from unsuitable people? No thanks, this is part of what caused 2007/8 crash
If you can't get the advertised rate, you're part of the 49%, consider it good you got anything as you're clearly not the profile the bank wants7 -
Deleted_User said:A campaign to try and get banks to accept loan requests from unsuitable people?
2 -
Ebe_Scrooge said:Deleted_User said:A campaign to try and get banks to accept loan requests from unsuitable people?2
-
MSE_Laura_F said:
We need your help. Have you applied for a personal loan and then been offered one with a higher APR than the advertised rate? What happened? How did you feel and what did you do?
Would you rather email us? Send your story to campaigns@moneysavingexpert.com.
We asked a similar question on the Forum last year about credit cards:
Have you applied for a credit card and NOT ended up with the advertised APR?Thank you to the people who replied to that one. This time we're focussing on personal loans.
Banks are rightly cautious about to whom they lend, and relatively sophisticated as to how they price risk for thiose that they do choose to lend to. What's there to campaign on here?
Do you want banks to stop lending to the current 49% of sucessful applicants who don't get the headline rate (in which case, why?) or is the campaign going to be to try to get the banks to lend to them at the same rate as less risky loans? In which case, please don't.6 -
While I agree with all the other posters in this thread (giving loans to higher risk applicants is a bad idea) - the only reasonable campaign I'd support is arround the hard searching behind this. It is unfortunate that Joe Bloggs would apply for a 4% loan of which he's told he's likely to be accepted, end up being offered an 8% loan but then having a hard credit search against him, limiting him to one or two more applications before he wouldn't even get a payday loan for 6 months.
Why does there need to be such mystery around lenders affordability assessments?Know what you don't0 -
Exodi said:
Why does there need to be such mystery around lenders affordability assessments?2 -
Thrugelmir said:Exodi said:
Why does there need to be such mystery around lenders affordability assessments?
"To be eligible for a 4% loan, you need to -
1) Be a home owner
2) Have an income of £30k+
3) Have no more than 3 dependents
4) Not have other finance of more than £10k (excluding mortgage)"
I'd imagine there are reasons not to do this (as otherwise they would be). They would get a stream of applicants they're happy accepting - admittedly they would lose the upselling of higher APR products to higher risk applicants.Know what you don't1 -
Exodi said:
Why does there need to be such mystery around lenders affordability assessments?2
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 350.9K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.6K Spending & Discounts
- 244K Work, Benefits & Business
- 598.8K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.9K Life & Family
- 257.2K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards