Eligibility for loan

Goldendolphin

I have an excellent credit score, and my affordability should be fine as I can get enough credit cards. I also have CC that are 0 balance but a couple I have small amounts on, so I'm using them but paying them off the same month, 

I've also just paid off a nationwide loan.  

My credit report in the credit club says my eligibility for loans up to 20k is 90%

Why is the checker on MSE saying I'm not eligible for any loan? There was only 5 coming up.

The reason I want to see if I can get one is to pay off a finance arrangement that has higher interest rate.  

Any ideas?

CliveOfIndia

First off, ignore your score - it's not used, nor even seen, by any lender.

Secondly, it's worth doing an eligibility check on the lender's own website, rather than a third-party aggregator.  Whilst still by no means a guarantee, they tend to give a slightly more accurate indication of your chances of being accepted, purely because they know what their own unique lending criteria are.

But the biggest issue is likely to be affordability.  If a lender gives you a loan, they have no way of forcing you to use it to repay your existing debt - you could splash out on a holiday, a new car, or blow the lot on the 3:30 at Chepstow.  For that reason, when assessing the affordability they have to take the view that the new loan would be in addition to - not instead of - your existing debt.

It's worth checking all threes of your credit reports, just to make sure there are no negative markers on there.  But it's likely that affordability is the biggest issue.

Brie

So you have £X credit available on CCs.  And you have some other finance of £XX that you want a loan to pay off.

So what you are trying to do is convince some bank that you can afford to pay the CCs, the finance AND the new loan.  So you can afford £X + £XX + £XX.  

Because even if you are only using a bit of the credit available on the CCs you might go out and book a big holiday tomorrow paying with the CCs.  And while you say you want a loan to pay off the finance you might instead blow it on the dogs, or buy a new car or anything else.  

Your best bet of getting the loan you want may be to go to the bank you have an account with as they will have a better idea of how risky it is to lend to you.

And maybe close a credit card or two.

ManyWays

Ask Nationwide?