Loan offer has interest rate much higher than advertised

recci

I need to get some repair work done on my home and I applied for loan that said I was Guaranteed to be accepted at a rate of 6%. But the offer has came in way higher than that amount, its 13.5%. There is no way I am accepting the loan at that rate. I just got an email saying go to this URL and sign the agreement but there is no option to reject it.

Also I kinda need to get this work done soon and had been get quotes from builders etc but now that I have this hard search on my account this will likely effect me applying for a loan with other companies. 

Not sure what to do now?

DullGreyGuy

recci said:

I need to get some repair work done on my home and I applied for loan that said I was Guaranteed to be accepted at a rate of 6%. But the offer has came in way higher than that amount, its 13.5%. There is no way I am accepting the loan at that rate. I just got an email saying go to this URL and sign the agreement but there is no option to reject it.

Also I kinda need to get this work done soon and had been get quotes from builders etc but now that I have this hard search on my account this will likely effect me applying for a loan with other companies. 

Not sure what to do now?

Who "guaranteed" the rate?

Everyone's guarantee I've seen to date is not a guarantee at all as they always say its subject to final checks.

Taking a guess it was someone like ClearScore, did you actually click through to apply or go direct to the lenders website and apply that way instead? Clearscore for me are an oddity as clicking through can give different outcomes than direct applications. 

Simply not signing the agreement is how you reject their offer. 

recci

It was top of a list of loan offers on my credit karma account. I clicked through from that site. 

What do I do now in terms off applying to a different company? Do I wait, do i try a lesser amount? 

This has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works for me.

TheSpectator

'Guaranteed acceptance' rarely means the APR you get is guaranteed but the granting of the loan itself and the APR will be subject to how they perceive your credit history.

Who was the lender? According to MSE 'best buys' TSB are offering decent rates but again you mqy not get the headline rate. I would try one more application as you don't want to rack up hard searches

recci

It was Santander, TSB are actually who I bank with and they are not even in the list for me.

DullGreyGuy

Despite marketing materials no one truly guarantees that you will be accepted let alone get the rate promised. For me ClearScore has a vastly better success rate than any other similar service (though haven't used Credit Karna) to the extent that on a previous loan CS's APR was considerably below that than the lender's own soft check tool and was actually the rate offered after applying via CS. 


If you are going to apply again I would use a different tool, in principle a lender that has its own soft search option is the most likely to give the most accurate indication (noting the above about CS). 

Multiple hard searches is likely to influence future lenders decisions, a single hard search you may be able to get away with from all but the pickiest lenders but in principle it could bump the APR if not change the decision on if to lend or not. 

TheSpectator

recci said:

It was Santander, TSB are actually who I bank with and they are not even in the list for me.

I would suggeat using TSB's own eligibility checker then.