Need a flexible repayment loan fast - anything better than 10.4%

Tristanod

Hi,

I took out a personal loan through Natwest (my own bank) on wednesday to buy a new car. I wanted a flexible loan, so that I could pay off lump sums when I got commission payments, but set it up over 5 years to give me the lowest monthly payments possible.

Although it's not advertised as a flexible loan (and the branch staff weren't certain it was) the lending centre in Manchester twice confirmed I could make regular additional payments at no charge.

The loan I got was £11,500 over 5 years at 10.4%.

This struck me as a bit high. They told me I had 2 weeks in which I could cancel, so I now have until wednesday 7th May to find a better deal and get funds in place to repay Natwest if I can.

All I've found so far is Egg at 9.9%.

Does anyone know of any other flexible deals out there I could look at?

Thanks

Tristan

Kavanne

Those deals might be advertised at typical 9.9% but the APR might increase based on the perceived risk you are for the company, so watch out for APR changes after a full application.

CLAPTON

You say that they told you can overpay... what do the T&Cs actually say about this?
You say you can cancel wihtin 14 days , what do the T&Cs say about this?
Does your contract specify the APR and the payment terms?
I trust you are not going to sign a five year contract without reading the T&Cs properly?

jonesMUFCforever

Is there any cooling off period if OP signed the agreement on bank premises rather than have it sent to his address?

Tristanod

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Is there any cooling off period if OP signed the agreement on bank premises rather than have it sent to his address?

I think that's what the 14 days are for.

It was the bank itself that phoned the lending centre to check the lump sum repayment thing, and also put me on the line to them. I spoke to 2 people there that confirmed I can make lump sum payments on a regular basis.

Anyway, apart from Egg does anyone know of any other alternatives?

jonesMUFCforever

When I used to do loans we had 2 types of CCA agreements.
This was in the days of handwritten ones filling in the boxes etc so things might have changed.
The ones signed in branch offered no cooling off period,
the ones signed off bank premises did but I remember that we used to file those for 14 days and not open the loan in case the customers wanted to cancel.

As I say things might have changed now - its up to OP to find out the situation as it is today.

Tristanod

I've decided to go with the Egg one. Although the rate isn't much lower I've realised that Egg don't front-load interest, so making lump sum reductions will save me more money than doing so with Natwest (who would still charge me the same interest overall!)

Applied for Egg but was rejected. I've appealed it so should hear back from them in the next 3 days. I'm hoping it's the fact that a recent loan application will currently be showing on my credit record. I've explained why this is and can go into more detail when they call me.

Oh, and it turns out I have until the 3rd June to repay Natwest with no interest. Apparently the 14 day thing is a cancellation whereas the 3rd June deadline is a repayment before first installment. Different technically but the same in practice.

Fingers crossed!