Early repayment of personal loan in bank branch saved me over £100!

DebtFreeDesired

Hi all - this is my first post, so be gentle!

I have a personal loan from LloydsTSB - taken out 2 years ago for 5 years. Can now thankfully repay it early.

I phoned them to find out how much it would be to repay it now. The first question they asked me was could they re-negotiate it on better terms for me?! (perhaps anyone with a personal loan should try this, even if they have no intention of paying it off!). They then gave me a total balance figure to close the loan in the next 30 days of £9,500 and confirmed it in writing. This includes £185 for "early settlement fee". I gather this is calculated as being 60 days interest penalty for early repayment. They asked me to send them a cheque for £9,500 in the post.

I went into my nearest Lloyds TSB branch to pay it off, to avoid postage etc. A helpful bank assistant there, totally unprompted, suggested I repay £9,200 today, and then repay the balance next week. This means the 60 day interest penalty is calculated on the balance of £300 and not the whole £9,500.

This has saved me over £100 doing it this way!!

If anyone else is contemplating paying off a LloydsTSB personal loan early, I thought this might be of interest.

All the best. :j

robnye

well done....... nice bit of customer service there.....

asandwhen

This is what happened to me too - saved me £80 :T

Robert_Sterling_3

Paradoxically although I find this unbelievable I do believe it.

Number_6_3

Nice one :T

I remember taking out a Egg Loan a few years back...I borrowed a lot more than I needed to get a better rate of interest. I sent them a cheque back for the extra before the money had even cleared in my bank...saved me a packet

R

Robert_Sterling_3

A brilliant idea ( other things being equal. i.e. Not so brilliant if you could get an even better rate elsewhere rather than getting Egg to shell out the money ).

Number_6_3

At the time (about 6/7 years ago) nothing could touch the egg rate (they are not so good now) I guess it may work with other lenders assuming the offer different rates of borrowing, and most importantly allow overpayments with no charges

R