Personal loan £20k <3%

pioneer2000

pioneer2000

pioneer2000

Soldato
Joined
20 Jun 2004
Posts
5,957
Location
Essex
Anyone got any suggestions as to the best bank/supermarket etc to approach for such a loan?

Ideally with the ability to repay early without fees.

Currently have Sainsburys / M&S / Tesco / John Lewis as the front runners.
 
I constantly get spammed by hsbc but they seem to offer competitive rates and have some early repayment packages.
 
can't advise on a specific bank but i'd advise going into a branch rather than doing an online application. couple of years back we were looking at a personal loan of a few k and checked all the usuals, actually got a decent quote back (can't remember who from) with nice low apr. happened to be in our local branch one day and mentioned it to the cashier, she made me an appointment and they basically tailored the loan to what I wanted (early replayement without fees was one specific I also wanted) and the apr was the same as the online quote.

apologies if this 'teaching your granny to suck eggs' - you may well already be planning to do this but thought it worth mentioning.
 
I used Cahoot that gave me 2.8% on a Santander loan.

Use money saving expert etc.
 
I got "accepted" for a Sainsbury's loan online for 3.2% a while back, everything confirmed and good to go. When the paperwork arrived to sign they had about 6 pages of terms in size 10 font where they increased the rate to over 6% somewhere in the middle of the contract. Went with Zopa in the end as they offered one just a fraction above their advertised rate, paid it off 6 months early and saved a few quid in interest (wouldn't have bothered but possibly looking at a mortgage in 6-12months and wanted all debts cleared early)
 
Apone70 said:
I got a zopa loan for my car, they had the best rates and can make extra payments as and when
Click to expand...

I was about to post the same. I borrowed £25k from Zopa over 60 months for 3.4% a few years ago. It's all online as you'd expect so you can see how much is remaining, how much if you paid it off in one go etc. I also had a previous loan for £5k for my first car but that was up at 5.8%. Not as good a rate, but again, had absolutely no issues with them. Found them through doing a loan comparison through money supermarket i think
 
The rate you get depends on the lender and more so your credit rating. If you have a good credit rating you get fast access to the lowest rates. We used John Lewis, applied on line, approved pretty much instantly and got the funds very quickly afterwards, from memory it was 2.4% but recently rates have risen for new loans a bit.
 
I don't know whether they are still offering it but about six months ago M&S Bank were offering 2.9% for £20k over 7 years. There was a one month interest repayment penalty (which is actually quite low). One trick is to find a loan with a very low interest rate if you take it out over a long term and then pay it back early.

For example if you need a loan over 3 years then check whether the interest rate is lower if you take it out over 7 years. If it is, and if the repayment penalty is low, then take the loan out for 7 years but pay it back early.

Sometimes you can also get lower rates by taking out more money than you need and pay that back early. So play around with their loan repayment calculator and see what results in the lowest overall repayment amount over the term you need.

EDIT: But be strict with yourself and make sure you do pay it back early.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom