Need £5,000 short term, option?

[paulguitar]

Hopefully a financial boffin can help with this:

I would like to access about £5000 for a very short amount of time, probably no more than a month. What is the cheapest way to do this? As fas I can see, I have the option of taking out a personal loan and paying it back, I think in that case I would incur something like 2 months interest as a penalty, or the alternative is to try to do something on an interest free credit card, I think that would incur a fee of 2.9%.


Am I in the right ballpark here, or are there other options?

Thanks in advance everyone.

[silentbrown]

Arrange an overdraft on your current account?

As it seems you're taking cash out, the "interest free" aspect of a Credit card isn't relevant as they're only interest free for purchases, not cash advances. Also with cash advance you pay interest from day one, IIRC.

[xjay1337]

Zopa offer loans with no early repayment charges. That may be worth a look.

[Jimmy Recard]

silentbrown said:

Arrange an overdraft on your current account?

As it seems you're taking cash out, the "interest free" aspect of a Credit card isn't relevant as they're only interest free for purchases, not cash advances. Also with cash advance you pay interest from day one, IIRC.

There are cards that do exactly what he wants, for a small fee.

Look up the latest deals on Money Saving Expert or similar

[silentbrown]

Jimmy Recard said:

There are cards that do exactly what he wants, for a small fee.

Look up the latest deals on Money Saving Expert or similar

Link to one? I looked there can only see cards with 0% on purchases.

[Jimmy Recard]

silentbrown said:

Jimmy Recard said:

There are cards that do exactly what he wants, for a small fee.

Look up the latest deals on Money Saving Expert or similar

Link to one? I looked there can only see cards with 0% on purchases.

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/credit-cards/money-transfer/

There is the one off fee, but plenty have a long interest-free period. I know he only needs a month but it could be suitable, depending on the costs of other ways of doing it

[wiggy001]

silentbrown said:

Jimmy Recard said:

There are cards that do exactly what he wants, for a small fee.

Look up the latest deals on Money Saving Expert or similar

Link to one? I looked there can only see cards with 0% on purchases.

Lookup the MBNA Money Transfer card - 0% for 32 months with a 2.99% fee.

I used similar to fund a car purchase before - much cheaper than any loan or finance available at the time.

[p1stonhead]

HSBC personal loans allow free of charge overpayments.

Its 6.1% up to £7k and 3.3% thereafter up to £15k where it goes to 7.6%

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/loans/products/personal/?ci...

[paulguitar]

Thanks for your input everyone.

So, if I used a cash advance card with the 3% fee, the cost to me on £5,000 would be £150 upfront.

Looks like the HSBC loan would be the best bet, I can repay only paying one month of interest, as I understand it.

[Whistle]

I recently loaned £20k off Nation wide at 3.9% over 4 years. Paid them back in month 5 and only got charged the the remaining interest for month 5.

[silentbrown]

wiggy001 said:

Lookup the MBNA Money Transfer card - 0% for 32 months with a 2.99% fee.

I used similar to fund a car purchase before - much cheaper than any loan or finance available at the time.

Cheers - didn't know about those. Still an expensive way of borrowing for just 30 days though.

[wiggy001]

silentbrown said:

wiggy001 said:

Lookup the MBNA Money Transfer card - 0% for 32 months with a 2.99% fee.

I used similar to fund a car purchase before - much cheaper than any loan or finance available at the time.

Cheers - didn't know about those. Still an expensive way of borrowing for just 30 days though.

Absolutely. It was a cheap way for me to borrow £10k over a year though when Tesco were offering a similar deal with a 0.89% fee. MBNA was just the first example I found but might be worth a look to see if others are offering similar.

[Henzy]

paulguitar said:

I would like to access about £5000 for a very short amount of time, probably no more than a month.

You could get a personal loan and then formally cancel.

moneyadviceservice.org.uk said:

You have a 14-day cooling-off period from either the date the loan agreement is signed or when you receive a copy of the agreement, whichever is later. If you cancel, you have up to 30 days to repay the money.

[peterperkins]

Henzy said:

moneyadviceservice.org.uk said:

You have a 14-day cooling-off period from either the date the loan agreement is signed or when you receive a copy of the agreement, whichever is later. If you cancel, you have up to 30 days to repay the money.

Hmm sneaky.. Is there a penalty or interest to pay on that month?

[Henzy]

peterperkins said:

Hmm sneaky.. Is there a penalty or interest to pay on that month?

Good question, and one I don't know the answer too... As its a cooling off period I'd think not but don't know.

[Henzy]

It would seem you do but could still work in your favour?


You can only be charged interest for the period you had the credit - any additional fees have to be refunded.

[paulguitar]

Henzy said:

It would seem you do but could still work in your favour?


You can only be charged interest for the period you had the credit - any additional fees have to be refunded.

Thanks, this seems like a fine plan

[Vanordinaire]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I'm in a similar position although I need about £15k for 4 months. Don't mind paying for it but it's a hassle trying to arrange a loan when I've currently got zero income. Was thinking of maxing out my existing credit cards (3 cards, zero balance, £18k limit), then transferring the balance to a new, 0% card.
Does that make sense?

[Jimmy Recard]

wiggy001 said:

Absolutely. It was a cheap way for me to borrow £10k over a year though when Tesco were offering a similar deal with a 0.89% fee. MBNA was just the first example I found but might be worth a look to see if others are offering similar.

I have to say, it doesn't look like any of the deals on those cards are as good as they were. I got a similar fee from Virgin Money, interest-free for 40 months and I was tripping over great deals at the time. They all look more expensive now and there aren't that many.

Shame, as although I can't see myself needing one again, it was nice to know that option was there if I needed it!

[CzechItOut]

Just out of interest and never having ever use one, how much would a pawn broker charge in interest on a short term loan of say £5k?