Switching Loans
Discussion
I've got a 6.8% personal loan, not a great rate I know but the amount covered is relatively low and it marginally beat out dealer finance at the time we bought a car. I'd just moved house at the time, so was a bit concerned that the electoral roll wasn't updated and was probably hampering my eligibility a bit.
No concerns with making repayments etc, it's a low proportion of our disposable income and I could probably clear all of it if I drained some "pots" I just prefer to keep cash available for the next half year or so as the missus is on maternity and we've frankly got no idea when her money will dry up
That said, paying interest is indeed a mugs game and today I received an e-mail from clearscore saying I was pre-approved and 100% guaranteed to get a 4.8% loan from Zopa that would cover the remaining balance of my existing loan... so it's got me thinking about an opportunity to save a few quid.
Question 1: Are Zopa legit? Seems they're one of these P2P lending companies, does that come with any concerns? I want the freedom to be able to overpay and pay off the debt at a time of my choosing. Obviously I would check this before applying but always appreciate PH input.
2: Is this a done thing? "Refinancing" an existing loan? Any concerns with my credit file or falling foul of an unexpected fee etc? I'll be requesting a settlement fee on Monday so that should tell me of any hidden costs I suppose.
3: Does a mechanism exist where I could go to my existing provider, tell them my intentions and see if they're willing to reneg on the existing loan to "price match" and save everybody some aggro?
Appreciate any thoughts, if it's better to stay as we are - it's no real drama, just a few less beer tokens per week to play with.
No concerns with making repayments etc, it's a low proportion of our disposable income and I could probably clear all of it if I drained some "pots" I just prefer to keep cash available for the next half year or so as the missus is on maternity and we've frankly got no idea when her money will dry up
That said, paying interest is indeed a mugs game and today I received an e-mail from clearscore saying I was pre-approved and 100% guaranteed to get a 4.8% loan from Zopa that would cover the remaining balance of my existing loan... so it's got me thinking about an opportunity to save a few quid.
Question 1: Are Zopa legit? Seems they're one of these P2P lending companies, does that come with any concerns? I want the freedom to be able to overpay and pay off the debt at a time of my choosing. Obviously I would check this before applying but always appreciate PH input.
2: Is this a done thing? "Refinancing" an existing loan? Any concerns with my credit file or falling foul of an unexpected fee etc? I'll be requesting a settlement fee on Monday so that should tell me of any hidden costs I suppose.
3: Does a mechanism exist where I could go to my existing provider, tell them my intentions and see if they're willing to reneg on the existing loan to "price match" and save everybody some aggro?
Appreciate any thoughts, if it's better to stay as we are - it's no real drama, just a few less beer tokens per week to play with.
Butter Face said:
I’ve used Zopa before, no issues.
Tbh it depends on how much cash you’re borrowing, the difference between 6.8 and 4.9 on a small balance isn’t worth sweating about, you need to work out the sums.
Cheers for that, yeah worked it out and there's not much in it to be honest. I'm going to ring for my settlement figure today anyway and if I get an opportunity to talk to somebody at the current lender, I'm going to see if they have a mechanism available to them in which the current rate can be renegotiated (a price match of sorts), if not... I might just leave it.Tbh it depends on how much cash you’re borrowing, the difference between 6.8 and 4.9 on a small balance isn’t worth sweating about, you need to work out the sums.
Just to close this one off, I phoned my bank and they said they had no mechanism to renege an existing loan... fair enough, requested my settlement figure and got on with it.
I then started poking around on the Clearscore "offers" page, and realised that if I dropped the loan amount a bit - I fell into another threshold and then got a 100% offer of a 2.9% loan... that's more like it!
With that in mind, I've applied and succeeded for that - will pay off my old 6.9% loan with that and pull the rest that I need from my ISA.
Still doesn't add up to much tbf, but it helps me sleep at night knowing I'm now lending at a "competitive" rate.
I then started poking around on the Clearscore "offers" page, and realised that if I dropped the loan amount a bit - I fell into another threshold and then got a 100% offer of a 2.9% loan... that's more like it!
With that in mind, I've applied and succeeded for that - will pay off my old 6.9% loan with that and pull the rest that I need from my ISA.
Still doesn't add up to much tbf, but it helps me sleep at night knowing I'm now lending at a "competitive" rate.
Gassing Station | Finance | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff