Furious about Santander loan!

[Banksy13]

Having used a comparison site to start things off I applied for an 8k loan from Santander last night at the advertised rate of 2.8%. Went through it all so only to be offered the loan this morning at 11.9%!! I'd never have applied at that rate, I want the money to buy a holiday caravan so it's not an essential and I can well afford the repayments. I called them and cancelled it all this morning but very cross about the impact on my credit score that this application has made.

Unfortunately the rate actually offered is dependent on your individual circumstances/credit history etc. I believe (although my information may be outdated, I worked for a bank 8 years ago) that the ‘headline’ rate is the rate that at least 50% of customers will get, but it not guaranteed. That should have been in the blurb/small print when you applied. If it wasn’t then you would have grounds for a complaint, so I’d check.

Unfortunately the rate actually offered is dependent on your individual circumstances/credit history etc. I believe (although my information may be outdated, I worked for a bank 8 years ago) that the ‘headline’ rate is the rate that at least 50% of customers will get, but it not guaranteed. That should have been in the blurb/small print when you applied. If it wasn’t then you would have grounds for a complaint, so I’d check.*

Yup, what Soy said.
The higher they view the risk, the higher the APR.

Santander are very crap when it comes to offers etc. I would never apply for anything with them again. I have an excellent credit rating and applied for a credit card with them recently, one of their long term 0% offers for a balance transfer. Went through the whole thing only to be declined at the end! I’ve never ever been declined credit in my life! I immediately checked my credit report / score wondering what on Earth had happened and my score was as good as ever. It meant I couldn’t apply for another card straight away and I had to wait to try to get something else.

A month or so later I applied for a Sainsburys one (32 months 0%) and was given it straight away with a limit of £6k!

No idea what on Earth happened with Santander!

They're a bit crap, it has to be said. A couple of years back we had a mortgage with them and wanted to remortgage with them again when the fixed rate expired. We weren't looking for any extra funding, but as the mortgage was in two parts that we wanted to consolidate, they made us start an application from scratch. I got so sick of providing the same basic information (name, address etc) multiple times at every stage of the process that I ditched the whole thing before the credit checks and remortgaged with someone else through a broker. They knew our names and addresses, we had a mortgage with them ffs!

Standard, sorry. Lenders only need to offer their advertised rate to 51% of those they accept. Your credit history isn’t good enough for them to offer you this rate.

Maybe try another lender to see if you get a better rate but I wouldn’t apply for any more than that as it can have an adverse affect on your credit file.

Santander are very crap when it comes to
offers etc.

Not really, they legally have to offer this rate to at least 51% of applicants, so it’s not like they advertise this rate and don’t give it to anyone!

Thanks for the advice everyone, applied for Sainsbury's and got the advertised 2.8%. I'm sure Santander must have had 51% info in its terms and I just didn't read it, you live and learn

The effect on your credit rating will be minimal, so no point getting cross or furious about it and it's all right in the end as you now have your cheap loan from Sainsburys.

Interestingly, I did the opposite, applied to Sainsburys, got offered a crap rate, didn't take the loan and applied to Santander instead and got the low headline rate, which was 3.9% at the time. I also have the 27 month 0% no fee credit card from them with a limit of £7.5k.