Loan (ar) Ranger

Advantages: Fun, easy to lend, makes you feel good, can earn better interest than a bank sometimes.
Disadvantages: Can lose your money, your money is tied up - I mean it's tied up for years (or forever)

...Zopa is a company based in the UK which offers an alternative way to make money for those who want to make money, or an alternative way to get a loan for those who want to get a loan. It's a bit like ebay, but for loans. How it works ? borrowers You can apply for a loan either by creating a listing, which is effectively your chance to plead to some lenders for their hard earned cash by appealing to their kind heartedness. If you put a picture up showing you're a good looking girl, or write an amusing yet convincing argument about why you want the loan then you might get a decent rate. If your case isn't good, or you've put up an ugly male picture, then you might be offered the money but at a worse rate. In reality of course people aren't going to judge people on looks and personality when it comes to lending money, I'm sure it...

hard_to_please 10.08.2009 · Read review
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Review of Zopa Loans

Personal Loan

Advantages: Competative
Disadvantages: None

...I haven't wrote a review on Ciao for quite some time, so to get back into the swing of it, I thought I'd write about something I know quite a lot about!!!! HSBC Loans. HSBC offer several ways of borrowing money, I'm going to talk to you today about the personal loan. SOME BASIC FACTS An HSBC personal loan is a good idea if you want fixed monthly repayments and you know exactly how much you want to borrow. You can borrow any amount between £1000 and a whopping £25,000. As I said the repayments are fixed which basically means you will pay the same amount back each month for the period of the loan. Loans between £1000 and £15,000 can be taken over any period between 1 and 5 years. Loans over £15,000 can be taken over a maximum of 8 years. An HSBC personal loan can be agreed for any purpose, and if you are accepted the money can...

coolaskaha 15.05.2004 (15.03.2006) · Read review
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Review of HSBC Loans

Egg Fried Loans

Advantages: Simple application process. Very flexible personal finance. Low APR
Disadvantages: Telesales staff very pushy with the payment protection sales.

...After making a decision to buy a new car, (see my previous op!) I shopped around for the best loan deal I could find that suited me. The most obvious places, like my bank, or the place I was buying my car from did not offer anything favourable to me. What I was looking for was a loan where I could be flexible, i.e. be able to pay off lump sums when I can afford it, or increase my monthly payments or take a month off maybe now and then. It would also be nice to clear the debt without incurring penalty. So, after checking my banks website, and calling them, I searched on the net for flexible loans. Two familiar names came up, Egg, and Cahoot. The Cahoot site didn’t load for me, I am an impatient sort, so they lost my business straight away. Egg was looking good already! The Egg folk offer a number of personal...

alflavor 22.09.2001 · Read review
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Review of Egg Loans

picture loans

Advantages: service
Disadvantages: changing rules

...Service from picture is ok when you initially get in touch with them, and the promptness is okay but please think twice before getting a loan with them if you are thinking of moving to a bigger house or in fact changing anything at all about your mortgage. we have had nothing but problems with Picture since we got a secured loan from them. We have a loan for £36,000 and were more or less told that if we didnt get the payment protection (a separate £9,000 loan) we would get loan. We were due to move to a bigger house, but picture said that they wanted all the free proceeds that we got after we had repaid our original mortgage. when I pointed out to them that this wasnt in their literature or the agreement, they said that this was a new rule that they had because of the current economic situation. Even though we were moving to a more...

frewster 31.08.2008 (30.08.2008) · Read review
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Review of Picture Loans

The wacky loan-zone

Advantages: Easy to use, excellent rates, cut out the banks
Disadvantages: Some longer term rates can be less competitive for borrowers

...What's good about a Personal Loan? If all the junk mail and newspaper ads from the big banks are to be believed, a Personal Loan is a great product that everyone should have! In reality, the best thing is usually receiving the money, and buying your big-ticket item or paying off those debts... it's rarely the loan itself, but that is about to change, thanks to Zopa. Zopa (short for the "Zone of Possible Agreement") is an online exchange offering savers the chance to lend money to borrowers in a safe and straightforward way. Savers wanting to earn a higher rate of interest than they might get from a bank can pay money into Zopa and offer it to potential borrowers at rates and terms (length of time of the loan) that suit them. Borrowers can similarly be matched to these lenders. The beauty of the system is this - your...

andyev 10.04.2007 (20.04.2007) · Read review
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Review of Zopa Loans

Halifax Unsecured Loan

Advantages: No monthly repayments for first three months
Disadvantages: APR rate can get steep up to nearly 23%

...I applied for an unsecured loan with Halifax, I really wasn't sure where to start as I'm new to the loans market - I'd never considered one before but I was looking for a new flat and wanted the cash for a deposit. I think it is wise to compare loans before you choose because there are so many out there!! I used financial comparison sites to help me, one I used was Which Way To Pay (www.whichwaytopay.com) , they have a really good breakdown system of each loan. Halifax were straigh to the point and I was happy with the no repayments for the first 3 months system as that was perfect for getting settled in my new flat! Plus they are good for the fact that the monthly repayments are fixed so you don't get caught further down the line!...

xenia123 11.11.2008 · Read review
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Review of Halifax Loans

MBNA personal loans

Advantages: Ease of application
Disadvantages: Poor organisation, customer care. Incorrect outstanding balance. Incorrect default letters.

...I took out an MBNA (then VIrgin) personal loan 4 years ago. The ease of the application at that time was good and the money came promptly. I am now told that you cannot get this loan via Virgin any more. I made payments regularly for 4 years and I now have another year to run. However in July last year I had problems due to the fact that somebody else owed me money and a payment was returned by my bank (NatWest). For this I received 38 pound charge from my bank and a default charge from MBNA. This happened again the next month (already therefore 126 in charges) and I was telephoned by MBNA where I live in Greece. I explained the situation and the girl was in fact sympathetic and I made a payment by debit card then and it was decided to spread the other outstanding payment over 2 months on top of my regular payment. The lady then...

Phweeter 04.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of MBNA International Bank Loans

Cahoot flexible loans.

Advantages: I was accepted where I have been refused elsewhere.
Disadvantages: None yet really!

...I have a graduate account with barclays with a lot of debt (£3000 overdraft and £3000 personal loan) and was finding the repayments on my loan quite high, so I approached barclays with the intention of consolidating loan, overdraft and £1000 credit card with another loan with lower repayments. I am employed and have been with barclays for 7 years. Seems reasonable? Well, see my other opinion (which I will write next) about my fiasco with Barclays. No really, you would not believe it! Anyway, fuming about Barclays, I went searching for another loan provider, planning to consolidate and leave Barclays forever. I felt quite dejected when I was rejected by Lombard direct, due to a low credit score. This was due to me not having worked for long I think. Ciao was my next port of call, and I was glad it was. My attention was drawn to...

Friedegg 22.06.2003 · Read review
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Review of Cahoot Loans

bank loans

Advantages: do what you can at a bank
Disadvantages: too serious

...I have always found Barclays in general to be great to me and very helpful. I use online banking daily and find it excillent for finding out my bank balance. I used the new loan site and applied for a £500 loan, I was shocked to find I had been decliend. Yet a month before I was offered a £1000 loan. I cannot understand why they throw money at you when you do not need it, and yet when I am need a loan it is never there. I find the site itself quite user friendly but I wish they would make the site a little more fun by having competitions etc....

Lynx101 25.07.2000 · Read review
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Review of Barclays Bank Loans

Tesco Loan

Advantages: apply online
Disadvantages: weren't up front about the loan we were been offered

...We applied for a 7.4%25 loan over 10 years. We phoned their loan progress number as we had a time limit to reserve our purchase, and was told our application had sucessfully been accepted. Paperwork came through 5days later and the loan rate had gone upto 9%25 over 7 years £80 dearer a month. We complained we'd been mislead and they said it states rates may vary on application. I understood that and that would have been fair enough had we been informed we'd been accepted at a different rate / repayment period. We also said we couldn't afford the monthly repayment under the new terms and the guy just kept pushing my husband to take out the loan, he was supposed to be phoning to discuss our complaint. He was very indifferent and at times just rude! I am very disappointed with tesco as they put us through a lot of needless...

nkyher 07.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of Tesco Personal Finance Loans