UK banks are thought
of by some as being very behind the times. It takes up to five working
days for money to clear and a lot of the people who work for British
banks still wear frock coats. (They do! Just go to Coutts in The Strand
and see for yourself.) But there are several different ways to get a
UK loan quote. This article explores some of them.
The UK banking system may be thought of by many as archaic, a bit Dickensian,
and in many ways it is. But there are several ways of going about getting
a UK loan quote. Here is a summary of the main ways, and the pros and
cons of each.
Getting the UK loan
quote from your own bank is the most obvious way. After all, your bank
will know you because of your previous banking relationship. It may
be that your bank is quite near to your or a short drive away. You may
have set up a telephone banking system with them or even an online version
of that. The people there will know you, as long as staff turnover isn't
too high.
The obviously bad
side of this is that getting a UK loan quote from your own bank means
that you will be tied in to whatever conditions the bank has as far
as its own lending is concerned. In particular, you will be charged
whatever prevailing interest rate the bank sees fit to charge. So rather
than just nip into your own branch and smile at the people who know
you it would be a better proposition in the long term if you were to
look around for a better deal elsewhere, even if it took a bit of extra
time and effort on your part.
So the next possibility
is getting a UK loan quote from someone else's bank. The high street
banks are all in competition with one another, after all. They will
try and outbid each other as much as their own coffers can afford. Look
for the best deals going. Banks nowadays are not the conservative institutions
that they used to be, and you will see posters both outside and inside
their branch offices telling you specifically the interest rates they
charge.
The downside of
this is that you will be dealing with a bank that does not know you.
Dealing with your own bank may mean that you have a certain amount of
negotiating power, especially if you have a good credit record with
them. In negotiating the loan quote with them you will not have the
leveraging ability that you would normally have with your own bank.
The next alternative
is a broker. Rather than getting a UK loan quote from a direct lender
(i.e. a bank, which is lending you their own money directly) a broker
will have access to several different lenders, for which he or she gets
a commission. This vastly increases the number of options available
to the borrower. It also massively improves the borrower's chances of
getting a loan in the first place, especially in the case of a bad credit
record. The bad side of this is lack of impartiality. You would never
know how independent the broker is, or whether or not the brokerage
is tied to a specific group of lending companies.
So the path that
gives you the most flexibility is to go the whole way and deal with
a large panel made up of brokers and direct lenders. The borrower will
have all the benefits of dealing with several brokerages that are both
independent and tied. The chances of getting that loan will also be
greatly increased in the cases where the borrower's credit history has
not been good.
This last option
will be even better if no legwork is involved. Broker panels exist online.
Borrowers can apply for a UK loan quote easily just by filling in a
simple online application form. So the UK lending system isn't so archaic
after all!
The UK Loan Quote web site
features a large panel of lenders for all types of secured loans from
£7,000 upwards. The APR starts very low, and all applications
are confidential. A borrower's credit rating is immaterial.
HTML Version
of Resource Box
The <a href="http://www.uk-loan-quote.co.uk">UK
Loan Quote</a> web site features a large panel of lenders for
all types of secured loans from £5,000 upwards. The APR starts
very low, and all applications are confidential. A borrower's credit
rating is immaterial.
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