Shop Around For Personal Loans

When you decide to take out a personal loan, one of your first thoughts may be to get some advice on the best way to get a good deal and one of the most often repeated pieces of advice is likely to be ‘shop around’, this ensures you get a good deal and know exactly what different types of loans and offers from loan companies are available. However Nationwide building society has revealed some disturbing news from mystery shoppers who were simply trying to ‘shop around’ for the best deal, loan companies seem to be reticent about providing individual quotes for customers which is likely to be frustrating for consumers simply trying to get the best deal.

When Nationwide’s mystery shoppers called some of the major financial institutions, two in five calls ended without a quote being provided that detailed the rate that would apply should a loan be taken out. It would be frustrating enough to be unable to get a quote but some of the reasons cited seem to miss the entire point of getting a quote in the first place.

One in four people refused were told they had to take out a loan at the end of the call in order to obtain a quote. Surely the point of getting a quote is to compare which company offers the best quote for you and, for some consumers at least, to see if a personal loan is going to be affordable and the right product for your needs. This is impossible to achieve if your required to act on any quote you receive. Additionally 38% of people were refused a quote due to needing to open an account first. Again, why should consumers be expected to deal with a financial institution before finding out if their products appeal to them?

Consumers may think the way to get around this is to simply apply for the loan and not take it should the quote not meet their requirements. However this is dodgy ground since every loan application is subject to credit checks that are then recorded and referred to next time your credit is checked. In fact, making a lot of applications for financial products that you don’t take or are turned down for can damage your credit history. Furthermore financial institutions should provide good customer service and one of the ways they can do that is by being up front about the costs of their products to consumers.

24/5/05