personal loan interest rate?

[divegirl]

Hi, I have just applied for and been accepted for a personal loan. Online the interest rate was shown at 8.1%.... on being offered the loan I was told that the interest [after a credit check] would be 13.2%! Is this usual practice and is it worth my while to shop around before finally accepting the loan? The loan company is Alliance & Leicester.

TIA

Lisa xxx

[CheekyChops]

Yes it is usual practice - it usually says something like this:

7.1% APR Typical for unsecured loans between �7,500 and �15,000

The Typical is the important word, it means that most people won't actually get that rate, they will get a higher one. The only people who will get that rate are ones with fantastic credit scores / good jobs etc etc who probably wouldn't need a loan anyway!

[factor-fiction]

yes, this is common- lenders price the loan according to the level of risk bearing in mind that quite a lot of people do default unfortunately . shop around,.

[divegirl]

Many thanks for your answers. I was just a little worried about applying for too many as I'd heard this could affect your credit rating......but seeing as it's not something that I'm going to make a habit of [applying for loans] and I already provisionally have the A&L loan I don't suppose it will do any harm.

Lisa xxx