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Price Match Loan

Want low rates?
You’ve met your match.

If you’ve found a loan with a better rate anywhere else,
we’re ready to match it—down to as low as 6.9% APR.

As a member of The Money Co-op, you can count on fair,
transparent lending with no hidden fees.

Detail

Price Match Loan Summary

APR

We will price match down to 6.9% APR

Loan amounts

From £50 to £15,000

Term of loan

Maximum term of loan – 5 years.

How it works

Our ‘Price Match Loan’ allows members who have received a loan offer from another lender to access the same loan rate with us, down to a minimum APR of 6.9%. Members must provide a copy of the loan offer as part of the application process.

Price Match loans are subject to our lending policy and affordability checks. This involves us running a credit check which will leave a mark on your credit file.

Also we typically conduct affordability assessments via Open Banking. (Link to What is Open Banking in Main FAQ)

As a credit union member, you’ll also build up savings as you repay your loan. The minimum amount is £10/month, which will be taken from your repayments.

Can I overpay or repay my loan early and are there any penalties if I do?

Yes, you can overpay or repay your loan early at any time and there are no charges for doing so aside from the interest that has accrued against the outstanding loan balance since your last repayment.  The interest is calculated and applied daily at the rate you agreed to when you took out the loan.

To make an ad hoc overpayment, simply contact us for payment details and let us know when you have made a payment which you want to be applied to your loan. This will reduce the amount of interest owing overall.

In order to repay in full early, please contact us and explain that you would like a settlement figure to repay your loan early.  This will stop new interest being applied to your loan for 7 days to give you a set figure that you need to pay to clear the balance.  If you do not pay the loan off within the week, we will reset the interest and leave the account running as it was, therefore if you need longer than 7 days to repay you should get back in touch and request a new settlement figure.

Full details of how to make your payment will be provided along with your settlement figure.

Can I top up my loan and how often?

Yes, you can apply to top up your loan at any time from 3 months after your original loan was granted.  However, if you last topped less than 6 months after the loan before we ask you to wait at least 6 months until your next top up.   We call this the 3 & 6 rule and it is intended to prevent repeated and frequent top ups.

Top-ups are subject to a full assessment though we would typically conduct a “soft” credit search. If you are successful with your top up application, your new loan will be rolled together with your existing one creating one larger loan.

Where a top up involves a change of product, the rate of interest may change on the whole loan.  The rate of interest for the new combined loan will be provided at the point of application.

Can I access my savings while I have a loan?

No.  A standard condition of borrowing from the credit union is that your Regular Savings are tied in while your loan balance exceeds your Regular Savings balance.  These savings act as security should you fail to repay your loan.

Savings that are tied to your loan will become available to withdraw when your loan balance falls below your Regular Savings balance.  Only the difference between your loan balance and savings balance will be available to withdraw at any one time.

We can consider requests to withdraw Regular Savings which are tied to a loan in circumstances of financial hardship.

What happens if I miss a loan payment or have trouble making my repayments?

If you are having difficulty keeping up with your payments, the best thing to do is to contact us to explain your circumstances and we will do everything we can to support you.  This might involve, for example, reducing or stopping your payments for a period of time, or freezing interest.   When we receive requests for support in these circumstances we may ask for some evidence to demonstrate the difficulties you are facing.

Where you can’t keep up with the agreed repayments we will report this to credit reference agencies.  This may have an impact on your ability to obtain credit from elsewhere.

If you stop making your payments to us but don’t talk to us about why then we will chase you to establish contact and a plan to repay the debt.  If we are unable to get back in touch with you and establish a repayment plan, we may need to take legal action to recover our funds which we would rather not do. Talking to our team about a sustainable repayment plan is always the best option.

Additional Information

For additional information about your rights and protections in relation to this loan and your wider credit union membership, please see the Membership Terms & Conditions.