Credit Score Quiz

Take the credit score test to see how banks and lenders may consider your credit rating:

A. Registered to vote at your current address? YES=10, NO=0
B. Have at least two active credit accounts? YES=10, NO=0
C. Credit account payments up to date? YES=15, NO=0
D. Missed any payments on your credit accounts in the last 2 years? YES=0, NO=10
E. Any County Court Judgments or have been declared bankrupt? YES=0, NO=25
F. Defaulted on a credit agreement before? YES=0, NO=25
G. Applied for more than two items of credit in the last six months? YES=0, NO=5

Scorecard

90-100 - Excellent candidate for credit
70-89 - Good chance of being granted credit
50-69 - Fair - may have some problems obtaining credit
0-49 - Poor - may have considerable difficulties in obtaining credit

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Banks limiting credit cards

Two of Britain's biggest banks are looking to limit new credit cards to existing customers only.

This will potentially further limit available credit since the economic downturn with mortgages and secured/unsecured loans already impacted.

Both RBS and HSBC have credit cards which are only available to current customers. The fear is that banks are effectively holding onto cash and further restricting the economic recovery even though the Bank of England has pumped in more than £175 billion into the banking system.

The RBS group, which is majority owned by the taxpayer, has been imposing strict controls and high profit margins to rebuild it's balance sheet. People are being refused credit if they do not have an absolutely blemish free credit score.

Only time will tell, but this is a worrying trend for the consumers who are also part owners as tax payers in some of these institutions. Will the likes of Barclays, Santander, Halifax, Lloyds, Nationwide, and so on, follow this trend? Should the government intervene as ultimately, this will only impact the fragile economy and potentially any imminent election.

Where to find a bank loan

As is generally the case with most purchases, a loan is no different, you start with a need or requirement and then work out how much you want to spend. This is all part of the research stage to get the best deal for your circumstances.
With the advent of the internet, the process for finding a loan has been a little quicker and accelerated in terms of the decision making and seeing what products the market has available.
However, I would urge you to read and understand the small print, since as always, everything is in the detail i.e. if you're looking for something flexible that you can over pay without penalties then you don't really want a fixed 10 year deal with no early exit clause.
There are a great many financial products comparison websites available so this is normally a good starting point.
However, there are some great deals to be had if you go greatly to some of the banks as they tend not to deal with a middleman, so hopefully that cost is since as a saving to your premium.
With the credit crunch, many banks and lenders were shown to have been too agressive with their strategy and have ended up in trouble. Therefore, one factor you should consider is the stability of the institution or company that you do business with.
Here's a list of lenders to help start your process, click on the links of the left to go straight to their websites.
Barclays bank
HSBC bank
Lloyds bank
Royal Bank of Scotland Group
Standard Chartered bank
Co-operative Bank
The Woolwich
Northern Rock
Bradford & Bingley
Alliance & Leicester
Abbey
Halifax
Goldman Sachs
Bank Of America
Santander
BNP Paribas
Citigroup
JPMorgan Chase
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial