djuk

The bank account thread got me thinking! I have a fair bit on credit cards through years of my own poor self control which although I pay off a few hundred pounds at a time Im not really making a major amount of progress on mainly because its all over the show and because its too easy to ignore.

Now cahoot do a flexible loan which in as far as I read it, you can pay anything from the minimum amount each month up to whatever money you have spare to pay off the loan quickly. So although the initial plan may be to clear the loan in 18 months it could in theory be possible to do it in say 14 months or 12 months.

Could somone possible look and clarify my thinking as I am a bit green where loans are concerned.

http://www.cahoot.co.uk/cahoot_produ...ible_loan.html

Cheers

David

douglasb

Had a quick look and it appears to be as you say. You can make higher payments if you have extra cash available. The interest rate appears to be good as well. However, you do need to be disciplined in making the payments.

That could sting a bit if you regularly make late payments.

Doug

MikT

djuk

I have a flexible loan with Cahoot and do sometimes change the amount i'm repaying. So long as you are paying at least the minimum then they aren't bothered. Usually the change in payment will be applied for the following months collection unless you are seriously organised. And i ain't that organised!

Paul

djuk

Thanks Paul, useful info. Is the change an online process (as most things are with cahoot) or is it a bit of a run around?

David

GaryCat

I have one and it's excellent. You can do direct transfers to your bank, credit cards etc. Highly recommended (despite the recent interest rate rise to 7%)

rotty

Cahoot has one major problem , as you get further and further into the loan perion they hike the rate up disproportiantely to bank of england rates , I started a year ago at 6.2 % it is now 8.7% , every .25 on base rate they up it by 0.5

HankScorpio

I've got one and put my other cards on to it.
You can also take "available" funds out of it for emergencies (or goodies!!).

I too have a self control problem but as I'm paying it off, I'm reducing the "limit" to avoid the temptation of free money....

-=Buzz=-

Same feelings here. I got a loan from Cahoot for £7k at about 5% just over a year ago. I chose them for exactly the reasons you state - it was a good rate at the time but mainly you can pay as much as you want to clear it early, whenever you want (you don't have to wait for monthly payments, you just transfer money in whenever you want to - or out of course, up to your loan limit) and there are no charges for doing that, or you can pay a "minimum" amount each month which pays it off over the agreed term.

But they do seem to have wound up the rates, and have raised it again very recently, even though the interest rates stayed the same didn't they? Just last week.

I've already paid it all back (but closing the account is a bloody nightmare but we won't go into that!) as it was only a short term thing anyway until some money came available, but I'd be feeling rather pissed off if after a year I was paying nearly 3% higher rates each month, with only the prospect of it going up!

If you want to borrow some money short term and pay it back asap then I don't see how you could go wrong here though - unless you are still as undiciplined with your spending as you say you "used to be"

MikT

Yes, its an online change.

Interesting comments re the disproportionate hiking of the interest rates - i must keep an eye on that.

Paul