Affordable Credit

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Of course, we all need to borrow money from time to time when it's appropriate. But these days there is no need to pay through the nose.

It may be that you don’t have a bank account, you have a bad credit history or no credit history at all. Perhaps you feel that you won’t be able to get the normal low cost credit available from banks or building societies.

You may think that the only option open to you is to get a loan from doorstep lenders or buy goods from shops that don’t do credit checks. Or worse still, you might turn to illegal moneylenders for credit. All of these organisations charge extremely high rates of interest (usually in excess of 200% APR for doorstep lenders, and often 1000% or more for illegal money lenders). This means it could end up costing you many times the original amount to repay a loan.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) Borrowing Money booklet, which you can download below, lets you know how borrowing money works, the different types of borrowing, key things to think about and next steps.

Borrowing Money Booklet (pdf - 471KB)

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There are organisations in Renfrewshire such as the credit unions who may be able to lend you the money you need for much less.

The table below shows the savings you could make:

Lender	Amount of loan	Typical APR	Term of loan (weeks)	Weekly repayment	Total repayment	Total interest
Illegal lender	£300	1000%	52	£55.50	£3000.32	£2700.32
High cost credit provider	£300	246.50%	52	£17	£884	£495
Doorstep lender	£300	177%	52	£9	£495	£195
Credit Union	£300	12.68%	52	£6.15	£320	£19.80