Borrowing
Affordability assessment is not the same as a credit check
Lenders ask two separate questions: whether you repay debts, and whether you can afford this one. Passing one does not pass the…
Prisha Kalra
Contributing writer, The Credit Question
Prisha covers borrowing and affordability assessment.
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11 articles
Borrowing
Applying for credit leaves a mark, and clustering makes it worse
Each application creates a search. Several in a short period reads as pressure, whatever the reason.
Scores & Files
A thin file reads as an unknown, not as a clean one
Never borrowing does not produce a perfect record. It produces no record, and models cannot score an absence.
Borrowing
APR is a comparison tool, not the amount you pay
The annual percentage rate exists so two loans can be compared on one number. It is not the interest you will hand over.
Borrowing
Secured and unsecured borrowing fail differently
The difference is not the interest rate. It is what the lender can take when the payments stop.
Borrowing
Overdrafts quietly became an expensive way to borrow
An arranged overdraft feels like part of the account rather than a loan, which is exactly why it costs people so much.
Borrowing
Fixed and variable rates move risk between you and the lender
Choosing between them is not a bet on rates so much as a decision about who absorbs the surprise.
Borrowing
Early repayment charges and the cost of clearing a loan sooner
Paying a debt off early can attract a charge, and the rules for calculating it are the part nobody reads until it matters.
Scores & Files
Open banking data now sits beside the credit file
Lenders increasingly ask to read your bank transactions directly, which exposes things a credit file was never designed to reveal.
Borrowing
High-cost short-term credit is priced by the day
Very small loans over very short periods produce annual percentage figures that look absurd, and the daily arithmetic is the part…
Borrowing
When a lender offers less than you asked for
A counter-offer is a partial acceptance, and it tells you something specific about which constraint the assessment ran into.