Borrowing
Buy now, pay later is credit, and it is starting to show
Deferred payment products sit outside older consumer credit rules in many places, and that is changing.
Borrowing
Loans, overdrafts, affordability checks and how a lending decision is made.
21 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 1 of 2
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 other.
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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.
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
Representative APR means most applicants do not get it
The advertised rate is a threshold a minority of successful applicants must receive, not an offer to you.
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
A longer term lowers the payment and raises the total
Stretching a loan is the most common way people make borrowing affordable, and the arithmetic of what it costs is rarely shown.
Borrowing
What happens when an application goes to manual underwriting
Most decisions are automatic. When one is referred to a person, different evidence matters and the outcome is genuinely open.
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.
Borrowing
Car finance agreements are three different products in similar brochures
Hire purchase, conditional sale and balloon-payment contracts differ in who owns the vehicle and what happens at the end.