If You Have a Good Credit Rating, Why You Should Borrow From Zopa
I trawl the web for Zopa-related articles and found this one; entitled Nearly half of Zopa loans repaid early – all free of any penalties. Here’s an extract.
Online peer-to-peer lender Zopa today confirms that since it launched in 2005, more than 45% of the loans due to be repaid so far have been repaid early and all without the borrower paying any kind of additional fees or charges.
This is in stark contrast to the banks, as not one offers a personal loan without additional early repayment charges – often of one or two month’s additional interest.
It also goes on to quote extensively from the CEO of Zopa.
In almost all circumstances, it makes good financial sense to pay off your debts as quickly as you can, including any personal loans. But banks stand in the way of this by including early repayment penalties in their loans which put people off from doing the right thing. We think that is fundamentally wrong.
So it would seem if you have a good credit rating, Zopa will give you a loan and you feel you might be able to pay the loan off early, then Zopa is one of the best plsces to borrow the money.
But just as they will check you out, then you should do that too! The easiest way is to sign up and join their discussion pages. Can you do that with your bank?
RBS
Surely, if we paid no bonuses at the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers, then these people would walk and we’d save their salary as well.
But would that also mean they’d be able to sue for constructive dismissal, as bonuses are expected?
Lloyds Bank Bonuses and the Greek Bailout
The two main financial stories on the BBC this morning are that Lloyds Bank has taken back a lot of bonuses and that the Greek bailout is to be finalised.
I was just wondering if the bosses of Greek banks got any bonuses.
Early Repayment Rules for Student Loans
Traditionally, there has generally been a penalty for early repayment of loans, but some of the new ethical online loan companies, like Zopa use no penalty as a selling point. So do Wonka, who I wouldn’t normally describe as ethical. Even Nationwide charges an extra 30 days interest if you settle your loan early.
So for the student loan companies to charge would be going against what is now accepted as normal and back to the bad old past, where early repayment was a major part of a loan company’s profits.
As this seems to have been a Liberal Democrat idea, who are supposed to be forward thinking or at least not backward, you can read what you like into the proposal.
I don’t need to borrow money, but if I did, I would always do it from a reputable company, that had no penalty for early repayment.
Do We Get A Bonus for Losing?
The caption is on a cartoon in the Sunday Times, showing two Scottish rugby players, leaving the field in their RBS jerseys, with a banner saying RBS 6 Nations in the background.
Fred must be laughing into his Shreddies.
What Do Fred Goodwin and Manchester City Have In Common?
They’ve both lost their title in the last couple of weeks.
Where is the Wunch Now?
So Fred Goodwin has got his comeuppance, but do you ever wonder where all the others, who are part of the same wunch of bankers as Fred, who got us into the financial mess are?
I am indebted to Citywire for the details.
It is interesting reading.
Scotland on Sir Fred
Whilst searching for Scotland’s reaction to Sir Fred’s fall from grace, I found this page in the Glasgow Herald.
There are some funny bits, including one, about how you toast a haggis if you’re teetotal.
But this bit on Sir Fred’s Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh is priceless.
After The Herald revealed that disgraced banker Sir Fred Goodwin may have his Fellowship from the august Royal Society of Edinburgh removed, reader John Duffy in Edinburgh suggests: “Could they not just downgrade him to an Associate, just for the pleasure of seeing a more appropriate set of letters after his name.”
I’m not sure if he’s actually lost his Fellowship.
What Have Fred Goodwin, Allen Stanford and Robert Mugabe Got In Common?
They all have lost their knighthoods, although Mugabe’s was honorary. But they would make a wonderfully well-matched set of dinner party companions!
But count your fingers after they’ve left.
One ruined the currency of one of the richer countries in the developing world, another stole virtually all the cash in a series of islands and the third helped to create a banking crisis that affected much of Northern Europe.
Bob Diamond Has Kept Quiet
In all the pontifications about Stephen Hester of RBS, I can’t find anything that Bob Diamond of Barclays has said.
Perhaps he’s just being sensible or he has not responded to any journalist, who’s asked what he thinks!
could it be a pointer to something? Or if he says nothing, then he won’t have to refute what he said or change his mind.
The Anonymous Widower 