Santander launches 4.5% loan

You can now get a market-leading rate on medium-sized personal loans from Santander.

Santander has launched the cheapest personal loan around, with a rate of just 4.5% representative APR for loans of £7,500 to £15,000.

In fact if you are a Santander 123 current account holder you can even get this rate on loans of up to £20,000! On a £10,000 loan, that works out at monthly payments of £186.19. In total you’ll pay back £11,171.40.

Here’s how the Santander loan matches up against other £10,000 loans taken out over a five-year term.

*AA members only

**M&S Bank customers only

Pay it off quicker!

If you can pay off your loan of £7,500 to £15,000 within three years then Santander isn’t the only lender offering a rate of 4.5%. You can also get that rate from peer-to-peer lender Zopa. For more on peer-to-peer, check out What is peer-to-peer (P2P) lending?

Here’s how the different loans compare if you’re borrowing £10,000 over a three-year term.

Getting a bigger loan

If you have a 123 current account – one of the best around as it pays up to 3% interest if you're in credit and cashback on your direct debits – you can get the 4.5% rate on even larger loans. Here’s how the Santander loan compares to other deals available on £20,000 loans over a five-year term.

"I’ve been offered a different rate"

Unfortunately, even if you’re accepted for a loan by one of these lenders, you may not actually get the rates in the tables above. That’s because lenders only have to give the representative APR to 51% of successful applicants. So if your credit record is anything less than spotless you may be offered a slightly higher rate.

To see what your credit report looks like, you can get a free trial with Experian through lovemoney.com.

Compare personal loan rates

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The cheapest personal loans

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