Short term loan €2,500 best options

cara mc k

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I need to take out a short term loan of €2,500, as I had been using my overdraft facility to pay for DIY work on my house. I would prefer to get a loan, clear the overdraft and pay the loan off at a rate of approx €100 per week.

However I contacted Tesco (due to good rates), who told me that repayments must be over 12 months. Does anyone know if this is standard practice, or do other lenders allow you to pay it off quicker.

Many thanks
Cara Mc K
 
How about this for a wacky idea? bear with me here....

If you can wait 3 months to pay off the overdraft it will work ....
1. Get an Ulster Bank Credit card - with 9 months interest free credit on purchases.
2. Buy 2500 worth of prize bonds with the credit card.
3 Pay the minimum of the credit card (3% a month - approx 75)
4. cash in the prize bonds after the minimum term of 3 months (you might even win a prize in the 3 months)
5 Pay off the overdraft with the prize bond money
6. This might be 4 months down the line - so you will have paid 4 * 75 = 300 off the credit card and will have 5 months left to pay off 2200 = 22 weeks at 100 a week.

This is assuming you get the credit card
Tesco do a similar deal i think too.

But even if it doesn't work for you this time - it can be a nice way of possible making money from the interest free credit card offers. Nothing to lose anyway - except a bit of time filling in forms.
 
Re: Short term loan €2,500 best options reply from poster

I very much appreciate all you hard work, but I am hoping to pay the loan off quicker approx 2-3 months, any ideas who would lend me this money for this term, as most lenders want you to pay it back over 12 months.

Many thanks
Cara Mc L
 
No, I don't know of any. I thought that the Tesco loan came without such stipulations, but I'm not sure. If it's not a stipulation in the ts and cs, then don't tell them when you intend to pay it back, as this may lead them to reject you on the basis they won't make that much money off you.

Other alternatives:
  • A variable rate loan (should allow you to repay at any time without penalty)
  • Overdraft (why not-rates are around 12%, not that much interest over a 2-3 month period)
  • Take out a new credit card and avail of an introductory 0% offer, and repay the balance before it expires.
By the way, your numbers don't add up. 2-3 months is around 15 weeks, whichs works out at €179 a week based on a balance of €2,500 (you say you want to repay €100 a week, which would take nearly 6 months).
 
Cara - if you can manage to pay the loan off in 3 months why don't you just pay off the overdraft in 3 months? How much a month is it costing you in interest ? You could also transfer debt to a new credit card and get it interest free for a few months - check if Ulster or tesco do that offer on credit transfers. PTSB are advertising 2.9% (annual) for 6 months on balance transfers to their credit card - I would hope they include bank overdraft transfers on this offer.
When you have paid off the 2400 - rip up the card if you want..
 
irishlinks said:
You could also transfer debt to a new credit card and get it interest free for a few months - check if Ulster or tesco do that offer on credit transfers. PTSB are advertising 2.9% (annual) for 6 months on balance transfers to their credit card - I would hope they include bank overdraft transfers on this offer.

I don't think you can transfer anything other than other credit card balances to a new credit card.

In your last post, you seem to have made exactly the same points that I made in my last post.

The 'best' balance transfer deals can be found in the Best Buys forum (link in my sig).
 
Sorry about the duplicated info -

Re: the overdraft to credit card transfer - it may be possible with BOS - they define a credit transfer as
"any balance we allow you to transfer from another Republic of Ireland account"

From [broken link removed]


So there might be a chance it could work with them - might be worth a call or email to confirm ?
 
irishlinks said:
Re: the overdraft to credit card transfer - it may be possible with BOS - they define a credit transfer as
"any balance we allow you to transfer from another Republic of Ireland account"

From [broken link removed]


So there might be a chance it could work with them - might be worth a call or email to confirm ?
Maybe, but I would take "another Republic of Ireland account" to mean another RoI credit card account. As you say, a phone call or e-mail may confirm, but I'm pretty sure balance transfers are for credit cards only.
 
open a credit card account with mbna or ebs. write a cheque to cover the loan. pay off the credit card as quickly as possible. think ebs charge just 2.9% on cheques written in first 6months.
 
why dont you go to your local credit union, they always give short term loans, and if you run into hassle paying back you can reduce your payments,.
 
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