Can you extend a loan term after you have been approved for a loan?

I got approved for a loan FINALLY today to consolidation my student overdraft that I never managed to pay off and a credit card. Because I was keen to get the amount paid off quicker I chose the loan to be over 4 years, thinking about it later I thought over the next four years, there may be a chance that my salary may decrease due to eventually going to term time hours, (hopefully) maternity leave etc, therefore now I would like to loan to be over 5 years to make it easier?

I am aware you pay more interest over a longer time but the interest is low anyway - 6.8%

The bank is closed for the day, so I can't ask them, does anyone else have an idea?

I still have time to refuse the loan and try again for a longer term but that may affect my credit rating.

Do you have any terms and conditions? Is there a FAQ section on the Banks website?

6.8% is a high intrest rate loan. I'd pay that sucker off as quickly as you can if you can manage.

Otherwise, yes you can refinance the loan at a lower rate, which would save you money for the same amount of time, or you can refinance the loan for a longer term and you maybe get a lower rate since you're extending the life of the loan. Either way, pay attention the refinancing/closing costs/fess because that might wipe away any savings even if you payments become lower.

Either way, not sure about the U.K. system, but 6.8% is a pretty high interest loan.

The banks FAQ section doesn't cover my question. I'm ringing them today.



Thanks for the answer, the good thing about this loan is that I can pay lump sums into it and it will reduce my length of the loan. That's weird 6.8% is really low here, my credit rating is excellent and that was the lowest interest deal that came up for me on credit expert. . I checked on some more websites and it was in the top two loans there too! Must just be the UK, we pay extortionate for everything!! My bank was offering a loan at 13%!!

Having a different term might affect the interest rate. Usually a shorter term will have a lower interest rate.



It's not that high for unsecured debt.

Pretty high to me. Well anything above three is high for me. I'm use to getting zero percent financing or less than 3 for everything.

Me and everyone around would consider that to be high, but then I'm a CPA.

Oh my god I am so lucky. i rang the bank this morning and they said they couldn't change the loan term without withdrawing the application and making a new one, then i had to speak to someone and get a soft quote which means it doesn't come up as a credit check on my credut report, then i was told the apr had gone up by one percent because i'd already applied.i didn't want that so i went through Experians personalised Loan offers And after having three loans selected last time I now was unable to any loans selected for me. I rang experian and they said that I had had another credit check performed today even though my second quote was supposed to just be a soft quote. I rang them back a second time and found out that although they don't usually do it they reprocessed my loan to 5 years and the original loan is still going ahead phew!


The good thing is at the moment I am in a position to overpay my monthly amount so that will already reduce the term of my loan. Even though I'll be ploughing money into it at least the amount will reduce not just stay the same.

Less than 3% for a credit card consolidation? Fancy

Could be I just don't know what I'm talking about and bankrate.com is wrong. I never exactly pay any interest on anything.

Well credit cards are different, but then I never carry credit card debt as I pay everything off at the end of the month.

But cc consolidation, yes you can get it below three, although it's not common as if you're eligible for those rates, you're most likely in a place to pay off the cc's in full.