Posted by We Brits love the homes we live in. And it’s no surprise considering that it’s the place where we feel most relaxed, we feel the safest, and it’s the place in which we bring up our families. With house prices higher than ever and mortgages harder to come by for people with less than perfect credit histories, we’re choosing as a nation to improve rather than to move. If you want to refurbish your home but you lack the ready cash to do it now, what options are available to you on the market for loans for home improvement?
In this article, the 786 Loans team look at the no guarantor bad credit homeowner loan marketplace in the UK and what you can do to make sure you get the very best deal for you.
What are Britain’s most popular home improvements?
According to the Ideal Home magazine, Britain’s most popular home improvements are…
• New kitchen (22%)
• Garden makeover (20%)
• New bathroom (16%)
• Extension (10%)
• Loft conversion (7%)
• Conservatory (5%)
• New home office (1%)
• Other/none (19%)
The same study found that one in five of us who have been planning a particular home improvement have been doing so for six years or more.
The project you have in mind for your home might not be as big as the projects the homeowners who responded to the Ideal Home magazine had in mind. You might want to install solar panels, install a new boiler, or replace some tired-looking windows.
If you’re one of those who have been putting it off, or if you suddenly feel an impulse to improve your home, making sure you get the right finance agreement in place that you can comfortably afford the repayments on is the next important step in your project planning.
Homeowner loans and home improvement loans
What is the difference between homeowner loans and home improvement loans? None, if you own your property or you are paying a mortgage on it. A home improvement loan is a homeowner loan where a borrower takes out a loan from a lender with the specific purpose of updating and upgrading their home or apartment.
Some homeowner loans are secured meaning that you are at risk of losing your home if you do not keep up repayments on those homeowner loans. If possible, try to find an unsecured homeowner loan or unsecured home improvement loan because, if you find that you can’t keep up with the repayments on the loan, you won’t be at risk from losing your home however you will find it very difficult to obtain credit for a few years after defaulting.
Personal loans and home improvement loans
Home improvement loans can also be personal loans where you tell the lender that the reason you want to borrow the money is to improve your property. You don’t have to own your property to apply for a personal loan or home improvement loan – this means that all personal loans taken out to improve your property are unsecured so, if you own your home or have a mortgage on it, you won’t be asked to give up your home if you default on the home improvement loan.
Does the government offer home improvement loans?
Yes. The best way of finding out what is available and whether there is any funding left for this financial year is to make an enquiry to the relevant department via the websites of either your local authority or your devolved assembly/parliament.
No guarantor bad credit homeowner loan
If you have a poor credit history, you might feel strongly tempted to apply for a guarantor loan so that you can get your hands on the money you need to do your home improvement project.
Before you do, wait. Please do stop and consider your options. There are hundreds of lenders in the UK who don’t need guarantors. There are only a few who do and, in the words of a senior official at the government body which oversees lending companies, the Financial Conduct Authority, guarantor loan companies are “in [their] sights” because debt difficulties in guarantor loan borrowers have increased dramatically.
Please do be careful about guarantor loans – if you fall behind on your repayments, they will try to collect what you owe from your guarantor. This could lead to a breakdown in your relationship with the guarantor over money when the chances are that you could have a got out a loan without a guarantor in the first place.
What are 786 Loans top tips for home improvement loans?
Once you’ve decided which form of loan is the right one for you, consider these tips on getting the most for your money and paying less for the money you borrow:
• get a number of quotes in for the job you want doing – when traders are in competition with each other, the price goes down but the quality remains high,
• if you can, use some of your savings towards your home improvement project. This will reduce the amount you have to borrow to get the work done and the amount of interest you have to pay,
• you can reduce the amount you pay each month to a lender by extending the term of your loan. You should know however that, while this will make what you pay each month fall, the amount of interest you’ll pay on your loan over time will increase, and
• on the subject of monthly repayments, make sure that there is plenty of cash left over in your bank account once you’ve paid your normal monthly bills and your home improvement loan instalment.
786 Loans – the home loan with no guarantor search engine
On our panel of lenders, we have dozens of finance companies happy to work with borrowers looking to improve their home but who don’t need you to jeopardise the relationships you have with friends or family members by nominating them as a guarantor.
Good credit history or bad credit history, 786 Loans will match the details you give us on your application form with the lenders most happy to work with you. Please bear in mind that 786 Loans is not a lender – we’re a broker – and our job is to find the best lenders for borrowers and the best borrowers for our lenders. In business and in life, everything you do should be a win-win for you and the other person and that’s what underpins the way we pair up borrower with a lender.
Our service is free and there’s no obligation to take out the market-leading loan deal that we secure for you with our lenders. Click here to find out what’s available to you now.
