Common with mortgages. An interest rate on a loan that may change over time so a borrower’s repayment plan may go up or down. The benefit to a variable interest rate is that if the underlying interest rate declines, the borrower’s interest payments also reduce. Some good deals are possible but there is also the risk of monthly payments increasing. [..]

We try not to bombard you with financial jargon but if you need help understanding what loan terms mean like acceptance rate, CCJ, secured loan and variable rate, then click on the links below.

This is the percentage of customers who are successful in their application for loan or credit card. 

Like variable rate, it’s an interest rate that can change in relation to an index.

People who have a less-than-perfect record of repaying their credit commitments would be referred to as having an adverse credit rating – this means you would struggle to get credit.

The representative APR (formerly known as typical APR) is how much your borrowing will cost in interest over the period of an average year, over the term of your debt. It factors in the interest charged and any additional charges/fees. It is a legal requirement for APR to be shown on credit products to ensure comparisons between competitive product [..]

Some lenders charge an additional fee to set up a credit agreement and can often seem hidden from publicised rates. This is called an arrangement fee – and this is something we don’t do!

Hopefully this wont ever be relevant to you! If you are in arrears it means that money you owe should have been paid back earlier, i.e. you have missed a scheduled repayment. 

This is something that the borrower owns that has value in order to be guaranteed against certain credit agreements. You need an asset for a secured loan, for example, your house would be considered an asset and a large loan could then be secured against the house, but you would be at risk of losing your asset if you did not keep up with the paymen [..]

The balance is the amount of money owed on your account.