John Lewis now offers personal loans of up to £35k to customers - but can better rates be found elsewhere?
- Customers will be able to borrow £1k-£35k over one to seven years
John Lewis is offering personal loans up to £35,000 to its customers through a tie-up with Zopa Bank.
The retail giant announced it is expanding its offering though its consumer finance arm John Lewis Money.
Zopa Bank will be embedded into the John Lewis Money website and customers will be able to get a loan pre-approved within their personalised limit in under three minutes with no hard searches impacting their credit scores.
It claims that once the loan has been approved, customers will be able access their money in less than two hours.
John Lewis has partnered with Zopa to offer loans up to £35,000 to customers
Available loans range from £1,000 to £35,000 with a term ranging from one through to seven years.
Customers can get loans both for online purchases and in store offline purchases.
All personal loans requested by John Lewis on its website will go through Zopa.
Zopa, which was founded in 2005 but become a fully licenced bank in 2020, provides 1.3million customers with personal loans, credit cards, point-of-sale retail finance, car finance, savings accounts, and financial health tools.
It is set to launch current accounts this year.
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How does it stack up to other personal loans?
The John Lewis loan through Zopa has an APR of 9.9 per cent making it higher than best buys from rival providers.
Tesco Bank, M&S Bank and Santander are currently the market-leaders for personal loans.
Tesco Bank customers can get a loan between £3,000 and £35,000 over a term of one to 10 years.
Santander offers loans ranging from £1,000 to £25,000 over a term of one to five years.
M&S Bank customers can get a loan of up to £25,000 which can be repaid over one to seven years.
Tesco Bank offers loans at 6.1 per cent APR or £193.03 per month to Clubcard holders while M&S Bank and Santander have a representative APR of 6.2 per cent or £193.47 per month, to those who qualify for the very best rates.
Andrew Hagger of personal finance website MoneyComms, said: 'The 9.9 per cent APR on a £10,000 loan at £209.91 per month for five years is a bit higher than the current market-leading products, although some customers with a very good credit record may get lower rates from the John Lewis/Zopa partnership.
'It's good to see extra competition in the personal loans market, however if consumers shop around, there are lower priced personal loans to be had - subject to their credit status.'
Tim Waterman, chief commercial officer at Zopa Bank, said: 'Consumers have a long-held trust in John Lewis, and we're pleased to be working with them to help more people access better-priced credit.
Andy Piggott, director of credit and banking at John Lewis Money, said: We're really excited by this next phase and the ability to offer their loans directly to our customers through our own John Lewis Money website.
'Whether it's to help with home renovations, buy a car, or to help fund a once in a lifetime trip, we hope that this additional finance option can help our customers turn their ambitions into reality.'
Loans repayments
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