Find out how much a loan will cost you with our guaranteed rates

If you’re thinking of applying for a loan, the APR (annual percentage rate) is probably one of the first things you'll look at, as it affects how much the loan will cost you overall.

But why is the advertised APR usually called 'representative'? How is this different from the real (or ‘guaranteed’) APR? And - more importantly - does this mean the real APR will be higher than the advertised rate?

To make things more transparent for you, we're diving into the differences between representative and real APRs in this article to help you get the best deal.

Firstly, what is APR?

The APR is basically the total cost of a loan.

It’s made up of:

• the interest rate (%) you have to pay each year
• any other upfront fees charged by the lender each year

Here's an example:

Let’s say you borrowed £2,000 at 10% APR for 5 years. If during the first year you don’t pay anything back, at the end of the first year, you’d owe your lender £2,200; the £2,000 you borrowed plus £200 in interest. (Of course, lenders usually require regular monthly repayments, which means the amount you owe in interest wouldn’t be exactly £200).

Nonetheless, the APR has a big influence on how much you have to pay back overall.

What’s the difference between ‘representative’ and ‘real’ APR?

While it would be helpful to see the real APR you’ll be offered when searching for a loan, sadly this isn’t always possible. This is because the real APR you’ll be offered depends on your individual circumstances, which lenders don’t know until you’ve applied and they can see your credit report.

So lenders use an average rate, which is known as the representative (or ‘rep’) APR. Lenders can only advertise an APR as representative if 51% of people who apply for that loan are guaranteed to receive that rate or a lower one. This stops lenders advertising completely unrealistic APRs that very few people will actually get.

A real APR, on the other hand, is the rate you’ll actually get if you’re accepted for the loan. This is calculated by the lender based on how risky a borrower they think you might be. They make this decision based on a range of information, such as your current financial situation, credit history and any previous dealings with them.

What's the difference in cost?

ClearScore users with lower credit scores tend to be offered higher rates by lenders. Not only are they offered higher representative APRs than those with better scores, they also tend to offered be a significantly increased real APR after being risk based priced. So not only does your credit score affect the APR you'll get, but the difference between the advertised and real APR could end up costing you a small fortune.

See your real APR with ClearScore

Applying for credit can be a bit of a catch 22. Since you won’t know the real APR until after you’ve made a full credit application, and making multiple applications for credit can harm your credit score, it can leave you in the dark.

To try and solve this problem for users, we’ve partnered with credit providers to show your real APR before you apply. Knowing what rate you’ll be offered from the get-go means you can calculate the full cost of your loan so you know how much you’ll need for repayments.

We use ‘soft searches’ to match financial products to your unique credit profile. Using your credit report information and borrowing history, we’re able to handpick the right loans for you and rank them in order of suitability (we never rank based on commission). This clever algorithm is designed to save you time and money; we know how frustrating it is searching various price comparison sites with no idea how much a loan will actually cost you.

At the moment, not all of our lenders are able to disclose your real APR before you apply, though we’re adding more all the time. So we tend to rank your products starting with those that can show a guaranteed rate (unless we think they’ll actually work out more expensive for you overall, compared to a product with a lower, but only representative, rate).

If you're looking for a loan, why not check your ClearScore offers and see how much you could save? See your real APR next to the products listed in your offers section, along with the label 'guaranteed rate'.