Joint loans

A joint loan is a personal loan you take out with one other person. You can then share the cost of paying it back between you. If we accept your application, we'll put the money into an account of your choice. You'll then make monthly repayments with interest until it's paid off.

You can apply to borrow between £1,000 and £50,000 and choose how long you take to pay it back. You can repay it over 1 to 7 years, or up to 10 years if you borrow £10,000 or more.

You can repay the loan from one of your bank accounts or from a joint account. But however you share it, you're both responsible for repaying the whole loan. That means if one of you can't repay, the other will need to repay the full amount on their own.

You can take out a joint loan with anyone. As long as you both live at the same address and meet the other eligibility criteria.

Checking if you could get a joint loan with us will not affect your credit scores. When you get a quote, we do a ‘soft’ credit check. Soft checks don't show on your credit record. If you go on to apply, we'll do a ‘hard’ credit check. That could affect your credit scores for a short time.

After you take out the joint loan, your credit scores will be linked. This means your credit score could be affected if the other person has or gets a poor rating. If you apply for credit in future, lenders can use their credit history as well as yours to make a decision.

Missing repayments can negatively affect both of your credit scores as well.

Yes, you could. You don't need to bank with Nationwide to get a joint loan with us. But you do both need to be Nationwide members. That means both of you need to have held a Nationwide current account, savings account or mortgage for at least 14 days.

So if one of you banks with us and the other saves with us, you could get a joint loan.

Once you have a joint loan, the other person can't be removed from the agreement. You will both be responsible for keeping up repayments and paying back the full amount. This won’t change, even if your relationship does.

Think carefully before applying that a joint loan is right for both of you.

Yes, if you want to. You can:

• make loan overpayments to pay it off quicker. Overpayments are one-off payments on top of your regular monthly payment
• pay off the rest of the loan in one go. You'll need to ask us for a settlement figure because we need to work out the interest left to pay

There's no charge for making overpayments or paying off the loan early.

Yes. But only if you already have a Nationwide joint loan with the same person. Both of you will need to agree to the extra borrowing.