Cetelem review

Personal loans are priced at a fixed 4.5%, well below the 15.5% APR median across the brands compared here, which places Cetelem near the top of 338 brands ranked on rate. Fixed pricing means the instalment does not move with market rates, so the monthly cost stays predictable across the whole term.

There is no charge for setting the personal loan up, since the origination fee stands at 0 EUR. Costs come down to interest on the amount borrowed and the term chosen, and a representative example shows the monthly instalment and the total amount due before you apply.

Borrowers can take €500 to €75,000 over terms of 7 to 84, covering short loans as well as longer commitments against the 36 median term on the site. The representative example on the personal loan page shows how a monthly instalment and a total amount due work out at a fixed rate.

The lender is BNP Paribas Personal Finance, registered with ORIAS under 07 023 128 and operating in France. It lends its own money rather than passing applications to other providers, so the contract, the rate and the servicing sit with the same named company.

Alongside personal loans, Cetelem offers a revolving credit line (credit line), debt consolidation and car finance (personal, credit line and debt consolidation), and home improvement is the named use case (home improvement). The credit line is the flexible route, drawn as needed once the file is approved and the money arrives by bank transfer.

Applying online takes minutes and returns a pre-approval straight away, then the file is studied over a waiting period measured in working hours. Credit line payouts go out by bank transfer once the file is approved, and as a direct lender the lender reviews the file itself.

Free early repayment is not offered, so settling the balance early is not cost free and it is worth checking the position with the lender first. Most lenders on the comparison list do allow it, at 79.4% of those tracked, so anyone who plans to overpay should weigh that against the rate here.

Help runs on phone and help centre, which covers a phone line and an online help centre. Readers who prefer to talk a loan through with someone get a direct route, and the same channels handle questions both before and after a drawdown on the credit line.

It scores 9 on cost and 9 overall, which puts it in the upper group of the brands compared here. It ranks 41 of 338 brands on rate and 359 of 665 on the size of the loan offered.