Meaning & use
non-prime loans
Last updated
Meaning
nounpluralfinancebusiness
Loans made to borrowers who are considered a higher risk because of poor credit history or low credit scores.
Grammar: Always used in the plural; the singular form is 'a non-prime loan'.
Patterns
- non-prime loans to someone
- a market for non-prime loans
The bank stopped offering non-prime loans after the financial crisis.
Non-prime loans usually carry higher interest rates to compensate for the extra risk.
Many borrowers with low credit scores turn to non-prime loans when they cannot get a standard mortgage.
Word forms
| singular | non-prime loan |
|---|
Common combinations
- non-prime borrower
- Non-prime borrowers often pay more for credit.
- non-prime mortgage
- They took out a non-prime mortgage with a high interest rate.
- subprime loans
- Subprime loans are a type of non-prime loan.
- high-risk loans
- Regulators are watching high-risk loans more closely.
Synonyms and how they differ
- subprime loans
- A more common but slightly narrower term, often used for loans to borrowers with the weakest credit.
- high-risk loans
- A broader term that can describe any loan with a high chance of default, not just those based on credit score.
Opposites
Word family
- non-prime adjective
- Describing a borrower or loan that does not meet prime lending standards.
Commonly confused: non-prime loans or subprime?
non-prime loans vs subprime
Subprime is often used interchangeably with non-prime, but subprime typically refers to the riskiest category within non-prime lending.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'non-prime loans' correctly?
Choose one answer.
The correct answer uses the plural noun phrase 'non-prime loans' to refer to a category of loans. Option An is wrong because 'a' requires a singular noun ('a non-prime loan'). Option B is wrong because non-prime loans are for higher-risk borrowers, not those with excellent credit. Option D is grammatically possible but less natural because 'the' suggests specific loans already mentioned, while the sentence is about a general practice.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “non-prime loans”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.