Please help me switching loan.

Beer.Fairy83

Hey All,

Okay, so I started college about two years ago doing a digital media degree and wasting all my loan money on various forms of rubbish. About halfway through the first year however, I realised that doing digital media and on my course especially, it might be advisable to own an Apple Mac.

I began to realise that although I had a workable PC with which I might have been able to scrape by, realistically, it was not powerful enough to handle the types of programs I was using. Unless I wanted my grades to suffer, I would have to stop moving and converting my work between the Macs in my College and my own dusty old PC and actually buy some sort of Mac.

The other problem was that until this point I had successfully avoided the need to take out any further loans or cards and as such, had no real credit history. This however meant that the only company who would actually give me a loan, was the company I wanted to buy my Mac from as it was to buy their product. Luckily, I got a pretty good deal on the machine which was a 15" G4 Powerbook and managed to drum up about £500, but I was still roughly about £1000 short of the asking price. So I took out a £1000 loan at a rate of 28.8% APR

Ludicrous I know but I really mean that they were THE ONLY guys who would give me a loan. I didn't even qualify for some sort of burasry from my college and had already maxed out my student overdraft and loans. A year and a half on, the amount required to pay the loan off is about £1700 and the amount left to repay is about £1400. My monthly payments are £47.05 and with all my other bills, I just can not afford to keep that up.

I have since taken a year out to work and pay off debts and am earning about £1000/month. I have two credit cards at about £500 and my rent is £90/week. After all my other bills I have little money left over but my biggest payment by far is 'The Loan.' I figure that if I could reduce that loan more quickly or reduce the installments, I'd be doing ok. In addition to all of this, I have ofcourse had about 2 or 3 late payments with each account this year so my credit rating or whatever is probably worse now than if I didn't have one at all.

If anyone could suggest a way of me dealing with 'That Loan', I would be most eternally grateful.

Regards
Beer.Fairy

$17mma

You can get a free copy of your credit file from Experian or Equifax for a free 30 day trial.. but remember to cancel before the 30 days are up or you will be charged for the service. This will give you an idea of how things stand with your credit file..

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1101485056,23650,

if everything is not as bad as you thought with your credit file then why not change your loan to one with better apr... at least then the interest rates will be lower..saving you some money..

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking

and switch your credit cards to a 0% one.. maybe you will be able to get a credit card on 0% or at least lower than the rate of the loan and use the funds from the CC to pay everything off in one go.. however for this to work to your benefit you will have to pay off the cc before the % free period expires..

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/creditcards

What ever you decide think it through carefully and dont just jump for the first exit out... make sure that you can keep up with new repayments..

Final thought is there a penalty on the loan if you pay early?

good luck

youngandreckless

My loan is with Cahoot and I get a 5.9% rate,although this varies depending on amount and term.
You could try and get a 0% card and transfer loan to this, although you need to know where you stand with early payment on the loan.
Get your credit rating details as advised above and go from there. Good luck!

skintchick

Please post all your bills - we might be able to help you save on them.

southernscouser

Beer.Fairy83 wrote:

Hey All,

Okay, so I started college about two years ago doing a digital media degree and wasting all my loan money on various forms of rubbish. About halfway through the first year however, I realised that doing digital media and on my course especially, it might be advisable to own an Apple Mac.

I began to realise that although I had a workable PC with which I might have been able to scrape by, realistically, it was not powerful enough to handle the types of programs I was using. Unless I wanted my grades to suffer, I would have to stop moving and converting my work between the Macs in my College and my own dusty old PC and actually buy some sort of Mac.

The first thing that struck me about your post was you second paragraph. Now I'm not having a go because I'm guilty of it myself but you made it out like you needed the Mac where as in fact you just wanted it. The problem was you couldn't afford it. I don't mean to sound hypocritical but you need to change your mind-set or you could be facing all these problems again in a few years time. I don't want other people to fall into the trap that I did thats why I'm pointing this out. Sorry if it sounded harsh.

I "had to have" 2 brand new cars, 2 brand new PC's, sound systems and all the rest of it. Now I am literally paying for it.

I know that doesn't help with your loan but it is all related.