I cant see a way out - NO ONE will accept me, dont knw what to do

syfodyas

I really don’t know where to turn, debts are becoming unmanagable and no one will accept me for a loan.
A little bit of backstory, I have tried various debt management support organisations and they say that I have enough money coming in to budget - I don’t agree.

I earn about 21k and my partner 19k - these are our debts, of which we would like a loan to consolidate and pay back a managable monthly sum over, say 3 years.

A £930 electricity bill (oustanding because they froze our account while investigatimng whether our meter was running too fast only to say that no it wasn’t - im not convinced)

My £500 capital one credit card (almost maxed)
My £400 capital one credit card (almost maxed)
My partners £700 natwest credit card (almost maxed)
My partner's £200 egg card (almost maxed)
My partners £500 capital one card (almost maxed)
£800 joint account overdraft with natwest
£1000 personal account overdraft with natwest
£300 overdraft with natwest - partner's account


Ideally, I'd like to borrow £6000 to clear this.

I have taken various steps to budget - moving our incomes from natwest to a nationwide basic account where direct debits go out. The natwest accounts that are overdrawn are paid back at 10% the overdrawn amount each month, as are all credit cards set for minimum payments each month via DD. Now heres what bothers me, I have been doing this since December and all credit cards at that point were within the agreed limit, although near the max. Now Capital one send me a letter saying I have gone £40 over my limit, why? They are taking a minimum amount but immediately charging me fees after, which takes me over again and I get charged again. I have NOT used my credit cards since December. They are locked away! I thought paying the min amount each month via DD would guarantee that I at least stay within my limit!

I (meaning me and my partner as joint applicants) have tried asking natwest for a loan, they say no. I have tried nationwide, they say no. I have tried various banks a few months ago and they all say no.
I have adverse credit history, on my credit file I have one settled default showing (Settled last year) - my partner has no defaults. Neither of us have CCJs. We own 35% of a £175,000 shared ownership property, which we pay both mortgage and rent/service charge. Another baby on the way, need to look to move due to space … it’s a nightmare and the only way I see I can get any control of this is to wipe it with a loan and pay the loan back.

Is a secured loan the only option we have? Can anyone recommend any options/lenders who might be able to help?

nickinoo

Can you not borrow 6k on your mortgage?

syfodyas

nickinoo wrote:

Can you not borrow 6k on your mortgage?

its an option I suppose... but I was in arrears about a month ago (due to an administration error on their part - forgot to take DD) so I dont want to rock the boat just yet with them. Plus, remember I want to move very soon and they will be my first port of call if I want a larger mortgage to buy a house.

any other suggestions?

lynzpower

Come over to the debt- free wannabee board, post your SOA and let us do our best to get you out of this situation.

syfodyas

Thanks for the encouragement, but with cost of rent/service charge at £450 and mortgage at £350 and childcare at £470 per month - I cant see myself out of this in 6 months.

I also dont want to default on the credit cards and overdraft. I just settled my sole default last year and dont want anymore. I also have to think to the future, I WILL need a bigger home once the baby arrives (already have a 2 yr old toddler) and so will need to start looking for another mortgage - for this I CANNOT have any defaults.

Its all a mess. I so could afford a personal loan, spread out over 3 years and it would only be ONE repayment date, better to manage than a whole collection of debts that I juggle today. Why no one will accept me I dont know.
I already have astrict budget and have switched bank accounts, but I feel we are floating in limbo and ot moving forward.

Im only 26 years old!!

lynzpower

you sound exactly like me! Who said anything about 6 months, some of us are looking at years over in DFW!

Cant force you though :- )

Rafter

You really are a bit stuck as far as a loan goes, because it sounds like your credit record is dotted with stuff that is going to mean you get turned down straight away.

What you need is a plan, how you are going to pay off these debts and in which order, while still having enough to live on.

You really need to get your outgoings down as much as possible and maximise your income (any overtime opportunities at work?).

Your electricity bill is a 'priority debt' suggest you agree some sort of catch up plan with them.

After that the capital 1 cards look like they might be the high interest nasties. It makes no sense why an account you are not using with a direct debit can still charge you fees. It is probably some Capital One calculation trick but very unfair. Suggest you call them up and give them a hard time, get the fees since this started happening refunded and then you should be saving £25 per month plus in saved fees alone?

Is there a family member who could help out with a loan? Or even lend you their credit history to get a reasonable loan.

You just need to be really strict with yourselves once you have it and rip up the credit cards keeping one for emergencies. Otherwise you will be back in the same position.

Are you getting all the tax credits you are entitled to?

Good luck to you both.

R.

Thenotsowyzewun

My recommendations: switch your banking to First Direct; you can manage your money by txt message, telephone and internet, so you can see exactly what's going on. You'll also get £50 for switching, and another £45 on top of that if you do it via https://www.quidco.com, so thats £95 to help pay things off, and better control of your finances. Only problem is, there's a £500 overdraft on this account, so if they accept you make sure your not tempted to max it out (remember, when borrowing from cards/loan co's etc, these are not friendly people (I'm talking about the industry as a whole here), they will take your stuff to get their money back, and they will not care, it's like borrowing from the mafia; absolute last resort!).
Next, goto Uswitch and make sure you're getting the best deal on your utilities. Again you can get cashback via Quidco (around £30; don't change provider through uswitch (just use them for the comparison) - once you've chosen the provider find it in the Mobiles and Utilities section of Quidco and sign up through that link (even better, clear your cookies first).
Now, I'm guessing you've both got mobile phones. If you're on contract, you might want to put a roof on how big the bill can get, and make sure you pop over to the mobile's forum as soon as you can get out of your contract.
Home telephone, again go to the telephones board, most people can save at least a tenner a month with a bit of switching around.
Anything that you need to buy from now on (over £50 value) list it on https://www.haggle4me.com; for a 1/5th cut of the saving, the hagglers there (me included!) will look everywhere to find you the lowest price possible! (You can also ask people for help with this on the forum of course, but TBH alot of people on haggle4me aren't MSEr's!.
You say your various cards are maxed out (almost). I recommend calling each one up (not necessarily all the same day if it's stressful) and renegotiating terms, e.g. ask for a higher limit. Only do this though if you know you're not someone who's going to just borrow more! (you're doing this just to avoid fees for going over the max).

Now, other ways to make money... go back to Quidco and signup for free trials of Blockbuster, Screenselect and Lovefilm DVD Rentals (under Entertainment then DVD rentals). This'll make you a combined £35.50 (assuming you remember to return the DVDs and cancel the subscriptions, so again if you think you'll forget don't do this!).
Now if you've £2 to spare, turn it into £8.80 - staying in the Entertainment section click on Magazine subs and then do the Magazine Group and Dennis Publishing offers (you'll have to remember the cancel the DDs though; quite simple if you've got Internet/Telephone Banking!). This only makes you £6.60 so you might decide its not worth the hassle.
Newspapers and TV Guides: Do not buy them, they're a waste of money (for news goto news.google.com, for TV guide goto https://www.onthebox.com or if you want one you can print, goto http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/tvguide/ and press the printer friendly button (and I'm sure someone can find a better one too!).
Now, there's plenty more on Quidco, but this post is getting rather long and most of it requires that you put money in and take some out (pop over to the Gambling Loopholes Board and Referrers Board for more ideas).

OK, going back to the Loan, that isn't really my thing, so as was recommended above, go ask in the Debt-Free Wannabees board to get the best recommendations (if you haven't done so already).

By the way, if you've got any "emergency savings" (bit of a long shot I know) now's a good time to use them; the interest they're earning is worth nothing compared to the interest you're spending, and in an emergency you can use a credit card (well, going my my definition of emergency anyway!).

One last thing: I never stop jobseeking. I'm not saying you should leave a job you love, but if you don't love your job, you might find you could earn more elsewhere doing something you prefer. Pop over to the jobseekers board if you want, or maybe even ask your current employer for a raise if you think one's overdue (with most employers, there's no harm in asking! (depends what sort of work you do, of course...).

I hope this has been helpful (been racking my brains thinking of things that could help!).

syfodyas

I do appreciate your help and advise - unfortunately there are some obstacles…

Well, I have already opened a basic account with no chequebook or overdraft (Switching from natwest to nationwide) to manage my monthly direct debits and other outgoings. Out income goes into that. We budget £150 every two weeks via standing order into another basic account (electronc card) which we use for shopping.

In terms of utilities, yes London energy were ripping us off. Npower seem to offer a better deal and I have requested a switch to them, but that still leaves the £930 london energy bill to pay. What I will suggest is a £50 repayment everymonth.

In terms of mobiles, my partner and I rely on them for business and personal use - it cost us £50 in total for both phones and average call charges per month. We hardly use landline and it would probably cost us MORE to use a Pay as you go phone as the price plans on those are ridiclious.

We don’t buy any newspapers or magazines.


I cannot ask for a higher limit on my cards simply because like the loan situation, they will flat out refuse. My cards are almost maxed out and they will NOT want to increase the limit further. We only make minimum payment via DD each month and all the credit cards have been stored away and not used since December.

As for emergency savings - we have NONE. I am only 26, my partner 21 and we put all of our money into getting the shared ownership flat.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Hi Syfodyas,

You have options.

Please post this on the debt forum board. Maybe copy and paste it or start a new thread there.

For evey 10 people who look at this part of the board. 100 look and offer advice there.

Plus if your aim is to be debt free then thats a good place to post.

Every one wants to help you but if most people are not seeing your post / thread how can they advise you ?

Post over at debt forum pronto. Thats the first step.

Good Luck.

Tondella

syfodyas wrote:

We only make minimum payment via DD each month and all the credit cards have been stored away and not used since December./QUOTE]

If you are only paying the minimum amount on your credit cards each month then the total amount you are paying will have gone down since December. So, as a start, work out what you paid in December and then pay the difference between that and what the minimum charges are now onto the credit card that charges the highest interest rate. so, purely as an example,

minimum repayment dec - £75
minimum repayment mar - £69
difference - £6

put the £6 onto your highest interest card. It might not seem like alot but it will get your cards paid off much faster than if you only pay the minimum amount. The idea is that if you could afford to spend £6 more on your cards in December then you can still afford to do so today. It's the basic principle behind snowballing. Martin has written articles on credit card repayments and the minimum repayment which you will find under the credit cards link to the left of this message