Worrying, unexpected refusal of credit - urgent advice needed, please!

bitemarx

I applied for an A&L personal loan (£5000 over 5 years) earlier today and was refused.
I have applied for credit twice in the past year (though for much lower amounts: £700 finance agreement on a laptop and a refinancing loan for £5000 from my bank HSBC) and have been granted the money on both occasions.
My gross salary is approx £41k a year.
My monthly payments and expenses add up to approx. £1200 and includes two of my wife's debts (a loan of £5k and a credit card of £5k).
My address has changed 4 times in the last 3 years due to the nature of my job.

My questions are:
1. Should I apply for a loan with another lender in the coming 2 weeks? (The agent on the phone at A&L advised that my address changes may have had to do with the refusal of credit)
2. On the topic of addresses, is it possible for me to give a permanent address (my relative's home address) to my bank in order to keep my address constant? Or would this be breaking any laws?
3. With a total debt load of approx. £18k (prob. more if I include my monthly expenses), am I correct in thinking that I'm seriously in the red? (Sorry, this question is a pretty silly one, I agree..but it has a purpose, trust me!)
4. Totally unconnected, but does anyone know how rigid TESCO's credit scoring system is?

Hope to get some answers soon!

Thanks!

stephane_2

Having moved 4 times in the last 3 years probably does not help your case. Regarding giving a more permanent address, then you would need to make sure that not only your bank but all your creditors have the same address and you would have to be on electoral roll. Have you checked your credit file with experian/equifax recently to see what details they hold on you as each creditors have different criterias to lend you money. If already in debt on 18K and wanting to had another 5k on top that would mean that your total debt in over 50% of your annual income and personally I would say it is quite high. Tesco finance is known I believe to be quite strict when given finance

CLAPTON

An income of 41k is quite a reasonable income. Although I don't know your circumstances 18k debt is huge.
You really ought to be considering ways to reduce the debt rather than increase it.
Consider going over to the debt free wannabe board and posting up your SOA (details of income, spending and debts) and seeking some ideas how to tackle the debts.

funandfrugal

See my post (just before yours- don't know how to link it properly sorry) I moved 3 times in the last 3 years, in my letter to them I explained the reasons for this and proved I was on the electoral register with each move. Get your equifax rating (free 1 month trial) (Tesco use equifax) and the equifax people are excellent at explaining what you need to do to help you get the loan and give specific advice. Gool luck. Trace x

fabforty

To answer your question - yes, I do think you are seriously in the red. £41K is a good income, but the information that you have provided in your posts suggests that you are in some financial difficulty - even if the crap has not yet hit the fan. The fact that you have needed to borrow £10700 in the past year alone (even though £5000 was refused), despite your salary, suggests that you are probably in the same boat that many of us were in, before things went completely pear shaped, i.e. several loans, credit cards (with no available credit), making minimum payments but never really making a dent in the total debt, borrowing more money or increasing overdrafts or card limits to service debts, etc. I might be wrong, but if not then my advice to you would be to forget about applying for another loan which may or may not be approved, get in touch with one of the free debt advice companies, go the the debt free wannabe forum on MSE for tips, and do something about reducing your 18k debt. I was in thsasme boat as you - had a good salary of £60k but owed about £28k on credit cards and unsecured loans, I also had no savings. All it took was 10 months on nil pay after being diagnosed with cancer (I initially received full pay for twelve months) and I was in serious trouble.

Good luck anyway.