Can Anyone Help Us With A Loan?

kiwifroot

Hi!
Please help - I haven't been on this forum before, although I subscribe to the newsletter, I came here on the advice of a friend.

My husband and I's combined monthly income is £2075 including tax credits and child benefit, and our outgoings are about £1340 for rent, bills etc

With our combined debts of approx £9K we pay about £520 in repayments on various cards, loans etc, but would love to get a consolidation loan to cut this down and be debt free ASAP.

if we were to consolidate out debts with a loan of £9500 at 20% interest the repayments would be £317 per month over 36 months and would save us more than £200 per month.
Alternatively even a of the same amount loan being repaid over 24 months would only cost us £475 with a 20% interest rate, still saving us £45 a month, so you could get your money back a lot quicker if we are offered a lower rate (a 14% rate over 24 months would be about £451 which would be affordable for us).

We are safe to loan to because;
We have no County Court Judgments and have never missed a rent or council tax payment.
We are both on the electoral register, and have lived at the same address for more than 3 years (we are settled here with our child and have no intention of moving until he is much older).
We haven’t missed any payments since being at this address (Direct Debits relating to my last address were cancelled in error, plus my ex-flat mate ran up debts in my name to spite me as we fell out which is why we moved, and we didn’t have any internet access at the time to check as I was on maternity leave and we didn’t have a home computer at the time, so they were defaulted however are now settled).
We don’t smoke, rarely drink and are responsible, hard working adults with safe jobs (my husband and I have been employed by the same companies for 4 and 2 years respectively).
We have a stable relationship that has lasted 5 years, and our marriage one and a half years.
We want to get out of the trap of paying minimum payments and pay off our debts as soon as possible so we will be able to get a mortgage in 3-5 years time once our son has started middle school.

Any advice would be gratefully received as if we keep just paying minimum payments we’ll be stuck in this situation a very long time!

KiKi

Hi there Kiwifroot

Whilst you could get a loan and advice about a loan on here, if you consolidate your debt there's also a good chance you might run it up again, as often happens.

Can I please suggest you copy and paste this into a new post on the Debt-Free Wannabe board, as the lovely people there will be able to help you cut down your current spend, as well as play credit card shuffle so that you don't pay any interest at all. They'll also be able to help you think through if a loan *is* the best way for you.

No pressure, but they might be able to help you manage getting your debt down quicker than just a loan will (although a loan might be part of the answer).

I'm sorry I can't answer your question directly, but I think you'll find lots of help on the DFW board for this one.

Cheers
KiKi

CLAPTON

get copies of your credit records to see what is recorded there

also look and see whether you are financially linked together because if you're not the if one has poor credit rating and the other is good then it may make sense for only one of you to apply for a loan


without knowing the details of your credit cards debt (amounts, APR, min payment) it isn't possible to comment on the best way forward but its worht entering your details in this snowball calculator

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx


you need to be aware that if your apply for a 9k loan and already have 9k CC debts, the lender will see you as potentially having 18K of debt.
You may intend to pay off the CC with the loan but you don't actually have to.


so you may want to consider
1. getting a smaller loan and pay off the CC with the highest APRs
2. Trying for 0% BT cards and BT the highest APR cards
so a piecemeal approach may be better than one big loan.

kiwifroot

three of my debts are credit/store cards so the APR is at least 20%, the loan is what I got defaulted on, but I am still paying it back through another agency and I have just under £2K left on that.

My husband has one loan and one standard credit card that equal to just under £3K.

kiwifroot

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 750
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1100
Benefits................................ 235
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2085
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 320
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 110
Electricity............................. 80
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 60
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 20
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 30
Internet Services....................... 20
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 30
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 60
Childcare/nursery....................... 40
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 35
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 30
Holiday................................. 20
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 1297

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 500

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
mothercare.....................197.87....8.........24.9
argos..........................410.......17........28
halifax........................3782......88........18
Total unsecured debts..........4389.87...113.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,085
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,297
Available for debt repayments........... 788
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 113
Amount left after debt repayments....... 675
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,389.87
Net Assets.............................. -3,889.87

kiwifroot

Total Debtargos (27.90%)mothercare (22.44%)halifax (18.45%)loan (10.00%)
Non-flexibleTotal DebtInterestBalancePaymentBalancePaymentBalancePaymentBalancePayment(EOM)October 2009£6,388.48£409.73£60.13£196.75£7.87£3,782.00£88.00£2,000.00£144.00£6,088.48£85.53November 2009£6,174.01£357.88£60.13£192.48£7.87£3,751.88£88.00£1,871.76£144.00£5,874.01£79.99December 2009£5,954.01£304.58£60.13£188.01£7.87£3,719.45£88.00£1,741.96£144.00£5,654.01£79.70January 2010£5,733.71£250.24£60.13£183.58£7.87£3,688.35£88.00£1,611.54£144.00£5,433.71£76.73February 2010£5,510.44£194.62£60.13£179.06£7.87£3,656.77£88.00£1,480.00£144.00£5,210.44£66.58March 2010£5,277.03£137.37£60.13£174.13£7.87£3,619.28£88.00£1,346.25£144.00£4,977.03£70.54April 2010£5,047.57£79.07£60.13£169.43£7.87£3,586.61£88.00£1,212.46£144.00£4,747.57£65.25May 2010£4,812.82£19.37£19.37£164.54£48.63£3,551.67£88.00£1,077.24£144.00£4,512.82£64.41June 2010£4,577.23£118.12£68.00£3,517.94£88.00£941.17£144.00£4,277.23£59.49July 2010£4,336.72£51.05£51.05£3,481.95£104.95£803.72£144.00£4,036.72£58.52August 2010£4,095.24£3,429.92£156.00£665.32£144.00£3,795.24£55.73September 2010£3,850.97£3,325.22£156.00£525.75£144.00£3,550.97£51.20October 2010£3,602.17£3,217.28£156.00£384.89£144.00£3,302.17£50.02November 2010£3,352.18£3,109.25£156.00£242.93£144.00£3,052.18£45.60December 2010£3,097.78£2,998.03£200.25£99.75£99.75£2,797.78£43.84January 2011£2,841.62£2,841.62£300.00£2,541.62£39.83February 2011£2,581.45£2,581.45£300.00£2,281.45£32.29March 2011£2,313.74£2,313.74£300.00£2,013.74£31.56April 2011£2,045.29£2,045.29£300.00£1,745.29£26.47May 2011£1,771.76£1,771.76£300.00£1,471.76£23.06June 2011£1,494.82£1,494.82£300.00£1,194.82£18.12July 2011£1,212.94£1,212.94£300.00£912.94£14.31August 2011£927.25£927.25£300.00£627.25£9.83September 2011£637.08£637.08£300.00£337.08£5.11October 2011£342.19£342.19£300.00£42.19£0.66November 2011£42.85£42.85£42.85£0.00£0.00

CLAPTON

presumably this SOA is only part of the picture.. it seems to show all the income but not all the debts.
I assume for example you don't really have a surplus of 675 after all spending and debt repayment?

You either need to do one combined SOA (but mark which debts are which ) or do two SOAs and divide the income accordingly.

The purpose of the SOA is to show your real financial position, how much debt you have and how much money you have to pay the debts off.

kiwifroot

yes i am aware of that - as i explained before my husband has debts of around £3K but i don't know what interest rates he pays on his debts, all i know is his repayments which i put on my first post