In a mess with a Halifax loan- Help

weedessie

Hi All.
1st time poster..
Just a question, hope someone can give me some advice. I have a loan from the Halifax (original amount borrowed £7500) which I have a balance of £5918.00 still to pay, the APR on my Halifax loan is 8.9% but I have realised to my horror that despite making around 38 payments of £150.93 totalling around £5735, I still have £5918 to pay - the reason being is that I’ve been paying mostly for unemployment protection & interest - what’s rubbed the salt in to the wounds is that I was made redundant over a year ago - I tried to claim for my loan to be covered, after all I was paying for the insurance - but they refused me as my last employment period was for less than 6 months. Your right to think why didn’t I do something about it, basically I was suffering from depression and couldn’t face up to anything, but that’s in the past now as I’m feeling better and ready to tackle this. My financial situation is not great but can be fixed, I still have a good credit rating.. Basically I wanted to know, should I go for a loan and try to get it cheaper than 8.9%? or could I apply for a couple of 0% credit cards and pay the Hellifax off? They say I have a settlement fee of £120.58, surly this would be a cheaper option? Also I have another credit card totalling £978.74 -can I add the 2 together to pay off the credit card, and pay the loan?

I'm so angry at myself letting these people fooling me that they are here to help me!! But at least I’ve came on here and learned a lot in 1 day!!

Thank you all


Dessie

Rafter

Dessie,

No expert, but could you not claim that the insurance was missold if you were not told when you took it out that your employment period wasn't long enough - sounds like a strong case to me.

Interest is higher at the start of a loan - because you are borrowing more.

8.9% isn't a dreadful rate - and if you credit rating is below excellent you might find it hard to get enough credit to repay this loan anyway.

Good luck

R.

Neil123

What was your employment status at the time of taking out the loan? I cant say I'm a fan of this compensation culture we live in but there genuinely where some very dubious selling tactics used for Payment Protection Insurance. Have a look to see if you feel your PPI was misold, no end of places to check with but you could try in the reclain, ppi-loan-insurance section of this website.
If you were mis advised or sold a useless product the you are probably entitled to your money back.
As for the 0% cards, make sure you are planing ahead and are sure you can clear the full balances during the interest free period. It may be all to tempting to stick with minimum payments, fail to clear the debt during the 0% period and find your self with high balances on interest charging cards

weedessie

Hi Neil,

At the time of getting his loan I was in steady employment and had already been at my previous company for almost 2 years and never been out of work in my life.

Being 100% honest it was never made clear to me that if I wasn’t in continuous employment for over 6 months then my policy wouldn’t pay out, I was probably happy to get the loan and never questioned it, but I guess it could have been made clear to me.. Maybe I should ring them and complain. Would that mean that I could claim for the 12 month’s I’ve been unemployed? I just want to get rid of the thing now, Halifax have been very sneaky and I feel let down by them,

Just another question, if I do get a 0% credit card to pay the loan, is this the same as a balance transfer? Or would it be classed as a purchase? I’ve read on here never to make a purchase on a new card as the high APR will kick in - I don’t want to commit until I’m sure in this.

Thanks for your reply and help, it’s been very useful


Dessie

woody01

Being 100% honest it was never made clear to me that if I wasn’t in continuous employment for over 6 months then my policy wouldn’t pay out

So if you are mature enough to take a loan, but immature enough not to read the T&C's this is the fault of the Halifax?

I was probably happy to get the loan and never questioned it

Until now when you don't want to pay it anymore

Halifax have been very sneaky and I feel let down by them

Halifax being sneaky AKA you being incredibly naive

Halifax are VERY clear on the:
-loan amount
-repayment schedule
-interest
-how much in total is to pay back

I have had a loan with them and this was all clear stated both in verbal and written.

For christ sake stop blaming everyone else and take some responsibility.

weedessie

Woody,
I'm 34 years old and I’m well aware that I’ve been naive in my financial dealings and the buck stops with me! That’s why I’ve come on here simply to get advice.

I've had been I’ll and never realised how ill I was when taking out my loan and let things happened that shouldn’t have.

Please don't reply to me if your going to such a patronising prat
.

Dessie

weedessie

[FONT=&quot]Woody, I’ve looked at your other posts and you seem to patronise most other people too[/FONT]. No doubt you will pick holes my grammar now..

Snippa

The OP came for advice on a problem many, many people have had with payment protection insurance, and has already explained he had depression. So no - no need to be nasty. If you can’t be helpful, it’s best to keep quiet, imo.

In this case, it may well be that PPI was mis-sold. It’s definitely worth checking. There’s a checklist and some help here if you want to try that route. If most of what you’ve been paying is PPI, a refund of that would take a huge lump off the loan. If not, it should be able to be cancelled.

http://www.which.co.uk/advice/how-to-tell-if-youve-been-mis-sold-ppi/quick-check-were-you-mis-sold/index.jsp

Wutang_2

weedessie wrote: »

Woody,
I'm 34 years old and I’m well aware that I’ve been naive in my financial dealings and the buck stops with me! That’s why I’ve come on here simply to get advice.

I've had been I’ll and never realised how ill I was when taking out my loan and let things happened that shouldn’t have.

Please don't reply to me if your going to such a patronising prat
.

Dessie

I can't see a.) patronising or b.) what the 'mess' is? He's only telling you the truth and secondly, you're on a decent rate - try to claim back the PPI and keep paying the monthly instalments.

woody01

weedessie wrote: »

Woody,
I'm 34 years old and I’m well aware that I’ve been naive in my financial dealings and the buck stops with me! That’s why I’ve come on here simply to get advice.

I've had been I’ll and never realised how ill I was when taking out my loan and let things happened that shouldn’t have.

Please don't reply to me if your going to such a patronising prat
.

Dessie

How is it patronising?
Whether you were ill or not isn't the issue. If you were ill then sorry, but this isn't the banking worlds fault either.
You are a grown up (at 34), and therefore responsible for your own actions.
All you are trying to do is blame the bank, which clearly isn't the case.

No doubt you will pick holes my grammar now..

Only if you try to blame the bank for that aswell

No expert, but could you not claim that the insurance was missold if you were not told when you took it out that your employment period wasn't long enough - sounds like a strong case to me.

How unless this wasn't in the terms and conditions (which i bet it almost certainly was).
No banks are bound to give the whole T&C's verbally.

weedessie

Thats enough!!!

....