Pay off 6K in 9 months...loan?

paulabear

Hi everyone on this board

I've been informed that you are very nice people and not scary, so I've come to ask for advice please

We had some bad times a while ago and stupidly put off paying our nursery fees for a while, which built up quickly; I had lost my job, and was trying to find another without taking the kids out of their nursery places and unsettling them; previous to this we had put off payments for various reasons and we have ended up owing them over £6,000 :eek: - they had been very patient and the owner said she had not wanted to bother us for it as she knew we'd been through a rough time (my mum was dying, I was pregnant at the time and I had to miss a lot of work and do a lot of of travelling through on train to see her as much as possible). They are lovely people and obviously I feel really bad about the debt anyway, but yesterday we got a letter through saying, reasonably, that they would like the debt to be cleared within nine months.

I am still not working; we've got two young children under three and one who's in the reception class at school; I'm going to go onto JSA and look for work as there is no other option, we thought we could maybe manage on OH's wage, but can't. What I need to know is whether there is any way of borrowing the full amount and paying off the nursery; OH joined Halifax recently and was hoping to take out a loan with them, pay off this debt and an existing loan with RBOS, and end up with a smaller amount to pay off each month than we are currently. However we've ended up nearly £1,000 overdrawn (1K's the limit) and the overdraft facility's only temporary, so now we're worried we won't be able to get the loan! Sorry if this sounds stupid, we really aren't that savvy about stuff like this, getting better thanks to the people on this site though
Currently we're;
Ebaying everything in sight
Recycling 2 mobile phones
(me) looking for work;
trying to set up a Folksy shop to pull in a bit extra.

I'd really like this not to go to a credit agency if possible, as if I do get work we'd love for the kids to go back there; they really are wonderful and our children were so happy there. Possibly part of this problem is that i feel so emotionally attached to the people there after they saw us through such a bad time, I end up hating myself for doing this to them.

Thank you for reading my stupidly long post

cally6008

Just had a thought, have you tried claiming or do you get working tax credits or child tax credits (cant remember name of it) ?

paulabear

Yes we do and yet we've still ended up like this, mind you I know it's nothing like as bad as some people's. OH mentioned something about credit union, do you know anything about that?

Tixy

Hi Paula

To start with I'd suggest you write out a detailed budget (statement of affairs http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html) to see what you can afford to repay each month (either direct to the nursery or to repay a loan).

Once you have that info people may be able to suggest a sensible way forward for you.

Credit unions do make loans (though usually you also have to save with them) but I don't think they tend to lend these sort of figures, particularly to new members (I think they tend to be in the region of up to £1500)

paulabear

Thank you very much, that's good advice will go through that with OH later on.