what to do??? urgent help needed.

TUS

jojane25 wrote: »

ok, i emailed my husband at work to tell him the 'advice' the bank had given me, he was annoyed so rang up himself and was given the same advice, anyway after him insisting on talking to a supervisor/escalating the complaint they then offered him a loan over 3 years paying £163 a month (5868 in total), we had 14 months left on the exsisting loan paying £360 a month (5040 in total) so we will be paying back more money but wont rack up charges etc that defaulting etc will create (plus the months of hassle, phonecalls and stress).
what do you think we should do? she said as its internal we wont have to do a credit check, it would reduce our payments enough to enable us to live. or is it better that we default and enter a repayment agreement that way?

If you can manage this over 3 years I would personally do it. Defaulting will harm your credit rating BADLY and that will hit you hard for the next 6 years. If it gets you out of a hole now I would do it for the sake of 22 months extra. Will it allow overpayments further down the line if you can afford to?

jojane25

i'm feeling a bit better now i have calmed down (pregnancy hormones!!!!). there isnt much we can do about our living costs most of it is non negotiable and non are over the top for a family. i am reluctant to give up sky as its our only entertainment and £5 per person for the month isnt a stupid amount. we moved in just over a year ago so were stuck with BT, thought we could switch any time after that but they didnt tell us (or did but probably in the middle of some boring leaflet we didnt look too closely at that if you dont switch on your year end you are tied into ANOTHER years contract, plus because we dont make calls with them they are charging us for caller display and 1471!!!!!. we do our calls through sky but when we moved we couldnt get free broadband in our area so are tied into a contract with o2. mobiles i agree are a stupid expense as we hardly use them but still have 6 months left on contracts so will have to tough them out with the odd reduction when we can.
car loan we have 10 months left on at a ridiculous APR so would rather get that paid off sooner rather than later. cant really change cars as smaller cars wont fit 3 car seats in so should stick with this one which will (is a ford mondeo, not a 7 seater or anything)
we have been surviving since work cut my hours on £130 a month for food, nappies and everthing else which isnt a regular bill, with selling what we can - old phones etc, so when we just found out we were losing tax credits it was the straw that broke the camels back.
i just cant believe that a bank best financial advice for people in financial hardship trying to sort things out as best they can is to default and stop paying anything!!!! and to use up professional resources they dont really need to use (we know what letters to send etc) instead of coming to a mutual agreement which keeps everyone semi happy!!!! feel like i want to write to some financial ombudsman to complain. i think of how many other people are given this advice, racking up charges and defaults because some bank wont listen and offer help before it gets too late!!!
as someone said we could live perfectly fine on our income without the loan and car finance. and before work dropped my income by £400 a month we were fine and managing and able to buy treats and stuff.

Foundational

TUS wrote: »

If you can manage this over 3 years I would personally do it. Defaulting will harm your credit rating BADLY and that will hit you hard for the next 6 years. If it gets you out of a hole now I would do it for the sake of 22 months extra. Will it allow overpayments further down the line if you can afford to?

I would agree. This would make a big difference in your outgoings. If there are other savings you can make here and there from the advice people on here give, great - but this could do more than anything to get you out of that default situation with whopping penalties that are crippling you.

Others may have other thoughts and different views, and seeking advice and looking at all the options... well done for positng and sharing - there will be a way forward for you.

Best wishes

Foundational