Protecting my credit rating

Matt227

Good evening all!

I and my soon-to-be-ex-wife have a joint bank loan. When we initially separated we verbally agreed that we would both pay half of the monthly repayment. She reneged on this arrangement and I was forced to negotiate with the bank in order to continue paying my half of the repayment - I cannot afford to pay more. They agreed to this but only for a limited period. My ex is still flatly refusing to pay her share and the loan is now in arrears to tune of £1600. The bank are now referring the matter to a debt collection agency which will amongst other things destroy my credit rating.

I have kept to my part of the agreement and have consistently paid my half share. I know that we are both 'jointly and severally liable' for this loan; but is there anything that I can do to protect my credit rating? I am concerned because I leave the Army in under 3 years and this will make house purchase/rent impossible.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Many thanks in advance.

Matt

simpywimpy

could you afford to pay her share as well and then maybe take her to the county court for half of the full balance?

Tubbss

Hi

Unfortunatly there is nothing you can do to protect your credit rating as the account has already been passed to a debt collections agency so missed payments and a possible defaullt etc will already be on your credit file. If you were in a position to pay the loan off in full then you may be able to put a note on your credit file to explain why the arrears etc occured etc which potential lenders would be able to see.

Savvy_Spender_South

Matt227 wrote: »

Good evening all!

I cannot afford to pay more.

I leave the Army in under 3 years and this will make house purchase/rent impossible.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Many thanks in advance.

Matt

Matt, you do not say how much the loan is for which makes specifics difficult but:

you have two options closer to home than you realize.

Use your unit RAO department, in conjunction with the welfare chain.
Either request a new loan from the (or other bank) to pay off the first and spread longer payments to ones you can afford. The RAO can endorse your income status and security to help with this.

Faling that, the RAO might be able to help with som pay advance options, depending how much it is.

during the divorce, financial appropriations will detail where the fault fell in this imbalance, that will provide credit reference agencies enough justification to remove red marks from your score.

finally, house purchase. if you engage with an MOD affiliated home ownership assistance scheme, your credit score will have less impact than you might think, check out the back pages of your Soldier magazine of forces discount brochure for some ideas.