Loan for Debt Consolidation

jaxxstorm

Through student debt, some ridiculous spending and general silly attitude, I've run up around £5k of debts (overdraft, credit card etc) while at Uni.

I've just started work on £25k per year. The problem is, I don't think I have the discipline to pay it back. I have a fair amount of dispensible income, but being a new graduate and moving to London, I want to enjoy myself as well as get myself debt free. Obviously, this isn't a fantastic attitude, but I'm still young and if you can't live your life now, when can you?

To that end, I want to get a personal loan. The structured repayments etc will be a real help and it will mean I know that in X years I'll be debt free. The money will come out on my payday and then I know when my money has run out at the end of the month I am still repaying my debts.

The issue arises because I live in shared accomodation, so any loan application seems to fail instantly because of my address. Is there any way around this? My credit rating is great but I seem to struggle with any loan application.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

CLAPTON

given what you say about yourself, once you get the loan what will stop you spending on the CC and the overdraft again.. after all you are young etc.

many young people realise that having no debts and so paying no interest to banks etc allows them to spend all their own money on having a good time rather than sharing it with the banks

jaxxstorm

CLAPTON wrote: »

given what you say about yourself, once you get the loan what will stop you spending on the CC and the overdraft again.. after all you are young etc.

many young people realise that having no debts and so paying no interest to banks etc allows them to spend all their own money on having a good time rather than sharing it with the banks

I will go to the bank and close the overdraft. I've already cut up the credit cards so can't spend on them.

I'm dedicated on clearing the debt, I just want a structured way of doing it so that I have a light at the end of the tunnel. I've seen so many posts from people worrying about when they will become debt free etc. By getting a loan, I know that in 3 years that will be the case.

CLAPTON

if you have just started work then its best to wait a few months

get on the electoral roll (being in rented accommodation won't stop you getting a credit in itself)

what do your credit files say?

have you already applied for any credit? if so how many times ?

have you tried you own bank?



its a shame that you don't feel you can manage money well because an overdraft is a useful backup for the once in 12 months emergency (or a simple oversight with a DD) and proper use of credit cards do establish a credit history that is very useful when the time comes to apply for a mortgage

Fiddlestick

jaxxstorm wrote: »

The issue arises because I live in shared accomodation, so any loan application seems to fail instantly because of my address. Is there any way around this? My credit rating is great but I seem to struggle with any loan application.

It's nothing to do with the address - credit histories apply to individuals, not addresses.

dfitps

jaxxstorm wrote: »

Through student debt, some ridiculous spending and general silly attitude, I've run up around £5k of debts (overdraft, credit card etc) while at Uni.

I've just started work on £25k per year. The problem is, I don't think I have the discipline to pay it back. I have a fair amount of dispensible income, but being a new graduate and moving to London, I want to enjoy myself as well as get myself debt free. Obviously, this isn't a fantastic attitude, but I'm still young and if you can't live your life now, when can you?

To that end, I want to get a personal loan. The structured repayments etc will be a real help and it will mean I know that in X years I'll be debt free. The money will come out on my payday and then I know when my money has run out at the end of the month I am still repaying my debts.

The issue arises because I live in shared accomodation, so any loan application seems to fail instantly because of my address. Is there any way around this? My credit rating is great but I seem to struggle with any loan application.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

The thing is, the bit that needs the discipline is paying attention to what you spend and budgeting so that three days before payday you know whether or not you can afford that night out, new coat you've just seen or whatever. Having a loan is not going to get you out of that side of things. All having a loan is going to save you is the effort of noticing the APRs on your credit cards and working out which one to pay off first - that sort of thing.

You might just as well say to yourself that every month you're going to put X pounds towards your card and o/d repayments and everything that's left over is yours to spend - you don't need to go and get a loan to do that. You can make the payments at the start of each month and then know just as well that at the end of the month whatever's left is all you've got.

However you do it, using a loan or paying directly, you're still going to have to budget and track your spending the same amount, and that's the hard bit, really (not hard as in difficult, hard as in very easy to procrastinate over and try to avoid doing).

So if you can't get a loan right now (maybe you've applied too many times?), you can still make a start - there's no reason not to start right now with making payments at the beginning of the month and then budgeting.

Good luck, and I hope you do it quicker than I did - it took me years longer than it needed to, partly because I just hoped things would somehow work out and so I didn't budget and work out what I could actually afford or not!