Some advice required.

xElleDeex

Hi all,

for the first time in our lives my OH and I have found ourselves in debt. We are struggling with how to deal with, and get out of it and had thought that a loan to consolidate everything would be good, but due to bad credit have been unable to go through main banks and have now had to consider subprime lenders, which I am very wary of.

A bit of background: 3 years ago we had purchased a 2nd home with the intention of carrying out renovations and moving into this as our 'family' home. A bit of a family crisis occurred and very close family members were made homeless, we couldn't let this happen and offered them the 2nd house for a while till they got sorted. Suited us as it gave us more time to save for the works ahead. :beer:. The family members were very grateful and offered to pay the full mortgage from their bank to save any hassles of handing over cash etc ..... now please bear in mind that these were VERY close family members and this seemed like a good idea. Cut to 6 months later and we were called to our financial advisors ..... the mortgage had not been paid AT ALL. My OH and I paid the arrears (afterall it was in our name) and approach them about the non payment, they apologised, claimed it was an oversight at the bank and assured us the DD had been set-up. I wasnt happy with this so made them come with me to the branch and watch them set-up the DD .... which they did. Cut to 6 months down the line again .... de ja vue .... FA called again and advised same thing had happened ..... the blatantly weren't paying it .... at this point OH and I could not afford to make the re-payments and the mortgage lender were no longer interested (and I don't blame them) ..... we gave up and decided to sell our dream home .... it crushed us but we thought that was the end of it. Family relations were/are very strained with this lot now.

Up until this year OH and I hadn't really given it any thought as we work on a cash only basis and have had no reason to apply for credit .... until a few months back when my car had to go into the garage and we faced a 7k repair bill (long story). the manufacturer met half and we paid half but as we work on cash only (and have non touchable savings) we had to borrow to pay the bill ...... thats when our current situation reared its ugly head. We could not get loans from anywhere and in sheer desperation turned to Greenwoods personal credit ..... worst thing I ever done.

I am now struggling to meet their weekly payments, and they will accept no offer of reason ..... I have tried writing, talking to them but to no avail. I have been advised that a loan to consolidate all payments would be beneficial but I just cannot get one anywhere and after checking my credit score I have learnt its all to do with this previous mortgage ....

My OH and I earn an OK wage and to be fair we have no other outgoings other than this at the mo, which equates to approx 150per week. if I can consolidate this in one longer term loan (ie 3yrs) then I stand to reduce my outgoings to 200pm for this debt (far more manageable)

Any advice is greatfully appreciated.

Ellie

Apples2

Forget the Sub Prime Market... I mean FORGET IT

Your savings may be untouchable, but rarely is this the case. You may lose interest for sure, but the interest you will lose by withdrawing is going to be NOTHING compared to the interest payments you would be making on any kind of Sub Prime Secured Loan (or unsecured).

Get those savings back and get back above water - It's a no brainer.

xElleDeex

Apples2 wrote: »

Forget the Sub Prime Market... I mean FORGET IT

Your savings may be untouchable, but rarely is this the case. You may lose interest for sure, but the interest you will lose by withdrawing is going to be NOTHING compared to the interest payments you would be making on any kind of Sub Prime Secured Loan (or unsecured).

Get those savings back and get back above water - It's a no brainer.

Sadly I cannot touch my savings .... it's the way they have been set-up. To be honest we don't even regard them as savings. They will only become available after a certain time period ..... which is WELL into the future.

I am not a careless person and would not enter into anything uneccesarily, and unfortunately I am fully aware that borroeing at this point in time is my only otion. I am just trying to find the most sensible, and cost effective, way of doing it.

Ellie

CHR15

The thought of risking your HOME with a Secured loan to get your car back on the road is Abhorrent.

There is no way out of that spiral of debt you are facing now you are considering these outrageous loans.

sorry, I agree with the advice earlier - Find out the penalties and get those savings back.

Maybe even dump the car completely and get a cheap runabout.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Are you looking to borrow to pay off Greenwoods then? If greenwoods are not budging on what you have offered them then id suggest going down to the CAB and discussing everything fully with them and see if they can give you any advice as i dont see why they would not enter an agreement of some sort of payment plan with you - mind after googling them i dont like the look of them

Also as you own your own home do you have any equity in it at all that you could add on to your mortgage with a loan from them further..

xElleDeex

CHR15 wrote: »

The thought of risking your HOME with a Secured loan to get your car back on the road is Abhorrent.

There is no way out of that spiral of debt you are facing now you are considering these outrageous loans.

sorry, I agree with the advice earlier - Find out the penalties and get those savings back.

Maybe even dump the car completely and get a cheap runabout.

Hi CHR15, I am NOT considering risking my home to get my car back on the road, I just gave a bit of a background to my circumstances to allow more accurate advice. The car is now fixed, the loan was taken to help me pay this off .... other things have aided it becoming a problem.

As previously stated I CANNOT get access to the savings, they are not an option.

Dump the car .... not an option. My husband and I work hard for what we have and I refuse to get rid of anything that we worked hard to pay for (fully paid for too).

This is a temporary glitch which is leaving us out of pocket at the moment, however I am confiednt that I can and will sort it soon, just thought someone on here could have help steer me in the right direction.

Ellie

xElleDeex

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

Are you looking to borrow to pay off Greenwoods then? If greenwoods are not budging on what you have offered them then id suggest going down to the CAB and discussing everything fully with them and see if they can give you any advice as i dont see why they would not enter an agreement of some sort of payment plan with you - mind after googling them i dont like the look of them

Also as you own your own home do you have any equity in it at all that you could add on to your mortgage with a loan from them further..

Hi Jeff

What I want to do was try and reduce my weekly outgoings. I had approached greenwoods to reduce but they were not very receptive. I am in the last hurdles of my mortgage and want to continue at my current (competitive rate) if I choose to re-mortgage then I face higher interest rates over a longer period. a short term loan to help clear greenwoods is the best way forward as it will be a lower rate over a shorter period and have no knock on effects.

Errata

No savings are 'untouchable', unless of course they don't actually belong to you.

xElleDeex

Errata wrote: »

No savings are 'untouchable', unless of course they don't actually belong to you.

They are untouchable when they are set up like so. Our savings account is more to benefit us and our children in later years and therefore have been set-up invested in stocks and shares and are accessible AFTER a certain time period has lapsed. I have had the same savings accounts since I was a child, first set maturing at 18, then a further payout at 21 and now re-set for future payout when my oldest hits 18. I pay into this and my pension every month ... these ARE our savings and I CANNOT get early access!!!!!!

Clive_Woody

xElleDeex wrote: »

Hi Jeff

What I want to do was try and reduce my weekly outgoings. I had approached greenwoods to reduce but they were not very receptive. I am in the last hurdles of my mortgage and want to continue at my current (competitive rate) if I choose to re-mortgage then I face higher interest rates over a longer period. a short term loan to help clear greenwoods is the best way forward as it will be a lower rate over a shorter period and have no knock on effects.

You might be better off looking to reduce costs elsewhere until this debt is paid off.

Options to consider reducing/cancelling to free up money, weekly food shop, Sky TV, internet, mobile phone contract, dinning out, pension payments (put on hold until debt cleared), check your energy provider is the cheapest option available, insurance policies (car, life, buildings, contents, etc), use a cashback site for purchases.

You are probably already familiar with this site, but there are many many cost saving tips to free up more money for paying off this debt.