Nationwide Personal Loan

Rainbo

I'm looking for a little advice. I'm 28, have a fairly decent job which is secure as far as I know.

I took out a £5,000 loan with Lloyds 2 years ago. It's now down to £1,800. It's at 8%. I enquired about topping it up last week as my sisters wedding is in January and there's a lot of expenses after adding up such as flights, clothes, accommodation etc. That on top of Christmas is fine now but its January Im worried about.

I asked for £500 to be added on. She said no problem whatsoever, asked was £500 enough and told me the paperwork would be on its way "with the new terms and interest rates". I stopped her right there as I had (foolishly) assumed it would be the same interest rate. She said they had to cancel my existing loan as I have PPI on it and they dont sell it any more and reissue me a new loan of £2,300 at an interets rate of 12%!!! I asked her why had my interest rate changed and she said "its a sign of the times". I don't own a home, my partner does, and as the loan was unsecured I guess I was lucky to get that interest rate in the first place. Anyway, I'll have a look at the documents when they get here.

So, feeling miffed with Lloyds I started looking aroud online. I saw nationwide had some decent reviews. I applied for £5000 (I'll explain in a bit) and was approved in principle. I did a little research about being approved in principle and thought when I received the document they would ask for bank statements etc so I ordered some from Lloyds as I've gone paperless. The Nationwide agreement came yesterday and all they've asked me to do is sign the agreement and they money will be transferred in 3 days. The interest rate is 12%.
Does anyone know what the odds of me being rejected are at this stage? They have't asked for any supplementary documents at all.

Back to the £5,000.

I have a CC debt with Lloyds for £900. My limit is £5,500 but the £900 just won't go away. I pay off some every month but the interest rate of 14% keeps it ticking away. This would be paid off with the Nationwide loan.

My personal loan with Lloyds is at £1,800. That would be paid off too.

I have a credit card from when I lived in America. The current balance is £3,000. This card is not showing up on any credit searches even though I was 100% honest about it when I opened my HSBC and Lloyds bank accounts. This is the one thats killing me, not financially as such but with frustration. I pay £300 into it every month with an overseas transfer. HSBC charge me £17 every month for this!! I want it gone. The debt I'm ok with, I owe it, its mine; HSBC's charges I am not ok with. The nationwide loan would get rid of this too.

So Nationwide's £5,000, plus a little savings, would leave me with nothing to owe other than the debt itself.

I have never had trouble being given credit before but I want to check will have a zero balance on a credit card and a settled loan have a positive or negative effect on my credit rating? Will the new £5,000 look worse than the debts I have at the moment. Am I best to stay as I am with several debts under control (the biggest one isnt even showing up anywhere!) or consolodate to one loan? Do I say sod it, don't take any loan, pay everything off with my savings and have an absolutely clean slate but with no credit activity?

I plan on buying a house next year and really do not want to eat into my savings or get in the habit of dipping in to it. I want things in as good a shape as possible for my mortgage application.

Any help or advice, even if its to telll me I'm an idiot, would be greatly appreciated.

bengalknights

The overseas credit card would not show up on a credit check in the UK as i presume its a foreign lender who would report it back to the CRA in the relevant company so would not effect your credit here, Alot of people would have just left that debt behind but at least you are paying it off.

On your credit record it will look a bit odd but as you say you intend on paying off the other debts and the sooner that is done then the sooner your credit record will look better to lenders as it would just have one debt with the rest showing as settled which to creditors would be a good thing.

CLAPTON

you are presumably earning 2.5% on your savings
you are paying 8%, 14% etc on your debts and wasting £17 each month of foreign transfer fees

makes no sense whatsoever.

if your savings are sufficient then pay off the debts in full asap.

then use the CC regularly for things you buy anyway and pay in full each month: that will maintain a healthy credit history

then save for the deposit

jonesMUFCforever

You will not get a single digit personal loan rate for anything under £5000 IMO.