Being Legitimate does not pay!

Andystep

After a ropey start to my late teens I quickly found myself in debt. By the time I was in my 20's and after years of robbing Peter to pay Paul I had gotten to the point of no return. Sink or swim. I decided not to go bankrupt or opt for an IVA, but instead to learn a lesson by paying the debts I amounted off in full. What a fool!!!

Aged 30 and still paying my old life off. Despite all of my efforts and a vastly improved credit score I still can't put all of these loans into 1 affordable payment. Stuck in the 'computer says no' phase I wonder if anyone has the 'sense' anymore to recognise a good thing and go with it. Over 70% of my salary has gone into these debts (they were pretty high) for years and I've never been late with a payment, or had any ccjs etc, so why, when everyone I know is much worse with money than me, can I not get a loan from anywhere...? Because my debt is still high and the banks take it upon themselves to assume that I won't pay the debts and end up back where I started! You think!!! I should have gone bankrupt!

debtwithlloyds

Nice rant!

But seriously, I think you have a point. People will disagree and I believe this is an unpopular opinion on these boards but you're absolutely right, being legitimate does not pay. Bankruptsy is a serious thing but living a poor life because of one or two bad decisions is worse in my opinion. Banks regularly post billions of pounds PROFIT every year so I think they can cover the odd person unable to pay back their debts. After all, they're playing the risk vs reward game by lending in the first place and sometimes the risk doesn't pay off.

iolanthe07

they can cover the odd person unable to pay back their debts

It is not the 'odd person' though, is it? It runs into hundreds of thousands of people not paying their debts back.

ironlady2022

Its just much easier to brush it under a carpet isn't it? Unfortunately you've had your fun and complaining about not opting to go bankrupt. This is the reason the economy is in a state.

debtwithlloyds

You're right of course, it's not just the odd person doing it but thousands. But that's not the reason the economy is in a state, it's a factor but not the whole reason. You've got reckless bankers to blame for that.

ILW

"I am in debt and want a loan", does not show that a lesson has been learned.

esuhl

Andystep wrote: »

Despite all of my efforts and a vastly improved credit score I still can't put all of these loans into 1 affordable payment.

Because my debt is still high and the banks take it upon themselves to assume that I won't pay the debts and end up back where I started! You think!!! I should have gone bankrupt!

By "1 affordable payment" are you referring to a debt-consolidation company? All they will do is negotiate with your creditors and charge you the reduced repayments plus their own fee. Why not speak to your creditors yourself, ask for them to freeze your accounts (so that you cannot obtain more credit and have a fixed interest rate), and negotiate lower repayments?

Debt-consolidation companies are for people who can't manage their debts. If you are managing yours, paying out for debt-consolidation services will reduce the amount of debt that you can pay off and/or increase the time that you are in debt.

Or are you looking to get a loan to pay off your debt so that you can benefit from a lower interest rate? If that's the case, and you can't get a loan, then all you can do is negotiate with your creditors to freeze/reduce interest rates (maybe more likely if you ask them to prevent you from any additional borrowing), then pay off the debt accruing the highest interest first.

Unfortunately, life isn't fair. All you can do is play by "the rules". If you can wriggle out of debt by declaring yourself bankrupt, and this is in your best interest, that's what you should do. Look at how big businesses operate - they set up fake "card processing centres", skim 2.5% off their payments and route that through the processing centre so they only pay 97.5% of the VAT that they "should" be paying. It that right or fair? I don't think so. Is it legal and legitimate? Yes.

It doesn't matter what's right or wrong - all that matters is whether you play by "the rules".

RJP33

ILW wrote: »

"I am in debt and want a loan", does not show that a lesson has been learned.

Pretty unhelpful comment, clearly you haven't actually the first post.

There's a perfectly legitimate reason to consolidate debts into a manageable payment.

property.advert

If the OP has been paying this back for a decade then something has gone wrong somewhere. My guess is some fat intermediary creaming off large percentages of his payments.

Peelerfart

RJP33 wrote: »

Pretty unhelpful comment, clearly you haven't actually the first post.

There's a perfectly legitimate reason to consolidate debts into a manageable payment.

You're dead right,there is a legitimate reason to consolidate debts, but that has been done to death by people getting consolidation loans and not consolidating.

I have every sympathy with the OP,as he is honouring his debts,but consolidation loans ain't gonna happen for him.

Tixy

Eshul - Sounds like he is applying for consolidation loans not applying to a debt-consolidation company.

RJP - There may be legitimate reasons for wanting to consolidate debts but its an extremely common issue at the moment that people who already have a lot of debts cannot get new loans to use for consolidation because lenders cannot be certain they will use the money for consolidation and not run up additional debt. The OP has already admitted he has overspent in the past and so why would a bank take the risk?
Ranting on here about being better with money than everyone else they know isn't actually going to help their situation at all.