Cahoot Loan

happy_chick_3

This is my first post so hello to everyone and I hope you can help!

I have a loan from cahoot which currently has an interest rate of 6.9%. From 7th December they are increasing the rate to a huge 9.4% which I think is outrageous! The loan is flexible so I can pay off the entire balance and not incur any penalties and I currently owe just under £3,500.

I need advice on the best way to deal with this and the cheapest place I could transfer the debt to. Is it best to get a very low interest overdraft or get a different loan or can I do anything with 0% credit cards?!

I'll do a full SOA when I can but this is my urgent problem that really needs dealing with - all suggestions welcome!
Thanks

tightbarsteward

How did you find out they were increasing the interest rate?

I have a flexible loan with cahoot but have had nothing from them saying the rate is going up.

tyllwyd

What are your plans for the future - are you happy to keep the debt at £3500 and try to keep moving it around at 0%, or are you planning to pay it off. If you are planing to pay it off, how much money have you got to put towards it and what time period are you hoping for? Have you got a good credit history?

happy_chick_3

Cahoot emailed me - its the end of a 1 year promotional offer. didn't read the small print properly!

happy_chick_3

i'm planning to pay it off. i've been paying about £100 a month and could probably manage £150, although haven't worked that out fully yet.

do have a good credit history and would like it paid off asap, hence the reason for getting a flexible loan so any spare cash can be directed towards it.

lynzpower

cahoot habitually put the interest rates up on the flexi loan. I have done a LOT of research into this, spoen to the FSA, trading standards, the lot. it seesm completely legal too. My OH has one that went for 6.9 to 13. odd I think in a space of weeks, every month he would get another email saying its being put up.

youll need to find a card that does super balance transfers. Once the debts on a card - your OK, you can tart it about at 0% till its cleared. My OHs problem was that his debt was too great for his income and that no one would transfer the lot. So he got 1500 moved to B/card on 0% and hes just been accepted for a virgin card at 0% but we are waiting to see what the balance is.

I recommend if you can. if you have paid anything off ( ie not at the top of the loan limit) reduce your loan limit- you can do this on one of the pages. so if the loan was say 4k and you now owe 3k, reduce the limit to 3k so that it will impact positively on your credit rating.

System

I concur with Lynzpower as I had exactly the same thing happen to me. Robbing barstewards

lynzpower

who would you rather be in cahoots with?

Erm not you you bunch of scammers

ZTD

lynzpower wrote:

who would you rather be in cahoots with?

Erm not you you bunch of scammers

Way back in the mists of time, I had a look at one of these loans. First the interest rate (starting) was 10.8% (:eek:) - this at a time where loans were being advertised at about 6.4%.

Then I looked at the small print (as is my wont) and noticed they could be recalled on demand.

Oh how I laughed...

And binned the application.

lynzpower

Yes, indeed ZTD. they are the pits.

theres plenty of discussion about thier scammery over on the loans board too, I urge anyone who has one of these to pay it off asap.

I even go as far as to say that its worth making this a priority, even if its not your most expensive debt- as they call in loans. The yhave called in a couple of peoples over on the loans board and the upshot was that they went over thier loan limits- incurring charges. I just cant believe them TBH.

tyllwyd

Use the calculator here http://www.fsa.gov.uk/consumer/04_CREDIT_DEBT/loan_calculator.html to compare the different loans. Remember to allow for balance transfer fees if you are looking at 0% deals

If you owe £3500, and you can pay £100 per month, at 0% interest it will take you 35 months to pay off (just under 3 years). You won't get a 0% deal to last you that long, so you might be best seeing if you can get a low life of balance deal - have you tried the M&S card which is 3.9% lob? (I'm not sure if they do the super balance transfers that lynz mentioned though.)