Yes Loans. No Loans!!!

fruitstandinnewyork

Hi There,

I think I have messed up my credit rating and I'm afraid to apply for anything else right now in case I'm right.

The reason for this is because last summer I suddenly realised that I still had a student overdraft of £1000 owed to the Halifax, a £900 overdraft with Nationwide and 2 loans equalling £1500 a store card with £500 and 2 credit cards totalling £1000......and I panicked!

Now the loans I'm paying off fine, the credit and store cards I'm paying the bare minimum but I simply couldn’t afford to make a dent in the overdrafts. So I came to the conclusion that if I consolidated everything with a 4k loan I would of course be paying everything off for a longer period of time, but it would take the heat off paying my overdrafts back and closing my student account, plus at a descent APR I could end up saving around £50 a month.

Now I had recently moved so when I approached the first lender who I already had a loan with, I was turned down. Undeterred I applied to the lender of my other loan straight away (stupid I know) again I was turned down. This continued until both my banks had turned me down as well. I was so desperate for the money I did not think about the consequences. Then out of the blue Yes loans called me. They had received my details from another lender and without asking me most of the normal questions I was told they had accepted me. They could not tell me the APR over the phone but the letter would explain everything. I was so happy.

Now this is where it gets really daft. The next day I received a call from my mother informing me that a letter arrived for me from yes loans. I called yes loans and informed them that they had sent it to my previous address, they apologised and the following day it arrived at my door. The first thing I noticed was the APR, a whopping 14.9%, secondly I noticed that this form was actually an application letter and I had not been approved at all. Well you can imagine my dismay and annoyance, In short I thought "Sod it!" and put the form in the bin, residing myself to the fact that I had applied for enough loans and suffered enough rejection.

A month later I received a call from a debt consolidation company asking me if I was interested in being "debt free within 6 years". I said "yes but not through you" and asked why they had called me" It turns out Yes loans had given them my details because I had been turned down for a loan with them and as the smarmy git on the other end of the line said "if they cant give you a loan, your probably in real trouble".

Now I called Yes loans and what I can only described as a shaved monkey was unable to give me a concise explanation as to why they had turned me down when I hadn't actually applied. The supervisor was even less help and I ended up swearing a lot and slamming the phone down exasperated!

This was 6 months ago and I have recently started getting letters from similar debt consolidation companies. My main worry is that because Yes loans turned me down I now have a huge black cross against my name and will have trouble getting credit for a while. Obviously I realise that I applied for several loans within a short space of time but after six months that should be ok right?

How long should I leave it before I apply for credit again as I am still in need of a loan.

Hope someone can give me some advice

Cheers

James

crazyfj

Are you sure they turned you down, I've heard if you don't go through with the application they word this as a rejection when really you did'nt pay the fee.

Sting_2

A good place to start is look at your credit file. This can be done for free, sign up to Experian Credit Expert's 30 day free trial, this gives you access to your credit file. Just remember to cancel it before the 30 days are up. If you use cashback sites there is usually £2.50 - £5 to be made here.

Lenders usually get concerned if there are lots of recent credit searches on your file, have a look and see when the last lot were made. Secondly they get concerned if you have access to too much credit. Add up all the avaliable credit on your credit file and see how this compares to your income. If you have £30,000 of credit, but only earn £10,000 you will have trouble getting loans. Finally, see if you have any missed payments, these show up in red!

Since all this happened 6 months ago you might be able to get better credit, for example if you can get a low rate loan to pay off your high interest credit/store cards, so long as you pay the loan off as quickly as possible you will save money.

All the best!

Warriorsith

I'd get a copy of both your credit reports from Experian and Equifax to see whats on there. I wouldn't apply for anymore credit and try rejig the finainces to try and pay off all the debts owed but in the end if you need to stay in your overdrat then do so until you can afford to clear them, possilby try repaying the loans off fast by making extra payments? then concentrate on the OD. Yes loans I believe are a brokers and don't actually supply you with a loan but gives your details to subprime lenders who will charge you higher rates of interest due to your poor credit rating.

Your rating is probably low as you moved within the last 6 months, if your too the max on CC that too could affect it, the amount of credit searches you've had on your file in the last 6-12 months etc.

Check your credit reports as said and take it from there.