Poor Credit and a brokem car

sthomp73

Hi,

Really need some advice on where to go.

Where to start......

6 years ago we had lots of small debts with different companies. Credit cards, loans, over draft etc... With different comanies including our bank. We bought our house 6 year ago, wanted to borrow somemore to renovate it (it was a right to buy and ran down through poor repairs from the council) and pay these debts off. This was agreed, however they held on to half of it until the work was completed which meant we paid things off but then had to use them again to renovate the house (nothing flash, windows / doors and a functioning bathroom). Then they paid us some of the money. Leaving us in the same position as before with the same payment and an additional mortgage.

These payment were manageble, however a year later my husband was involved in an accident which meant he was unable to work (not through injury but while it was investigated as someone involved in the accident sadly lost their lives) so when we tried to claim on our insurances they all just said no as they dont payout for that.

When we realised they werent going to pay, we went to our bank and asked for help to get a loan to pay these creditors off, after almost begging they agreed to a 25000 loan with them, but to pay off there credit cards we had and small loan and any overdrafts we had. This didnt really help our payments go down, but we took this as it left a little bit spare to pay off very small debts.

So we struggled on for a year (almost) on only my salary (which isnt very much) most of the debt was in my husbands name, and after explaining the circumstances to these companies they swiftly sent the debts to agencies as we could not meet the minimum payments. We agreed re-payemnt amounts with these compaines and have not missed a single payment with any off these or our mortgage in over 4 years. We are managaging to pay all of our debt and live by sticking to a strict budget. Although its going to take at least another 7 years to pay these off.

The problem is now, my husbands car has probably cost over £1500 in maintenance over the last year. its an 01 plate and my husbands daily commute is 185 miles x 5 = 925 miles a week. He's car is essential as he is unable to complete this journey on public transport due to the location of he's work base.

He really needs to buy a newer car that will not cost us a much in maintaining.

The problem is that the only way we could afford to buy a new car is by taking out a new loan to repay some of the smaller debts and our bank loan and then leave a decent amount for a reliable car. Paying these bills off would give us £500 that we could then use to repay the new loan.

However, we have hit a wall because no one will lend us this cash because some of the account are with debt collection agencies. EVen though we can show we can afford these repayments, even though all of our payments have always been paid on time for 4 years.

What can we do? If he does not get a car thats reliable he will end up losing he's job.

It frustrating that we have to look at taking a loan out again over a few years as our large bank loan is finished in 19 months which would free up 400 a month which we could then use to pay our other debts off quicker.

Any advice greatly accepted.

Thanks

Derivative

sthomp73 wrote: »

The problem is now, my husbands car has probably cost over £1500 in maintenance over the last year. its an 01 plate and my husbands daily commute is 185 miles x 5 = 925 miles a week. He's car is essential as he is unable to complete this journey on public transport due to the location of he's work base.

He really needs to buy a newer car that will not cost us a much in maintaining.

£1500 a year doesn't sound too bad.
If a newer car cost you £6000, it'd need four years with zero maintenance to make up the deficit.

sthomp73

Thats not for Tax, mot or service. That is for how often it has broken down over the last year. Tax, MOT and service and tyres are ontop of this amount.

Derivative

sthomp73 wrote: »

Tax, MOT and service and tyres are ontop of this amount.

Yes, that's irrelevant as you'd need that on a new car anyway.
Unless you mean a brand new car, in which case it'd cost far more than the £6000.

sthomp73

Ha I wish... no juat a rekiable 2nd or 3rd hand one.

Previous years the maintenance has cost less, its increased year on year and is now getting beyond what we can afford to keep pulling out, unexpectedly. All the faults are due to the age and mileage of the car as every garage likes to tell us. It now needs more work doing which is estimated about £1000. That will be aound £2500 in approx 13/14 months.

Its not just the cost of the repairs but also the time my husband has to take off work, he is quite often on hes way to work and it just gives in. Meaning he has to take that day off, thankfully he's boss is good and this isn't a problem but dont know how long it will stay that way.

Poosmate

Is the car working atm? Or is there any way your hubby can get a company car? What car is it? Is there any way he can sell it and downgrade i.e. smaller crappier car but slightly newer?

Also, what's been going wrong with it? I mean have you replaced things that will have many more years life, like clutch, brakes, gearbox that sort of thing?

Maybe if you've had huge repair bills but replaced some of the most expensive components and could be looking at a more stable motor now. Do you get every single defect fixed? I could spend a small fortune on my old banger getting dents and prangs fixed, heater switch <- that alone is around £80 fitted, rear windscreen heater, but as it's going to the great scrapheap in the sky in July (if it makes it that long) I see no point in spending money on it.

Just a few things to ponder.

Poo

sthomp73

The car broke down on Wed, then after waiting fro breakdown cover (2hrs) it then decided to work. It keeps cutting out and restricting to 20 mph at different times. The things we have replaced have been crank shaft and things like that (I'm not a car person so not sure about the others). We dont get everything repaired only the things that stop it from moving or going faster than 50 mph...

The car is a honda civiv diesel - bought due to their reliability (ha, but everyone is always amazed when we say it beaks down lots). The distance he travels is motorway so it cutting to 20mph without warning is a little risky...

There is almost 200000 miles on the clock we would probably not get a great deal for it when sold or part exed and even looking at something smaller we still do not have the ready money for that. So would still need to borrow. We cant afford to borrow just for the car as that would increase our monthly payments which is why we are trying to borrow enough for a car (as cheap as possible) and pay off some of the bills to keep the same outgoings.

After speakng with the manager at the honda dealer he said they are struggling to discover what the problem is, the last resort would be to replace the engine management chip (which he said was very very expensive), we could get this lastest problem fixed then the worry is 2 months down the line it does it again.

Just feel like we are going round and round in circles (at 20mph haha)...

Poosmate

You get it fixed at a Honda Dealership?!!??! EEK! Halve your bills immediately and take it to a small independant garage!!!

It's probably nothing more than a new air filter needed!

Not sure what else to suggest.

Poo

katsu

Can you get £500 to £1K together and buy a cheap car from autotrader/similar? Run that car for a year and you have saved £500-£1000 compared to your current bills for maintenance.

Use that time to save a bit to repair the car or save for a better replacement.

I appreciate your DH has really high mileage but I can't see you getting a loan so I think you are stuck with trying to save money, cut costs or up your income to be able to afford to replace the car.

We bought a car for £500 as it was all we could afford (and we had to scrape that together), drove it for 3yrs and got £100 scrap for it at the end. We were spending less than it's value in annual maintenance (until it reached the scrap me stage!). I know your DH's mileage is high, but if it gets you through another year, rather than the 3yrs we got, that gives you another year to try and save a bit of cash and pay down your debts.

Can your DH find someone to help with car maintenance? Call the local college that teach motor mechanics and see if a kind lecturer can recommend someone to look at the car?

Hope some of this is some help.

telboyo

If your husband is travelling 925 miles per week and your car does 50mpg that is costing nearly £6000 in post tax earning per year- has he considered getting a job nearer home

sthomp73

We don't always use the main dealer, we generally go to independent. Went out of desperation to see if they had anything else they could think of. They've been quite good and done a lot of trouble shoiting for free. To no avail however.

The banger of a car is an idea, as long as its reliable as unplanned days off are bound to wind the boss up soon.

He is registered with lift share places to see if he can get anyone in as that would increase funds and help saving easier.

As for college students, for them to help I'd assume they'd want the car during college hours which is when it'd be at work with him.

As for getting a job closer he has been looking for 5 year for something closer, but even when you take fuel expenses out he cannot match he's current earnings.

The only other solution is for him to stay there Monday to Friday. Not very good for family life but at least he'd be able to get to work regularly.