Advice please, trying to get a loan

Icikle

Hello,

I am trying to get a loan for £2000 to pay off existing debts.

These include a credit card of about £900, an existing loan with Zopa for about £500 and the rest will be used as spending money for my holiday. The total I am paying out on these 2 debts is £92.21 with NO missed payments on either account. The total amount I would be paying on my proposed loan is about £65 a month over 3 years so as is clearly evident, affordability is not a factor. However, herein lies the problem, I cannot get accepted anywhere decent, including Zopa, who have "blocked lending" on my account which means even the snapshop of my credit file is rendering me unable to apply, confusing since I already hold a loan with them, without missed payments. Halifax are my own bank and have turned me down, as have Alliance and Leicester, HSBC, and Santander. I have ordered an online statutory credit report on Equifax and the only adverse entry is a couple of successive missed payments on a Shopdirect account from 2006, the account was then brought up to date almost immediately and settled in 2009 in full. According to them and Equifax those late payments will remain on my file til 6 years after I settled, so 2015. I however, cannot believe that this is causing me to be unsuccessful since these were existent when I applied for my existing loan, my existing card, my existing credit card, among many contract phones I have had in the past, and may I also add, all have exemplary records for keeping up the payments.

This leads me to one simple conclusion, the ONLY difference about me, when I applied for my existing Zopa loan, was my address, I had moved into a flat on my own for 6 months. Is locale taken into account at all by lenders? If so, is that not....prejudice? The only other thing really is the amount of accounts I have at present may be putting them off, although considering more than half of my income is disposable at present, and I have not missed a single payment since 2006 (when i was 18 by the way and naive about these things) I dont really understand why the amount of 'successful' accounts I have would be offputting.

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

talana

Icikle wrote: »

This leads me to one simple conclusion, the ONLY difference about me, when I applied for my existing Zopa loan, was my address, I had moved into a flat on my own for 6 months. Is locale taken into account at all by lenders? If so, is that not....prejudice?

Not locale as such, no.
But...
- Are you on the electoral register at your new address? Make sure you are.
- Is your new address given on your existing credit file at all? If not, perhaps you're effectively coming up as a brand new borrower with no history. Make sure your new address is linked to your old address on your file.

Tixy

Has your employment status changed at all since when you last applied?

Are you on the electoral roll at your new address - and is this reflected on your credit files?
Have you also checked your other credit files with experian and callcredit?

Zopa may not allow further loans until existing ones are fully repaid (quite a lot of lenders are now stating that with regards further loans).

How many open accounts do you have?
How much are your total existing debts?
How much total credit do you have available to you (used and unused)?
How much do you earn?

Icikle

talana wrote: »

Not locale as such, no.
But...
- Are you on the electoral register at your new address? Make sure you are.
- Is your new address given on your existing credit file at all? If not, perhaps you're effectively coming up as a brand new borrower with no history. Make sure your new address is linked to your old address on your file.

My "new" address is the same as my old one before I moved into my flat for 6 months. I moved out of my parents home then back in. Basically I had an address from Feb 96 to July 09, then from July 09 to Jan 10 lived in a flat, then from Jan 10 to now back at the original parents home. Both addresses are on my file and are linked, and yes I am on the electoral role. Or what is more accurate is that I am on the electoral roll according to Equifax but when I use checkmyfile.com, they say Im not, though its hard to decipher which agency says Im not on that website.

Tixy wrote: »

Has your employment status changed at all since when you last applied?

Are you on the electoral roll at your new address - and is this reflected on your credit files?
Have you also checked your other credit files with experian and callcredit?

Zopa may not allow further loans until existing ones are fully repaid (quite a lot of lenders are now stating that with regards further loans).

How many open accounts do you have?
How much are your total existing debts?
How much total credit do you have available to you (used and unused)?
How much do you earn?

No my employment has been fixed since 2004, permanently employed.

Like I said above, I am on the electoral roll according to Equifax and also my local council as I rang them. Checkmyfile.com say I am not but as they use all 3 agencies data, Im not sure which one is the problem.

Not sure on open accounts but off my head I count 5, possibly 6. Total unsecured debt is about 13000 but the majority of that is my car. Not sure on the used/unused question. I earn about £1200 per month NET, of which about £600 is disposable, to say I cannot afford a loan is laugahble.

chalkie99

Icikle wrote: »

I am trying to get a loan for £2000 to pay off existing debts.

These include a credit card of about £900, an existing loan with Zopa for about £500 and the rest will be used as spending money for my holiday. The total I am paying out on these 2 debts is £92.21 ..........

...........


affordability is not a factor.

So despite paying out only £21 a week at the moment things are so tight you need to borrow spending money for a holiday?

and although affordability is "not a factor" you still want to reduce future payments down to £65 a month?

Advice - never borrow for a holiday. You will want more holidays long before this one is paid for.

You are on the edge of a slippery slope. Think about it.

somethingcorporate

You have debt well over 50% of your gross income. You'll struggle to get a loan at this level of credit exposure - you need to reduce your debts regardless of whether you think you can afford the loan.

Use some of your excess income to pay down your debts, rather than increasing your credit for something as transitory as a holiday.

Icikle

somethingcorporate wrote: »

You have debt well over 50% of your gross income. You'll struggle to get a loan at this level of credit exposure - you need to reduce your debts regardless of whether you think you can afford the loan.

Use some of your excess income to pay down your debts, rather than increasing your credit for something as transitory as a holiday.

I understand that but about 90% of that is just the value of my car....sigh.

somethingcorporate

But it's unsecured so it makes no difference what it was for. You could always sell your car and repay some of the debt?

Icikle

And then I would have a new problem, I wouldnt have a car.

somethingcorporate

And precisely the reason they count the 9k unsecured debt you used to purchase it with.

You need the car, ergo you need(ed) the debt that was used to buy said car.

If you have so much spare income you can satisfy a loan with why not just pay down your existing debts? More debt is rarely the answer to debt.

Icikle

It isnt MORE, its replacement debt as its reducing payments on existing debts, and my question was why am I being refused. You have answered it, nothing more really to say.