Newbie Looking for advice

Bella_M_2

Hi everyone,

When I was 18 I got into some real financial trouble with overdrafts & storecards. I royally messed up my credit rating and when it came time to move in with my boyfriend in 2003 I wasn't able to put my name to a mortgage so everything had to be in his name which was soul destroying.
I worked really, really hard to restore my credit for the next 10+yrs, I didn't have an overdraft and paid cash for everything I needed. Both me and my (now) husband have good jobs.
About 18mths ago I took out a payday loan, it sounds crazy but I only borrowed £100 so that I could go to a night out - before I had never heard of pay day loans and would just have given the night out a miss. Anyway, every month I increased my borrowing until my whole salary was being swallowed up as soon as it appeared in my account. I ended up taking out 5 loans with 5 different pay day lenders and when they started telling me I could no longer 'roll over' I got into a right mess.
I started having my salary paid into a savings account and spoke to Santander fraud dept (who were lovely), they advised me that these companies were trying my debit card up to 40 times a day for different amounts and that I should get a new card, which is what I ended up doing.
I now have payment plans with these companies (but not before defaulting for about 6mths with each of them) and if all goes to plan I will be free of paying them by April 2013. I finally bit the bullet this morning and downloaded my credit report (experian) and I could weep. My score is 419 (Very Poor) and I am absolutely devestated. I know that it's all my own doing and I've been here before but it's a hard pill to swallow that I'll probably be 40yrs by the time it's repaired again. My husband and I really want a house but with the way the banks are right now they wouldn't lend to him on his salary alone and I wouldn't embarass myself by trying to get a joint application. It's only by sheer fortune we're not financially linked. We still have separate bank accounts and any bills are taken out between us in single names.
I suppose the most I can do is pay everything on time & play the waiting game with my credit score. Am I right in thinking that it will take about 7 years? Will the score start to creep up as the months/years go by if I don't default on anything or is that just wishful thinking?
Thanks for reading my war & peace woe is me story.

Bella

Coco114

I am not qualified to offer advice in any form - but wish the very best of luck
You are in the right place - there are a lot of clever people on here !!
Coco x

freshstart11

Ignore the scores they mean !!!!!! all my lovely - please do avoid looking at them!

Any default will take 6 years to fall off your record so in the grand scheme of things its not that long and worth the wait for peace of mind.

IF you are looking to buy at some point are you saving for deposit as well? If you fill in a SOA we can see if anywhere we can suggest to cut back a little to make it easier in future.

makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

and welcome xx

Bella_M_2

Thanks so much for your replies, I am so glad i found this forum it's excellent to know you're not alone when you're feeling low.
I haven't taken the SOA step yet, call it denial or whatever but I will get to it once I'm closer to my goal of paying off the payday lenders.

Bella x

freshstart11

Bella_M wrote: »

Thanks so much for your replies, I am so glad i found this forum it's excellent to know you're not alone when you're feeling low.
I haven't taken the SOA step yet, call it denial or whatever but I will get to it once I'm closer to my goal of paying off the payday lenders.

Bella x

Personally I found it to be the one thing that kicked me in to touch - scared me more than anything x

Experian_company_representative

Once you've repaid your outstanding debts it will help your future credit rating if you obtain some credit products and maintain them well. Otherwise, when your defaults disapear you'll have a blank credit history which is also likely to be troublesome.

James Jones