Help! Borrowing

kirifruit87

I'm relatively new to using these forums, although I have enjoyed Martins weekly email for some time.

My partners 30th birthday is coming up next April and as a surprise I wanted to take the two of us to New York. I'm stumped however, as to how I'm going to pay for it.

I have 2 credit cards, both which are maxed, one at £500, the other at £2800. I pay the minimum off of these each month. I tried Thomas Cook, who quoted me an obscene amount of money to go away and I'm not sure if they'll still be about, with my money in April 2013!

I resigned myself to getting a loan, it will consolidate my debt, making it easier to manage, I thought £5500 would be great, this allows me to pay off my credit cards and a holiday and have a little extra money to put towards my part time study. I applied online at Tesco Bank and was turned down.
Im a little disheartened to say the least & now I don't know what to do - I'm wary of worstening my credit score by applying for loans with other companies, but I don't see any other way to get to New York without leaving myself completely skint every month. I know the answer probably is don't do it but any other thoughts or suggestion would be welcomed :-(

Can anyone recommend a good loan company to approach in this situation?

lovinituk

Pay off your current debt, save up and take your partner to New York for his 35th birthday!

kirifruit87

LOL! A fine idea indeed! Although, ideally, I'd like it to be for his 30th!
Thank you :-)

[Deleted User]

Jeez. The advice HAS to be don't do it. It is insane given your situation. You're only paying the minimum on your existing debt and now want to borrow a chunk more.

But, given this is a loans forum - what's your income?

lovinituk

You don't really need to go on his 30th though do you - it would just be nice to! Why do you want to get into further debt just for a trip to New York?

DFW board beckons!!

Faith177

If you really want to go try looking for flights on the flight centre website. Also Octopus hotels is a good website I used them when I went. A decent hotel that is quite close to everything is the Pennsylvania it's not the most luxurious but it is next to Macys and right near Times Square and the staff are nice.

Also to save a bit of money on attractions/sights ect get a city pass you'll save a loy on that

DCFC79

kirifruit87 wrote: »

I'm relatively new to using these forums, although I have enjoyed Martins weekly email for some time.

My partners 30th birthday is coming up next April and as a surprise I wanted to take the two of us to New York. I'm stumped however, as to how I'm going to pay for it.

I have 2 credit cards, both which are maxed, one at £500, the other at £2800. I pay the minimum off of these each month. I tried Thomas Cook, who quoted me an obscene amount of money to go away and I'm not sure if they'll still be about, with my money in April 2013!

I resigned myself to getting a loan, it will consolidate my debt, making it easier to manage, I thought £5500 would be great, this allows me to pay off my credit cards and a holiday and have a little extra money to put towards my part time study. I applied online at Tesco Bank and was turned down.
Im a little disheartened to say the least & now I don't know what to do - I'm wary of worstening my credit score by applying for loans with other companies, but I don't see any other way to get to New York without leaving myself completely skint every month. I know the answer probably is don't do it but any other thoughts or suggestion would be welcomed :-(

Can anyone recommend a good loan company to approach in this situation?

You tried your own bank ?
Whats your salary ?

Im pretty sure if you went with TC and they weren't around next year you would be covered under some scheme(is it ABTA).

Now for questions you didnt ask for

Does it have to be NY ?
2.2k for NY, doesn't cost that much to get and stay there does it ?
Why not somewhere closer to home ?

kirifruit87

Deleted_User wrote: »

But, given this is a loans forum - what's your income?

It's 19,000. We own a home together and we've talked over the situation. He doesn't know it's New York but he knows it's for his birthday and for putting my debt together.

I guess what everyones saying really is, don't be redonk?

lovinituk: I definitely don't need too but I didn't really think of it that way. I thought it would be a good idea to get rid of my other debt. Cut up the c/cs, shut down the accounts and pay for a birthday present.
I actually thought it was pretty logical, considering my apr on the c/cs is insane and by paying them off, I'd really be paying less borrowing a loan. I guess not though?

Faith177: thanks for the tips, I've pretty much costed the holiday out. Done every website I could and I'm pretty offay with New York on google maps! LOL. Thank you for the handy hints :-)

thanks all :-) x

lovinituk

kirifruit87 wrote: »

lovinituk: I definitely don't need too but I didn't really think of it that way. I thought it would be a good idea to get rid of my other debt. Cut up the c/cs, shut down the accounts and pay for a birthday present.
I actually thought it was pretty logical, considering my apr on the c/cs is insane and by paying them off, I'd really be paying less borrowing a loan. I guess not though?

Consolidating your debts is potentially a good idea but that depends on whether the loan APR is lower than the credit card APRs which you say it is.

Borrowing large sums of money for a present when you can only afford to pay the minimum payments off current debts is not a good idea and I personally would feel irresponsible in advising otherwise!

It might be a nice holiday now but could come back and bite you in the a$$ later. What if mortgage rates increase in the future? Could you still afford all your debt then?

[Deleted User]

kirifruit87 wrote: »

It's 19,000. We own a home together and we've talked over the situation.

You're pushing the boundaries of how much you can borrow, with a total of around 9k before you consolidate. And your history of minimum payments will be counting against you.

kirifruit87 wrote: »

I actually thought it was pretty logical, considering my apr on the c/cs is insane and by paying them off, I'd really be paying less borrowing a loan. I guess not though?

Getting your debts at lower rates = very good idea.

Using it as an excuse to sneak in a holiday on credit = not such a very good idea.

kirifruit87

DCFC79 wrote: »

You tried your own bank ?
Whats your salary ?

Im pretty sure if you went with TC and they weren't around next year you would be covered under some scheme(is it ABTA).

Now for questions you didnt ask for

Does it have to be NY ?
2.2k for NY, doesn't cost that much to get and stay there does it ?
Why not somewhere closer to home ?

Hi there,
I tried my own bank a while ago for a loan to buy a car, they turned me down. Salary is 19k

I spoke to my dad who felt the same way. But you hear all sorts of nightmare stories trying to get money back!

It's NY because my partner went there and loved it - has always talked about moving to live there. I've never been, so it would be an excuse to experience something I never have.
2.2k - it should not cost that much at all! It's working out between £1600-£1900 depending who I go with. I think it's crazy high at the minute because it's so far in advance.

Ki