New to this - what are my chances of a loan?

pickle56

Income: 1450 per month average, after tax.

Rent, bills, CT etc £515 per month
Mobile & phone £38 per month
Car finance £115 per month (0%) £4370 remains to pay
A personal loan (£6880 left to pay 7.8%) £345 per month regular payments.
TV Licence £12 per month.

I have a credit card with £6050 credit limit on, and I'm near that limit because Barclays decided to reduce my limit. At the moment, I pay the remainder of my wages all on to the credit card, but then my fuel and food costs (£80 a month on fuel, 100 a month on food) go back on the card.
I am living as frugally as I can, I have sold pretty much everything I have except things I need for work. My only entertainment is my PS2 and Freeview TV.

The card has built up from a mixture of my old car costs last year, Xmas / Birthdays, Funeral costs and various other things going wrong which I had to pay to fix.

It's like I have no pocket money each month, and I want to go out with friends, or socialise, but I know if I do, I'll spend way more than I should.

I have been thinking about getting a loan to clear my credit card, and the existing loan. Earning as much as I do, would I be able to get one? I hear it's more difficult to get loans now, and with my car on finance would it be out of the question?

I have no savings, no major assets, (apart from my car, which I NEED for work which is now worth £5k tops)

On the plus side, I have never missed a payment though last month, my CC interest put me £1.23 over my cc limit (becasue they lowered the limit from 7500, but I paid it immediately! (would that make me have a black mark?)

some words of encouragement would be great right now. I feel liek I'm in a spiral...

eyeopener2

Hi

Welcome to DFW!

There are no easy solutions to debt unfortunately, there are solutions though.

What you will find after posting here is that people will make suggestions and these can be tough to read but they are from a good place.

So I will go first....forget a consolidation loan - you probably won't get one anyway as your debt is so high compared to your income. They are rarely a good idea anyway, I should know I did it twice. You just end up using the card again.

You say you need a car for work. What does this need entail? is it for traveling while working or commuting? Could a cheaper banger/runaround do the same job?

Can you get a second job, bar work, pizza delivery, etc, for the 19 months left on your personal loan?

pickle56

My older cheaper banger kept costing me loads to fix and keep going, MOTS etc. I need a good looking (presentable) car for work, (It's only a Kia, but it's so reliable and cheap to insure and good MPG compared to my last few older cars!) all part of the image for work. And an evening job isn't an option, as although I have standard work hours, the nature of my job means my finish time and days of work is never regular. So Monday, home at 9pm, Tuesday short day, Wednesday this week day off, Saturday, sunday this week I have work too, but nothing monday or tuesday next week.

Sales for a small yet growing compay means I need to be flexible, but also maintain a presentable car. I love my job (lucky) and enjoy what I do, and the people I work with. I feel I would be a fool to leave.

SO just keep plugging away at this as I have been doing?

mrsb83_2

If you need to use your CCs to live then you need to change. Forget about another loan - you need to address your spending and current debt.

You say you live frugally - if that's right and you still can't service your debts properly then you need to consider a debt management programme (where you split however much you can afford for debt repayments amongst your creditors) or something like a Debt Relief Order. These will affect your credit for 6 years, but so will not being able to keep up with payments.

There is a lot of great info on these boards. If you post a Statement of Affairs (link at the top of the forum), then people will be able to give you tailored advice.

nfollows1982

Although I am recently new here I speak from experience when I say don't consolidate.

It seems like a great idea at the time but having the commitment of a high loan repayment killed me and put me back into the cycle of spending on credit to survive and however much you say you wont, I'd almost guarantee you will spend again on your cards.

I also got into the same cycle of living on the last few ££'s of my credit card limit and paid XX off each month only to spend the same amount again.

If your car is purely for work image, can your company provide you with a pool car so you can send your car back and stop the finance repayments?

You sound like you've reached the point I did and the best piece of advice I can give you is to read a lot of information on here and speak to either Payplan or CCCS.