Loans and credit rating!!!!

victoriac1978

Hi there,

Some advice please if you can!?

I have had a bad credit rating in the past and have been working very hard to get it back on track (I have a score of 951 with experian which apparently falls into the 'good' bracket. I have one default left on my account which falls off next year but unfortunately it is in the red bracket (very late payment to Next).

So, I recently applied for a £5k loan with my bank (Bank of Scotland) who told me I can't or wont get a loan with any decent company as there is a red flag on my account!

Can anyone tell me if this is true and will be the same with every other bank I try? I don't want to go to an online company and pay through the nose on interest and I also dont want to apply to numerous different banks if there is no point as this will affect my credit scoring! :wall::wall:

I would appreciate any advice anyone can give me - I am kinda at a loss as to what to do next

KingElvis

That "red mark" sounds like an internal bank marker on your account due to your past issues. Most banks plonk these onto peoples accounts based on the monthly feed banks taken from the credit reference agencies.

It's a pity because your own bank would've been your best chance by miles....lenders like Tesco, Sainsbuys and other banks won't touch you with a default.

If it's for a banger, you shouldn't have an issue with getting HP as it's secured on the car.

Good luck.

victoriac1978

Thanks for your reply. It's to pay off my credit card which fyi is with the Bank of Scotland but the APR is an absolute killer so right now I am basically throwing money away

KingElvis

Why not try to get another card with 0% on BT over 20 months or something?

Virgin are good or try the MoneySupermarket "smart search"?

Type that into Google, they match you with potential cards and there's no hit on your credit history.

Hazzinho

While you have a default your credit is not good, don't pay too much attention to credit scores, they mean very little and are easy money for CRAs, lenders don't see these scores and use their own criteria, I'm guessing some see defaults as an auto reject.

Cheshire007

I wouldn't worry too much about the default, from reading these pages over the past few

victoriac1978

Thanks for all the replies guys! I did try another credit card 'soft search' but again, I was told that I would only be suited to credit cards with really high APR. It's so frustrating, I know I can pay it back but then I guess I only have myself to blame for allowing the default to happen in the first place.

Cheshire 007 can I ask what bank you are with? It's really strange as the Bank of Scotland gave a the credit card a few years back with a £5k limit and my credit scoring was worse back then!?!?!?!

victoriac1978

I bank with the Bank of Scotland and although not huge amount I do have savings and I have never once went overdrawn or missed a payment on my credit card! They must have also done a soft search tho as she was away for literally 2 minutes and came back saying I wouldn't get it as there was a red flag on my credit (the only thing that can be is Next - there is nothing else on it at all). The search never showed up on my credit report which is why I am guessing it was a soft search they carried out?

iritchie

Some lenders are happy to negotiate on things like Credit Cards. It's worth giving them a call to say you're struggling to afford the outgoings on the credit card w/ current APR (though if you bank with them and you earn enough but your money is going elsewhere, then they'll obviously know).
I have friends who have managed to get balances freezed with set monthly payments etc.
It's worth getting on top of your finances, because things can easily spiral out of control if a large portion of your income goes on interest and charges every month.
Some lenders are blatantly in it for the money, while others are more focused on retaining long term customers.
In my experience with Bank of Scotland, they've been mainly good, but when I was at my worst point with debt, they weren't the most helpful really.
No point in taking out a loan to pay off a card if you can arrange a payment deal that involves cutting up your card.
You just have to be smart enough not to dig yourself back into debt once you've started paying it off and only arrange an affordable plan.

BugsyBrowne

iritchie wrote: »

Some lenders are happy to negotiate on things like Credit Cards. It's worth giving them a call to say you're struggling to afford the outgoings on the credit card w/ current APR (though if you bank with them and you earn enough but your money is going elsewhere, then they'll obviously know).
I have friends who have managed to get balances freezed with set monthly payments etc.
It's worth getting on top of your finances, because things can easily spiral out of control if a large portion of your income goes on interest and charges every month.
Some lenders are blatantly in it for the money, while others are more focused on retaining long term customers.
In my experience with Bank of Scotland, they've been mainly good, but when I was at my worst point with debt, they weren't the most helpful really.
No point in taking out a loan to pay off a card if you can arrange a payment deal that involves cutting up your card.
You just have to be smart enough not to dig yourself back into debt once you've started paying it off and only arrange an affordable plan.

Useless post.

iritchie

BugsyBrowne wrote: »

Useless post.

The very definition of your post. Thanks for your insight and great contribution to the topic....