Gopher Money - all it's cracked up to be?

Moneymatterstome

A bit of advice please people.

In brief my wife and I both have unsecured debts. I have a loan to the value of £10,500 and a credit card balance to the value of £3,500. My wife has a loan to the value of £5000 and a credit card balance of £1700. We also have a joint loan interest free with hitachi for furniture to the value of £4000.

My credit card will shortly be out of its 0% apr offer and up to 17.9%, with the payments going up to £70 a month from £30 to make any inroads into the balance. I suspect I will not be able to transfer such a balance to a 0% interest credit card again.?

Our total debt is approximately £25,000. We pay out jointly £620 on these debts. The debts are due to expire anywhere in the range of 3 years to 4 and the credit cards have no definitive end date....we can just about afford this but we are looking to save money where we can at the moment as we want to start a family....So......

The initial thought process was to get one loan to consolidate all loans and know it will all be paid off within 5 years.

Before committing to a loan application I checked my credit score which stands at 972 which is classed as excellent.....however i have an affordability percentage of 68%, which I understand to mean that 68% of my income already goes on debt and no loan company at the moment will consider anyone above 35%!....

Credit expert then put me in touch with Gopher money who explained they would contact all the creditors and take on the debt for us interest free......and we would pay back what we afford.... So far so good.... They then explained there is a maintenance fee of £35 for every £200 for you pay.!! However......If you were to set your arrangement up at £200 per month you could make an overpayment for as much as you like. !?

So my thought process currently is:.....
To transfer the debt to gopher who wipe the interest on all current loan/credit card arrangements, and set up my agreement at £200 per month but pay back £500 per month, thus only incurring a monthly charge of £35, we would then clear the debt within 4 years and the total maintenance fee would only be £1680... (£35x48 instalments)

This fee works out a lot cheaper than the combined interest we are paying on our loans and credit cards, for example I had a settlemt figure on my loan for £8700, so I still have to pay £1800 interest on that loan, I would assume gopher would only take on the balance of £8700!?

We have been advised by Gopher that we will not be able to obtain credit with these companies(whose debt they take on) whilst this agreement is in place and it will have a short term effect on our credit rating but after 6 months our credit rating would be back to normal, but to be honest the idea is to get out of borrowing money and not getting further credit so I am not too fussed about that if it is only short term.....l

Any thoughts/help or advice would be greatly appreciated !!

Many thanks for reading.

[Deleted User]

The whole idea is insane and will leave you penniless and with a trashed credit rating for the next 6 years.

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Hi my thoughts are that i would never pay someone to arrange a dmp for me. CCCS do this for free. I may be wrong but i always thought that once you default on a debt your credit file is affected for 6 years? Or is it a short term dmp and no default will be issued? I would find out more. £35 for every £200 could be paid off your debt. Sorry if i have read this wrong.

opinions4u

If you're going to go down this route use CCCS. Don't use a profit making firm with a stupid name.

Apples2

They are called Gopher money as that is what they do, they Go for your money

Your first couple of months payments go straight in their pocket, your creditors do not receive a single penny, your creditors will throw on loads of addtional interest as you have stopped paying them, Gopher will cream a large whack of your payments each and every month for themselves.

Crazy idea, lunacy even, only a complete baffoon would sign up to such a scam.

Have we convinced you yet?

Call the CCCS or Payplan - do things properly, not some hairbrained scheme because of empty promises you are reading.

Tixy

If you cannot meet your minimum payments due each month - then DMP may be a suitable option for you.

But whoever you use (monkey companies like Gopher or a charity/free provider like Payplan/ CCCS) your credit rating will be trashed for at least 6 years and nobody can guarantee your creditors will agree to freeze interest as part of the agreement. Certainly nobody wipes your interest.

If you can meet your monthly repayments (without having to reuse credit) then you would not qualify for a DMP - and the chance of creditors agreeing to freeze interest is very slim.

DCFC79

Your paying a company to do a job which to be honest could end up you in amess whereas you could go to cccs or paylan and get it done for free. Up to you if you want to go with gopher.

paddyrg

I would take harsh steps, but if you're desperate enough to consider paying £35 of every £200 for a trashed credit record, you're desperate enough to take harsh steps!

You probably realised you can't afford your lifestyle as it stands - so something has to give. You are barely standing still and the interest will keep you in that position unless you start getting drastic. How about a money diet? Back to basics for a while and overpay these debts as fast as you can. It won't be pretty, but if you really want kids, you're going to need to rethink finances anyway. What can you sell NOW? £100 now is worth £200 in 5 years (well, depending on interest rates etc, but as an example), so anything you can overpay this month will save you hugely down the road. Chop up the cards - LITERALLY. Be ruthless. Cabbages may not be fashionable, but they are flavourful and cheap... well you get the idea. If you get 3 take-outs a week, go down to 1 on treat night. If you drink booze, drink less. Make sandwiches for lunch and save a few quid at the canteen. Each saving a fiver a working day on coffee and lunch is £200/month. Get rid of a car and walk to work - save on the fuel and insurance etc. Try the debt-free wannabe board for ways to get yourself clear without trashing any chance of any form of credit for the next 6+ yrs

dealer_wins

paddyrg wrote: »

I would take harsh steps, but if you're desperate enough to consider paying £35 of every £200 for a trashed credit record, you're desperate enough to take harsh steps!

You probably realised you can't afford your lifestyle as it stands - so something has to give. You are barely standing still and the interest will keep you in that position unless you start getting drastic. How about a money diet? Back to basics for a while and overpay these debts as fast as you can. It won't be pretty, but if you really want kids, you're going to need to rethink finances anyway. What can you sell NOW? £100 now is worth £200 in 5 years (well, depending on interest rates etc, but as an example), so anything you can overpay this month will save you hugely down the road. Chop up the cards - LITERALLY. Be ruthless. Cabbages may not be fashionable, but they are flavourful and cheap... well you get the idea. If you get 3 take-outs a week, go down to 1 on treat night. If you drink booze, drink less. Make sandwiches for lunch and save a few quid at the canteen. Each saving a fiver a working day on coffee and lunch is £200/month. Get rid of a car and walk to work - save on the fuel and insurance etc. Try the debt-free wannabe board for ways to get yourself clear without trashing any chance of any form of credit for the next 6+ yrs

Fantastic post, but its wasted on most people in debt who want an instant solution NOW, just like the reason they got into debt in the first place.

Hard work in any form in seriously out of fashion these days LOL

malkyh

A family member of mines went down this road. My advice is do not even consider paying someone to do it.

They fleece you out of money and there are other companies who do it for free.

poppasmurf_bewdley

You are not 'transferring the debt' to Gopher ... all you are doing is increasing your own debt. All the debts, and that includes the extra debt you will be getting from Gopher, will remain yours.

Why would any sane person want to pay someone 17.5% of the debts you are paying. It's the same thing as increasing your total debt by 17.5%.

These are the economics of the madhouse!