Looking to take out £2-3K

Kesuke

I've just qualified from medical school and need to relocate across the country for work. However, I am flat out of cash after 8 years of university and won't get my current rental deposit back until AFTER I need to move (28 July)... I also won't get my first pay-check till 30th August. Salary will be £33K pa.

Seperately, I have a fixed rate professional training loan from NatWest that helped pay for medical school. It is in two parts, both have worked themselves up to about £11K at 7.9% and 8.5% interest respectively (so £22K total). These were taken out in 2008/9 and repayment is over a 5 year period starting later this year.

Otherwise I am about £1600 into a £2K overdraft facility and have a student loan.

What I am hoping to do is;

• Take out a further ~£2.5K of debt so I can relocate and surive until the first paycheck hits on 30/8/13. This can potentially be paid down very quickly once I have my existing rental deposit back and my first few paychecks coming in.
• Potentially I would also like to consolidate the two professional training loans as the rates seem excessive? (Natwest weren't enforcing the early repayment penalities on the training loan when i last checked)

I'm really hoping to get some ideas/tips on how I can achieve this. Once I start work I should be financially quite secure as the salary is good and job security is unsurpassed -- but I need to survive until that first paycheck hits.

Tixy

Will your new employers provide any relocation assistance? or a relocation loan?

You will likely struggle to take out a new loan now, as a job offer alone is rarely considered stable enough. You'd need to have started in a new job first and even then many lenders are reluctance to lend for the first few months.

Your chance of finding a lender prepared to lend to you over £22k when you already have that level of debts will be near zero on your salary.
Any other lender will base their affordability calculations on whether you can afford your existing debts and the new loan repayments on top of those - thats because they cannot be certain you will use the money to repay the old debts.

If employer won't provide assistance or a relocation loan then I'd be looking to see how cheaply you can live until your next paycheck. Cheapest housing cost will be to find a house share / rent a room for the first couple of months. You could see if the employer has a noticeboard or intranet where you could advertise for a room to rent.

Kesuke

Tixy wrote: »

Will your new employers provide any relocation assistance? or a relocation loan?

NHS. I can only claim one-off petrol expenses in relocation costs.

Tixy wrote: »

If employer won't provide assistance or a relocation loan then I'd be looking to see how cheaply you can live until your next paycheck.

This is my current stratergy. Unfortunately though my lifestyle is about as frugal as it can possibly be, short of simply starving. I only have around £350 left besides rent which needs to last me the 11 weeks between now and payday and is likely to be consumed entirely by cost-of-living essentials.

I wonder if Natwest would be likely to consdier extending my overdraft facility up to say ~£3k? This wouldn't meet the cost of relocating but it would be a significant step towards it.

It's a real catch-22 situation where I need money to start work, in order to earn money from work.

Tixy

Is your overdraft a standard one? or an old student account or graduate account?

I don't know if you would qualify for a graduate overdraft or loan with natwest (I don't know how med school would fit with that or the fact that you already have professional training loans) but that could be something to look at.
For a graduate loan then a job offer can sometimes be sufficient.

Kesuke

Tixy wrote: »

Is your overdraft a standard one? or an old student account or graduate account?

It's the £2K interest free student/graduate one.

What do you think would be the best way to persue the graduate loan option - arrange to go in and see them in a general branch?

(On a side note, when I took out the training loan i actually had a dedicated in-brnach graduate banking advisor with regular office hours that you could call or arrange to see at any time which was part of their sales pitch. When they scrapped the loans they also scrapped the advisors, so I'm not sure who my first port of call ought to be for this stuff as from past experience your general Natwest advisor is completely lost with the training loan stuff and most haven't even seen them before)

Kesuke

This is interesting... just seen this on natwest.com/personal/loans/g1/professional-training-loan.ashx (sorry, new user so can't post links).

Natwest wrote:

If you already have a Professional Trainee Loan with us you can arrange to borrow more (top-up) or make changes/enquiries in the following ways...

APR is 8.9% which is miles better than the 18% on graduate loans. (Although in my case beggars can't be choosers and either would be better than neither).

Clive_Woody

Kesuke wrote: »

This is interesting... just seen this on natwest.com/personal/loans/g1/professional-training-loan.ashx (sorry, new user so can't post links).

APR is 8.9% which is miles better than the 18% on graduate loans. (Although in my case beggars can't be choosers and either would be better than neither).

I think you may find that graduating medics are often treated differently to other students as their earning potential and job security are somewhat different to many other degrees.

It's some time since I was a student, but when I did my PhD at Cardiff medical school I shared a house with a number of med students, many of whom on graduation gained access to loans that enabled them to buy cars etc that would be needed as they start their career in medicine. Bear in mind this was more than 14 years ago so things have changed since then.

Do you have a student advice officer at med school or the student union? If so it might be worth having a chat with them as they may be able to provide more information on what finance is available to you.

PollyOnAMission

Would you be eligible for a 0% on purchases credit card? This could tide you over until payday.

Kesuke

PollyOnAMission wrote: »

Would you be eligible for a 0% on purchases credit card? This could tide you over until payday.

There is a 56-day interest free period. Minimum credit balance is £250 and maximum is apparently "Subject to status" - though I'd probably be reluctant to access any more than £500 (as that is roughly what I'm expecting to be returned to me in rental deposit so would have the safety of that).

It wouldn't solve my relocation problems - but failing all else it might put food on my plate and petrol in the car for those 11 weeks till I do get paid. In the past Natwest have been keen to upsell their credit card to me so this probably has a good chance of success. But at 18.9% APR this could be a slippery slope I'd rather avoid if possible - like I'd rather get a 1 year loan at 8.9% APR. My salary should comfortably handle the repayments with enough left over to live off and it doesn't carry the danger of getting sucked into perpetual credit card debts from day 1 of work.

Clive_Woody wrote:

I think you may find that graduating medics are often treated differently to other students

Finance options for doctors aren't as good as they once were, but one major company do offer specialised loans called Wesleyan Medical. Looking at their T&Cs though they don't look any better than those from a commercial bank -- wesleyan.co.uk/professions/doctors/juniordoctors/personaloans

Although Wesleyan may be more prepared to lend to a medic with quite high on-paper debts where a high street bank wouldn't

Clive_Woody

Kesuke wrote: »

Finance options for doctors aren't as good as they once were, but one major company do offer specialised loans called Wesleyan Medical. Looking at their T&Cs though they don't look any better than those from a commercial bank -- wesleyan.co.uk/professions/doctors/juniordoctors/personaloans

Although Wesleyan may be more prepared to lend to a medic with quite high on-paper debts where a high street bank wouldn't

For smaller amounts (less than £7500) Wesleyan quote 13.9% APR.

Normally I would advise against it, but do you have family who could lend you the money?

KAV43

hi
have you tried zopa or similar such company? not being a bank and based on social lending model, they may be more sympathetic to your reason for finance as long as you have never defaulted with payments in recent past or have bad credit history. also if you are not asking for huge amounts, just enough to tide you over until you start getting paid, then this might help? I think it's zopa.com. also your situation is not uncommon for many would be medics making transition but you have a paid placement with a contract (if NHS) so this should work in your favour.

hope this helps and good luck