Loan taken out after illness

fatstan40

Hi
Wonder if anyone has any advice? About a year ago, I suffered with a TIA (suspected stroke). A week or so after being discharged from hospital, in supporting my husband, I took out a loan. Due to already having some debt via credit cards/loan, I was offered a loan but at a high interest rate over a longer period of time than I would have liked. I didn't really know what I was agreeing to, I was a bit all over the place. As a consequence, I now have a loan at a high interest rate (20.9%) over a longer period of time than I would like. If I'm honest, I was completely oblivious to what I was agreeing to - and only recently discovered I was paying the loan over 6 years and not the 5 I thought. Can I do anything about this - or am I stuck in the position I'm in? Thanks in advance

BillJones

You can pay the loan back earlier, or refinance with another company at a lower rate, if one is available.

Your being ill will not be reason not to pay back what you borrowed. If this is what you are asking, then it'd be better to explicitly ask, as otherwise many people will take the time to give good advice that you will not really be looking for.

CLAPTON

the best thing to do is to stop spending on anything other than absolute essentials
cancel sky, mobile phones etc
and pay your debts as quickly as possible: if you have several pay the one with the highest APR off first

if you can refinance at a lower APR or get a 0% BT CC then consider doing that

once the debts are all paid off then maintain the frugal spending habits and build up a healthy sum in saving (min 3-6 months spending) because as you already know, unexpected events always happen.

Morglin

I have TIA's and am not sure how that would impact on financial decisions, or the signing up for them - presumably you looked for the loan, and signed the agreement? :think:

As advised, the only way to shorten the time of the debt will be to try and get another, cheaper loan to pay it off with.

Lin

Fishingtime

fatstan40 wrote: »

If I'm honest, I was completely oblivious to what I was agreeing to

But you were not oblivious to finding the loan

dealer_wins

Pull the other one OP, its got bells on it!!

Clive_Woody

fatstan40 wrote: »

Hi
Wonder if anyone has any advice? About a year ago, I suffered with a TIA (suspected stroke). A week or so after being discharged from hospital, in supporting my husband, I took out a loan. Due to already having some debt via credit cards/loan, I was offered a loan but at a high interest rate over a longer period of time than I would have liked. I didn't really know what I was agreeing to, I was a bit all over the place. As a consequence, I now have a loan at a high interest rate (20.9%) over a longer period of time than I would like. If I'm honest, I was completely oblivious to what I was agreeing to - and only recently discovered I was paying the loan over 6 years and not the 5 I thought. Can I do anything about this - or am I stuck in the position I'm in? Thanks in advance

The normal approach is to pay it back, you could increase payments or pay a lump sum to clear the debt.

Did you have something else in mind?

27col

Clive_Woody wrote: »

The normal approach is to pay it back, you could increase payments or pay a lump sum to clear the debt.

Did you have something else in mind?

I bet that I can guess what the alternative is that the OP has in mind./

Clive_Woody

27col wrote: »

I bet that I can guess what the alternative is that the OP has in mind./

That would be the one where the loan is considered a gift?

Morglin

I think, there have been cases, where loan firms were found to have pushed loans on those with learning difficulties, county courts have thrown them out as non enforceable, but this wouldn't apply to TIA's.

Lin

fatstan40

Thanks to those who have posted helpful comments. Just to clarify I am not looking for a way not to pay my debt. I was just looking for advice.