Zopa loan soft search & pre-approval

danlightbulb

Hi guys,

Just a quick Q hopefully.

I've got a 'quote' from Zopa for a £15k loan, and first you go through the soft search process.

I had this message come up:

Congratulations! Your loan has been pre-approved

Your loan requires no further credit assessment and is conditional on standard verification checks.

I know it probably sounds obvious but I wasn't expecting this from only the soft search. Does it mean I have got the loan? What are the standard verification checks and could they be a stopper?

Obviously this is alot of money, being used to pay off credit cards and buy a new used car.

The rate I've been offered is 5.9% APR which isn't great (better than my own bank), but the repayments are reasonable, and the ability to soft search is a useful feature which you dont get with the cheaper APR loans on the best buy tables.

Thanks

Puddylove

Hi Dan
I stalked your previous posts - and your last posts suggested that you were struggling to pay back £10k borrowed on 0% credit cards, and didn't have a very good grip on your budget (not knowing where £280 actually went).
Consolidation loans rarely work (they didn't for me), particularly when you want even more debt.
Not what you want to hear - but there are some signs that your money management and your debt is spiralling out of control.
Think carefully about such a large loan.
P x

danlightbulb

Thanks for the reply puddylove.

I have £10k of credit card debt, some of which is coming up for switching again. Repayments are £220 a month so would take me 4 years to pay back.

A £15k loan would cost me £290 a month with zopa over 60 months. I could pay off my cards and have a £5k buffer whilst only adding a year to my repayment length and having the certainty of a fixed payment and no switching.

I have since got a better handle on my spending, tracking it, stopping eating takeaways. So the £288 repayment is doable. I had a small rise at work recently and should get another small rise of about £70 a month shortly.

With the £5k i could get a new used car, my current car has done 190k miles and repairs are escalating. Ir i could just keep it as a buffer.

[Deleted User]

danlightbulb wrote: »

With the £5k i could get a new used car, my current car has done 190k miles and repairs are escalating. Ir i could just keep it as a buffer.

Whatever you do, don't borrow money for savings. Borrow less and save your own money.

DCFC79

You have enough left once bills are paid to save for a new car.

Have you looked at the comments made on your soa and taken action on the comments ?

danlightbulb

Deleted_User wrote: »

Whatever you do, don't borrow money for savings. Borrow less and save your own money.

But it would take 5 years to save up the same buffer. If anything breaks on my car or any other unexpected bills its money back on the CC.

[Deleted User]

Not if you sort out your budget and save your surplus, as well as saving the money you wouldn't be spending on the loan.

Puddylove

danlightbulb wrote: »

Thanks for the reply puddylove.

I have £10k of credit card debt, some of which is coming up for switching again. Repayments are £220 a month so would take me 4 years to pay back.

A £15k loan would cost me £290 a month with zopa over 60 months. I could pay off my cards and have a £5k buffer whilst only adding a year to my repayment length and having the certainty of a fixed payment and no switching.

I have since got a better handle on my spending, tracking it, stopping eating takeaways. So the £288 repayment is doable. I had a small rise at work recently and should get another small rise of about £70 a month shortly.

With the £5k i could get a new used car, my current car has done 190k miles and repairs are escalating. Ir i could just keep it as a buffer.

So you are struggling to pay £220 for 4 years, yet your solution is to eat fewer takeaways, borrow even more for even longer?
I think, as a casual observer, that you are living beyond your means.

If you do borrow a £5k 'buffer' it is going to slip through your hands with nothing to show.

What did you spend the £10k that you have on CC, anyway?
P x

danlightbulb

DCFC79 wrote: »

You have enough left once bills are paid to save for a new car.

Have you looked at the comments made on your soa and taken action on the comments ?

Yes i have tried. Some things i cant change. Phone and broadband are locked in. Kids stuff pretty much unchangable. I have been trying to cut my general food bills, in process of switching energy, and i hope to save £200 this month. Last month i had to spend 250 on my sons xmas present, an xbox, but i got it second hand with lots of games. Ive also had mot and service to pay for this month. Very hard to save anything when i have to keep buying stuff.

danlightbulb

Puddylove wrote: »

So you are struggling to pay £220 for 4 years, yet your solution is to eat fewer takeaways, borrow even more for even longer?
I think, as a casual observer, that you are living beyond your means.

If you do borrow a £5k 'buffer' it is going to slip through your hands with nothing to show.

What did you spend the £10k that you have on CC, anyway?
P x

I wouldnt say im struggling to pay the 220.

Credit card debt has built up over a period of about 5 years. It is made up of 5 years worth of car repairs, kids xmas and birthday presents, my few days of holiday with the kids each year, a digital piano ive had for 3 years. From my previous posts you may have seen i got divorced and was left with some debt from being married previously which is now paid off. The kids are expensive and i live alone so all the bills to bear on only one salary.

Puddylove

danlightbulb wrote: »

I wouldnt say im struggling to pay the 220.

Credit card debt has built up over a period of about 5 years. It is made up of 5 years worth of car repairs, kids xmas and birthday presents, my few days of holiday with the kids each year, a digital piano ive had for 3 years. From my previous posts you may have seen i got divorced and was left with some debt from being married previously which is now paid off. The kids are expensive and i live alone so all the bills to bear on only one salary.

If the debt built up over 5 years, then you have been living above your means, and it's unsustainable. Christmas and birthdays are very predictable, and so are car repair costs - why did you not have emergency funds or savings to pay for these expenses?

Can you not keep the 0% credit cards, but pay more off, and save towards a new car? If you save £200 a month, that builds up quite quickly.

If someone had stopped me at the consolidation loan point and said '!!!!!! are you doing?' I might have saved myself some grief.
P x