Zopa loan soft search & pre-approval

Herzlos

Agreed. I'm still hurting years after the consolidation loan route. It's just a bad idea.

danlightbulb wrote: »

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.

What if nothing breaks on the car for 2 years? You'll have paid enough in interest alone to get most issues fixed.

Paying interest on a loan in advance of needing it is crazy. Why not borrow what you need, save up and then if you're still short, borrow what you need then. Put the difference in repayments into a savings account.

danlightbulb

Puddylove wrote: »

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

The reason i couldnt save an emergency fund is because id just separated from my wife, had to rent a place of my own, was still paying off a conservatory we had built, and had to start paying out a serious proportion of my salary in child maintenance costs. It left me barely getting by even without any extras. The tiniest thing went on the card.

5 years down the line the conservatory loan is gone and im earning a bit more now. So i can start paying these things off. But my car is now 12 years old and has done 190k miles. It will break at some point and i simply cannot live without a car. The kids are getting older and presents are getting more expensive. And my laptop screen is broke.

I guess me wanting a new used car is my desire taking over my common sense. The car ive looked at is a 5 series 3 litre petrol. I have very little things to interest me in my life. In the past 5 years ive learned piano, got a mountain bike and joined a gym. Always liked cars cant help wanting a nice one now mine is old. I dont drink or smoke and rarely socialise because of the cost. Even having a girlfriend was becoming too expensive.

Ive just worked out some stuff. If i paid 300 a month off the cards and saved 100 extra id have paid the cards off in 3 years and have 3600 in savings by this point. But id have to dip into that for xmas etc and for car stuff.

Puddylove

I sympathise - I split from my ex a few years ago, and live alone. Life (and children) are expensive.

Paying £300 off the cards, and saving for a car seem like a better plan. At the point your current car is not viable to repair, you could use those savings and get a smaller therefore cheaper car loan for the rest.

I did that (my 10yr old petrol car has done 160k) although I saved £200 per month, and I've now got £4400 - enough to buy a used car or put towards a better one.

You could always save more towards the car, and set up an emergency fund, and pay less on your card...as long as your total debt is going down.

Worth revisiting your SOA maybe?
P x

Herzlos

danlightbulb wrote: »

The car ive looked at is a 5 series 3 litre petrol. I have very little things to interest me in my life.

Whilst I sympathise with your situation, I'm not sure that's the smartest choice. Sure it'll be nice but it'll be an expensive weight around your neck.

However, it's potentially a good idea if its A pretty old and B you do pretty low mileage, otherwise you'll be paying over the odds for the car and a lot in fuel (it'll do maybe 25mpg?), tax and insurance. I've got a 10 year old 2.5 X-Type petrol but I only do ~5k miles a year.

danlightbulb

You are right of course. It would cost £100 per month more to run at my mileage level. Its a heart over head thing and i know i shouldnt do it.

Im embarrassed to be honest. Ive just rerun my SOA numbers. Dont have access to template as on the phone but here are the ones that matter:

Wages in ...£2430
Child maint ...£440

Rent ...£525
Council tax ...£78
Energy bill ...£60
Water bill ...£14
Contents insurance ...£5
Virgin tv and internet ...£40
Tv license ....£12
Mobile phone ....£30
Life insurance ...£7

Credit card repayments ...£300

Car insurance ...£50
Fuel costs ...£115
Road tax ...£13

Contact lenses ...£38
Gym membership ...£20
Kids activities ...£30

Weekly shop ...£160
Food at work ...£40


This leaves £460 a month. Im embarrassed that currently this amount of money is disappearing without me knowing where it goes its a disgrace on my part. I should be able to save £200 a month and still have money left over. Its laziness on my part thats the only explanation.

I have looked at last months bank statement and added up the following:

Takeaways paid by card ...£99
Cash withdrawals ...£160
Supermarket spend ...£260

This is where im leaching money.

Herzlos

danlightbulb wrote: »

You are right of course. It would cost £100 per month more to run at my mileage level. Its a heart over head thing and i know i shouldnt do it.

There are definitely cheaper options out there if you just want something nicer / more fun to drive. We might be able to give recommendations if you give us an idea of what you need/want. 1.8T MG ZT is going to give you a nice car for peanuts with reasonable space/performance, for instance, though will be getting a bit long in the tooth (they stopped making them 10 years ago).

Leaking money is definitely the killer - I do it as well and have no idea where my salary goes.

Virgin tv and internet ...£40
Mobile phone ....£30
Contact lenses ...£38
Gym membership ...£20

You can probably pare these down a bit too for some fairly easy additional savings. Depending on what deals you've got and what's available.

tv - do you need cable tv? You should be able to get a phone + internet plan for about £20 without the tv.

£30/month mobile phone seems a bit steep as well, can you drop onto a cheaper package whenever it renews? You'll save a fortune going sim-only. I use a fraction of my allowance.

Do you need to be spending £456 on contact lenses? You'd be much better off with glasses and keep a pack of contacts for special occasions. If you can cope with wearing glasses.

£20/month gym is pretty reasonable, but there are places like puregym and xercise4less up here that are £10-15/month. Might be worth checking out when your contract expires.

Every little helps and all

danlightbulb

Hi.

The car i liked was an older 530i, 2001 year, had done 100k and was up for £2.5k. Good price considering the car. Older than my current car which is an 2003, but half the mileage.

Re the tv and phone yes once contracts are up in a year ish i can reduce costs. Problem is phones struggle to last 2 years nowadays dont they.

Contact lenses no way. I consider them essential and hate wearing glasses. I wear them for 14 hrs a day so optician advised the accuvue moist which are 38 for my prescription.

Gym is puregym but is 20. Cant get it cheaper.

Pixie5740

I'm not sure if you will definitely get the Zopa loan based on that message. I wonder what the other verification checks will be.

I agree with the others that borrowing an additional £5k to have as an emergency fund is madness. There are several areas of your budget that you could cut down on but for various reasons and excuses you cannot/will not. Keep a spending diary, find out what you fritter away that £460 every month on.

If you continue to spend more than you've got coming in you will just continue the debt death spiral. See my signature.

Herzlos

Ah, puregym is £15 here, but I'm nowhere near civilization.

If you're looking at 14 year old cars, I'm sure you could get nicer (and/or cheaper running) for less, though that is already squarely in luxobarge territory. I'm seeing a lot of 520/523/525 petrols under £1000, and quite a few 520/530d's as well under about £1500. Some might be a generation older though.

danlightbulb

I could get cheaper running certainly, but probably not nicer. Dont think a 5 series can be beat at that age group really- it was a 40k car brand new. May as well keep my ford mondeo which is cheap as you can get to run in a family sized car.

I find myself making excuses to myself. So this loan for example, i can afford the repayments and i can get the car i want but the tradeoff is extending my debt for a year and paying 1500 morein interest over that period. I kind of feel that in the long term id be ok anyway as my costs should stay stable and the debt will still come down. But i will always run on debt if i continue this way, like most businesses and governments do.