Zopa loan soft search & pre-approval

Herzlos

Yeah that's the boat I'm in. If I hit the debt hard I can probably be clear in about 3 years, but I keep convincing myself I can afford to treat myself a bit. There's definitely a balance between paying off debt and having a life, but I'm definitely too far onto the having a life side.

Just view it as borrowing from your future self, and think of all the cool stuff you could get with that £1500 instead of giving it to the bank!

danlightbulb

I don't really feel I have that much of a life tbh. Kids just suck up all the cash. The only reason I have takeaways so much is that when I have the kids I'm that knackered at night I can't face cooking, so online I go.

If I watch every penny and go completely frugal then I could clear my debt in 3 years whilst still saving a fund. I just worked out in 5 years I could potentially have a £13k savings pot, which would be a house deposit. Id be 40 by then.

But it would require such meticulous penny watching day in day out to achieve that. It basically means giving up anything new and anything of any luxury for the next 5 years. When I get an itch I have to learn to ignore it its hard.

Herzlos

I think you need to allow yourself *some* luxury or you're likely to just snap

I'm certainly looking forward to all the spare cash when my debts are paid off too! I'll have like £500/month to spend on whatever I (well, the kid) wants...

Playing_with_Fire_2

I had a loan through Zopa and had the same message. They called me and asked for a copy of my employment contract, some bank statements and some ID. I think if anything had been amiss there (say contract was for a different salary to the one I'd put in the application), that they would have pulled the offer.

glentoran99

Playing_with_Fire wrote: »

I had a loan through Zopa and had the same message. They called me and asked for a copy of my employment contract, some bank statements and some ID. I think if anything had been amiss there (say contract was for a different salary to the one I'd put in the application), that they would have pulled the offer.

Bit much surely?

Cailbhinn

danlightbulb wrote: »

Weekly shop ...£160
Food at work ...£40
Takeaways paid by card ...£99
Cash withdrawals ...£160
Supermarket spend ...£260

Excluding the cash withdrawals you're spending £560 on food every month. I am not judging but when I went through my bank statements I was disgusted with the amount I spent on food, supermarket, lunches, takeaways etc - about £400 p/m but I don't have any kids or responsibilities. Get YNAB or another budgeting method (spreadsheet, envelope system) to get your monthly spends under control. Budgeting doesn't mean boring!

I love cars too but a 3L seems a bit excessive even to my petrol head.

All the best!

ryanm8655

Just spent ages writing a really long and profound reply and then my phone froze...so i'll give you the summary...

I've been in your shoes and took the loan and have massively regretted it ever since...

I had £8k debt which soon grew to £13k as a result of prolonged overspending (I went through a bad break up which didn't help). I consolidated this at a higher rate than the combined rates of the various sources of debts (I wasn't in a good place at the time abd wasn't thinking straight).

I now have a handle on things and refinanced the debt to reduce the value of the loan (I had 6 months worth of savings), repayment term (from 48 to 24 months) and the rate (reduced by 6% APR), so consolidation can be sensible but certainly not the way I did it first time round and certainly not in your case...

I'm now paying £464 a month to get rid of my debt...if I didn't have that I could live a nice lifestyle and also be saving for a mortgage at the same time...as it is I can do one or the other...so I massively regret it...If I had another chance I would do things very differently...

£300/month for 5 years is a lot of money for a longtime... That could pay for quite a few nice holidays a year with the kids...would you rather maintain a lifestyle of takeaways and pret for lunch or be able to build far more nice memories with your kids?

Personally I'd try and get some other 0% balance transfer offers and deal with the debt that way, but also sort your budget out (food shop, takeaways and £40/month on foid at work can easily be cut)...some simple changes will make a difference e.g. pack lunch for work will easily save £30/week, that's over 1.5k right there...

I'm all for making the most of life rather than scrimping abd being miserly but do so within your means...

You could be debt free in a year or 2 and tgen gave plenty enough to live a good life abd have some great times with your kids...

Re: Zopa not sure but I know the precheck rate I have been offered changed as soon as I applied with HSBC...stayed the same with ratesetters though...