Need your advice please?

spurs501_2

Hi Everyone.

I'm 12 months into a 7 year unsecured personal loan with NatWest. The loan total is £38,000 and I'm paying £538.00 per month.

The thing is I had a bad time financially over the last 3 - 4 months and I'm about to write to NatWest to ask if there's any chance I can pay reduced amounts for a while or even take a payment holiday.

One of the terms and conditions of the loan says:

“Without any obligation on the Bank to do so, the Bank shall be entitled to allow the Customer extended time to pay or grant any other indulgence to the Customer without affecting any of the rights of the Bank in whole or in part.”

What do you think the chances are of them agreeing to me making reduced payments or a payment holiday?

Have you had any experience of this with NatWest???

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

jonesMUFCforever

Banks do not lend unsecured more than £25000 on a personal loan.
Was this loan to consolidate debts or something else?

You may get a repayment holiday for 1 month but this pushes up the interest payable at the end and will cost you (my estimate) an extra 3 months at the end.

I think your chances of getting a continued reduction in repayments are nil unless you default (ie 3 or months in arrears).
You may have to consider debt counselling through National Debt helpline or CAB who may ask you to consider IVA or DMP or bankruptcy.

spurs501_2

ejones999 wrote: »

Banks do not lend unsecured more than £25000 on a personal loan.
Was this loan to consolidate debts or something else?

You may get a repayment holiday for 1 month but this pushes up the interest payable at the end and will cost you (my estimate) an extra 3 months at the end.

I think your chances of getting a continued reduction in repayments are nil unless you default (ie 3 or months in arrears).
You may have to consider debt counselling through National Debt helpline or CAB who may ask you to consider IVA or DMP or bankruptcy.

Hi

Thanks for your reply, At present I haven't missed a payment (or even been late in paying), I was just asking for a "breather" for a short while to get back on my feet after a few unexpected bills.

Out of interest my loan WAS to consolidate existing borrowing / overdraft.

Thanks again!

jonesMUFCforever

That's one hell of a debt to consolidate.
Can I ask how it was done?
As I said previously only loans up to £25000 are covered by CCA.

spurs501_2

Sure! I had an existing personal loan for 10K (to purchase a car) and when I separated from my wife I needed to raise extra cash to buy her share of our property, so the bank (NatWest) allowed me to add to my existing personal loan. Oh, and the outstanding balance I have mentioned of course includes the interest. When you say the CCS "only covers loans upto £25K" what exactly do you mean by this?

Thanks again.

jonesMUFCforever

I mean Consumer credit act.
Banks will normally only lend up to £25000 on a personal loan.
Are you sure that it is unsecured and Nat West do not have a charge over your house?

spurs501_2

ejones999 wrote: »

I mean Consumer credit act.
Banks will normally only lend up to £25000 on a personal loan.
Are you sure that it is unsecured and Nat West do not have a charge over your house?

Hi. Thanks again for your interest.

The loan is definately UNSECURED, the bank has NO charge over my house!!

The loan details are:

£22,850.00 (main loan)
£ 7,306.00 (insurance loan)

APR: 13.1%

84 Months @ £538.42

Total Payable: £45,227.28

Amount still outstanding: £38,000+


I think I know the answer already, but do you think there is anyway I could stop paying the loan protector (which is costing me £130.45 per month)?? Or is this a stipulation of the loan do you think??

Thanks again in advance.

jonesMUFCforever

Now we are getting somewhere - you didn't get a loan for £38000 but one for £22850 + insurance premium.
As this is under £25k (before the insurance is added) it is covered by the CCA.

The figure of £38k is derived at by adding up all the interest you will pay over the full term of the loan.

You ask whether you can remove the PPI - why did you take it in the first place? What is your health like? What are your job prospects - is it safe or is there a chance of you being made redundant?
Do you have a Plan B if you had no insurance and any of the above occurred?

A few points to consider before blindly cancelling the cover.

wannabedebtfree_2

It may be cheaper to have seperate income protection, depending on your job and how 'dangerous' it is you could probably cover your whole income for less than the loan is covered for - but check it out before cancelling the PPI - as like the OP said, depending on your health etc.

£7k for insurance though - no wonder the bank rubs their hand in glee when people take out PPI, when I worked in a high street financial institute we used to get double the commission for a loan sale with PPI, sometimes triple depending on the lender they ended up with!

spurs501_2

ejones999 wrote: »

Now we are getting somewhere - you didn't get a loan for £38000 but one for £22850 + insurance premium.
As this is under £25k (before the insurance is added) it is covered by the CCA.

The figure of £38k is derived at by adding up all the interest you will pay over the full term of the loan.

You ask whether you can remove the PPI - why did you take it in the first place? What is your health like? What are your job prospects - is it safe or is there a chance of you being made redundant?
Do you have a Plan B if you had no insurance and any of the above occurred?

A few points to consider before blindly cancelling the cover.

Hi.
I think the PPI may have been a stipulation of the loan?

As for cancelling the insurance, I'm 30 years old and health is good. The company I work for has been established for over 100 years (and I've never been out of work). That said if I cancel the insurane it would save me £130.00 EVERY month. Is it that easy to cancel the insurance do you think?

Thanks in advance.

inmypocketnottheirs

spurs501 wrote: »

Hi.
I think the PPI may have been a stipulation of the loan?

As for cancelling the insurance, I'm 30 years old and health is good. The company I work for has been established for over 100 years (and I've never been out of work). That said if I cancel the insurane it would save me £130.00 EVERY month. Is it that easy to cancel the insurance do you think?

Thanks in advance.

An offer of a loan can not be conditional upon taking PPI. You have probably been miss sold the insurance and I would see about cancelling. I am sure that you will find cheaper insurance if you need to, just do a google.

HTH