Will it get better?

emmat123

Currently owe a final payment on a Santander loan and a couple of hundred on a littlewoods catalogue. Ive applied for car finance and its come in at 49% APR. I knew it would be high so kind of expected it.
Next month I'm paying both the Santander loan and the littlewoods off, all gone, will my credit rating get better once Ive done this. Am I best of waiting till they are paid and reapplying for car finance - I'm aware the more you apply for credit the worse your rating gets.

Pixie5740

You don't have a universal credit score. It's what on your credit files that's important. 49% APR is huge which suggests there's something other than a Santander loan and a couple of hundred on a catalogue account. Do you have any defaults? CCJs?

Maximum_Saving

I think it is excellent your credit rating will soon get better. You have one last payment on your Santander loan. You will also pay off your Littlewoods debt. I could take two to three months to see a positive difference on your credit rating.

In 2013 I wanted to buy a second hand car. I paid a mixture of cash, debit card and credit cards. Have you looked into getting a zero percent interest credit card? I had a savings account give me the money at the end of my term. So then I was able to pay more for the credit card balances.

Try doing a soft search rather than a hard search for a zero percent interest credit card. Good luck because 49% APR would be very expensive indeed.

emmat123

Defo no CCJ's, might have few defaults, especially with the catalogue. Would this alone knock it so badly?
I was bankrupt in 2008, discharged after a few months, managed to secure the Santander loan in 2013 with an APR of 23% so now I'm really confused.

[Deleted User]

emmat123 wrote: »

might have few defaults

There's your answer. Short of being bankrupt or a CCJ, that's about as high risk as you can get.

emmat123

I've always caught up, just late payments really.
Just realised I'm not on the open electrol roll either! Pah! That won't help matters either will it?

So if I pay up both, go on the electrol roll, how long would you expect to see a difference?

m4rc

emmat123 wrote: »

Defo no CCJ's, might have few defaults, especially with the catalogue. Would this alone knock it so badly?
I was bankrupt in 2008, discharged after a few months, managed to secure the Santander loan in 2013 with an APR of 23% so now I'm really confused.

You would only have one default with the catalogue, pretty unlikely if they defaulted you they would let you carry on hen default you again. A default is kind of a big deal, you get a letter telling you it may happen and the impact it could have, then they have to tell you they have defaulted you, it has a big impact on your credit history.

Unless at loan will be paid off in a few months you should look for other options in my opinion, 50% interest is very high. Get so,etching cheap and cheerful, run it into the ground, save the money you would have been paying for the loan and when you have enough buy a nice car cash or as your credit history will have had more time to mature you may get a great finance offer and have a decent deposit. 50% is really high and if it's over a couple of years or more I'd steer well clear.

Superscrooge

emmat123 wrote: »

Defo no CCJ's, might have few defaults, especially with the catalogue. Would this alone knock it so badly?
I was bankrupt in 2008, discharged after a few months, managed to secure the Santander loan in 2013 with an APR of 23% so now I'm really confused.

Any defaults will automatically make you high risk. Would you lend money to someone if you knew they didn't pay it back last time?

With time, as long as you don't miss any further payments, your credit history will improve. But it does take a long time to repair the damage caused by defaults.