consolidation

stevenj2

Good Evening.....
I have been a little silly with money for the last couple of years:(
and had a sit down last night to go through what I have to pay out monthly.
Currently I have 2 x loans with around £2500 each on - couldnt tell you the APR rates but under 10% these have another 2 years left on them.
HSBC CC with £4427 at 18.9%apr (some of this at 0% balance tx)
6.5k limit

Halifax CC around £500 21.9% apr (limit of 3.5k)

i have other direct debits etc going out of my account but they are things like mortgage, gas, electic etc.
the

These "loans" are costing me £366 a month, so was thinking of getting a loan from HSBC at 3.3% for 10K over 5 years to reduce the monthly payments to £180 - with the possibility of paying overpayments to reduce the duration.

sounds simple.... but checked on MSE yesterday to do a soft check, and the elegibility came up low for a fair few of the credit providers, as low as 0% eligibility :( - but HSBC 90% eligible:)

so not sure if going through with the loan would be a good thing or not... or should i just struggle along paying the £366 a month:sad::eek:

any advice appreciated

fatbelly

Not much harm in applying, though you will find few fans of consolidation on these boards.

You do need to know the aprs of the loans you are consolidating.

Have you noticed on the HSBC site:

*The rate is subject to change and the representative APR may not be the rate you'll receive. We'll offer you a rate based on our assessment of your personal financial circumstances. The maximum APR you could be offered is 21.9%.

stevenj2

but if i was to apply and get rejected how would this affect my credit score?
or if i was to apply and get the higher rate, say 21.9% would this also affect my credit score?
and would my credit score improve if i was accepted and cleared off the outstanding loan providers??

[Deleted User]

Your score means absolutely nothing.

When you make an application, a search will be recorded. Nothing more.

stevenj2

Deleted_User wrote: »

Your score means absolutely nothing.

When you make an application, a search will be recorded. Nothing more.

so i take it checking your score with experian or whoever has no impact on it either?

[Deleted User]

No, .

stevenj2

just checked on experian - score of 805 - fair

sourcrates

stevenj2 wrote: »

just checked on experian - score of 805 - fair

Yes but it has no bearing on wether your approved for credit or not.

You need to meet a lenders lending criteria, nothing more, has nothing to do with the fictitious number they give you.

Very few customers meet the criteria for the headline rate on a loan.

[Deleted User]

stevenj2 wrote: »

just checked on experian - score of 805 - fair

/sigh/

That's bad, because the numbers add up to 13.

EssexHebridean

The most likely outcome if you consolidate now is that in 2 - 3 years time, tops you will be back here asking for advice about consolidating that loan, plus another couple of credit cards...put bluntly, the outcome is more often than not negative, rather than positive.

First step is to get together a workable budget - and use it for a while to be sure it DOES actually work. You might find the SOA (Statement of Affairs) that we point people to is helpful for this - you'll find it in the "sticky" thread at the top of the board. Fill it in as accurately as possible - remembering the less "routine" spends - things like car tax and insurance if you pay them annually, other insurances, and that sort of thing. where you are dividing things that are paid out annually over 12 months, you need to set in place arrangements to actually set the money aside. If you want to post the SOA into this thread once you've completed it we can take a look and see if there are any savings you might be able to make.

This will tell you what surplus you should have left in your account at the end of the month - and the next step is to make sure that you DO have that surplus - if not start keeping a spending diary so you can see where it's going.

It may be that in fact you can meet your current commitments more easily than you think, once you actually start budgeting properly.

Oh, and cut up those credit cards too.

enthusiasticsaver

What were the loans taken out for? Have you already tried consolidating before and are you living within a budget now?