Debt/Loan Eligibility questions

falafel

Hi - Apologies re-posting separately as I couldn't figure out earlier how to post a new thread!

I’m looking for any advice on personal loans, as I’m a little new to all this but really want to find a way to pay off an old debt.

As a background, I’ve lived in UK for about 5 years and am self-employed – earning around £35k a year. My wife has lived here the same amount of time, but has a full-time job earning about £32k.

1) my wife has credit card debt of about $15,000 Canadian (from many years back now, when she admittedly was young and mis-spent!) – she has been paying of minimum amounts for years, but its’ now time to try and get rid of this.
2) We have good credits records in the UK (as her debt is back in Canada), banks accounts, credit cards that have never been behind on debt and no other debt.
3) We were wanting to take a personal loan of around £7.5k to consolidate that Canadian credit card debt, and pay off the loan over 36-42 months. Hoping for a reasonably low APR. (in anycase lower than whatever the Canadian credit card charges)

Given I’m self-employed the loan would probably just come from my wife’s name?

Currently when we fill out loan eligibility test on MSE etc. it comes to a 30% chance of the Sainsbury’s loan at 3.9% - most of the others are 10% to 0% chance.
This doesn’t leave me very hopeful! I don’t really want to start applying for loans if they are not going to be accepted, or accepted at quite high rates only, as I know hard searches can impact credit scores.

Would it be better to try with our bank (we have joint accounts with Co-Operative) or credit card institution (Halifax)? Or does that not make a difference

Appreciate any suggestions

Candyapple

Why such a low percentage for loans? Do you two have a lot of other debts or something?

Please answer below for yourself and also your wife:

Do you have any joint bank accounts / mortgages?

Please list all credit card limits along with outstanding balances.

Do you have any other loans / overdraft / car finance etc?

Do you have any late payments / defaults / CCJs?

Are you on the electoral roll (does it show on all 3 files?)

Do you have any other closed / settled accounts in your history?

Do you have many other 'credit' accounts showing on your files such as bank account / mobile phone etc.?

Have you made any credit applications in the last 12 months?

DCFC79

Credit scores aren't seen by anyone else except except you, lenders don't see the score.

falafel

Candyapple wrote: »

Why such a low percentage for loans? Do you two have a lot of other debts or something?

Please answer below for yourself and also your wife:

Do you have any joint bank accounts / mortgages?

Please list all credit card limits along with outstanding balances.

Do you have any other loans / overdraft / car finance etc?

Do you have any late payments / defaults / CCJs?

Are you on the electoral roll (does it show on all 3 files?)

Do you have any other closed / settled accounts in your history?

Do you have many other 'credit' accounts showing on your files such as bank account / mobile phone etc.?

Have you made any credit applications in the last 12 months?

No other debts. We have 2 joints accounts (since 2014) and no mortgages.
Have 2 credit cards with limits of £4750 and £7500. No outstanding balance outside the monthly usage. Never fallen behind on these either.
No Overdrafts etc.
We are both on electoral roll as far as I know. (i should double check this)
Have credit accounts with mobile phone.
No applications in the last 12 months/ever.
When i did a credit score check for myself it came as good/excellent - my wife's credit was good also. The % i mention is from loan eligibility tools on MSE

Candyapple

The free versions to check your credit files are below:
Experian: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/creditclub
Equifax: https://www.clearscore.com
Call Credit: https://www.noddle.co.uk

Are all your bank accounts / mobile phone / credit cards / electoral roll etc all showing for you both?

Given both your salaries and going by what you've said, something appears to be in your credit history that is preventing you from getting a high percentage for loan application, especially for such a small amount. You need to go through them with a fine tooth comb and find out what it is.

falafel

Ok thanks alot, I was very surprised also.
We haven't done a proper CC for my wife's history - so will use those websites.

Candyapple

Have you tried your luck with a money transfer card instead? If you went with MBNA they historically give large limits so you may find that you don't even a need a loan. What do the results show?

https://creditcards.moneysavingexpert.com/?money-transfers&_ga=2.7777138.1326189476.1517825568-1969417388.1516998791

enthusiasticsaver

Have you looked on Noddle to see if anything comes up? Your self employment may be a factor as lenders generally assume unpredictable income.

dresdendave

With joint income of £67k and no other debts, could you not just live frugally for a few months and throw as much as possible at the CC until it is gone? Seems better than just replacing it with a new debt, albeit on better terms.

falafel

Candyapple wrote: »

Are all your bank accounts / mobile phone / credit cards / electoral roll etc all showing for you both?

Given both your salaries and going by what you've said, something appears to be in your credit history that is preventing you from getting a high percentage for loan application, especially for such a small amount. You need to go through them with a fine tooth comb and find out what it is.

Thanks for your reply earlier. My wife just did the credit check on Noddle. It comes to '639 and 5/5' - i know the score doesn't mean anything, but there are no real holes in the report. 1 credit card, 1 phone bill and 2 bank accounts. Still showing as 30% elgibility as the highest. Maybe there isn't enough credit history?

A seperate question - I thought the soft searches on MSE etc for loan/credit card eligibility, dont show up on credit reports, but it seems they do. Is that a problem?

[Deleted User]

They only show to you. Not lenders.