How To Get A Loan If Disabled & Not Able To Work

MonkeyGirl

Hi people please help us. Both my partner and I are unable to work due to ill health. We have two credit cards. In total our debt is around 4K. We thought about doing the 0% Credit Cards but got turned down due to not working. So we then thought of a loan we just tried to do it online and typed in disabled ( which we are classed as ) in the options when we apply it and click ok it comes back not recognised. So how do we go about getting a loan??? What I don't want to happen is we end up having to go to the bank to be told its a waste of time going in as we can't get it anyway.

We have managed all this time to pay the mortgage and an amount on the credit cards each month so paying a set amount isn't a problem.

Any help much appreciated.

Thank you.

margaretclare

You say you have 2 credit cards and are £4K in debt. So why do you want a loan? That will only put you further into debt and for longer, also will cost you more in interest charges. So why do it?

Are you managing to pay the credit cards, pay just the minimum required, or are you managing to pay any of the balance(s) off at all? If you pay just the minimum each month the balance will never get paid off because interest charges are just racking up all the time. How much are the APRs on each of your cards, and what's the exact figure on both of them - not 'around' £4K, the exact figure.

I know you're on disability benefits, but many illnesses can be made worse by stress e.g. worrying about debt. Have you got a budget based on your income? I would have thought the last thing you need is a loan on top of approx £4K of debt! If you can't pay the cards how are you going to pay a loan?

Sorry if I seem unsympathetic - I'm not, but these are things you need to think about. There may be good reasons for you being turned down for cards and loans!

Aunty Margaret

MonkeyGirl

The reason we want the loan is to pay of the credit cards as the interest on the cards is much much higher than the intrest on the loan would be. Yes we pay off over the minimum but I'm just not seeing it go down due to the intrest. Hence why we thought a loan would be better for us and then tear up the credit cards. We sometimes get late payment charges as well as we sometimes forget they are due as we don't always know the days and date of the week we are on. With a loan we could set up a direct debit. Yes It's going to be longer but the interest we pay back works out less with the loan that it did on the cards. We have thought about this in depth. Sorry I should of made it clear from the start that we wanted it to pay off the cards

margaretclare

Hi Monkeygirl

Before taking out a loan you need to do some quite complicated maths. The interest on the loan may be lower but the loan may run for longer and so you may not end up paying less - over time you might be paying more!! So you need to work out how much you want to borrow, at what rate, for how long, and then balance that against the amount you're paying on the credit cards.

It's not true that you can only have a direct debit on a loan and not on credit cards. You can pay your credit cards by direct debit - whyever do you think you can't? We pay everything by direct debit and that includes credit cards (which we pay off every month so that we pay no interest at all). Yes, the late payment charges can be stinkers - much higher than the month's interest! Why not look into setting up direct debits for your 2 credit cards? Or at the very least, make a note in your diary of the dates these things are due to be paid, and make an effort to pay them within the time. They send you a monthly statement and the date is clearly shown, also they warn you to allow 7 days before the due date, to make sure the payment hits your account.

It might help if you listed the cards, the balances, the APRs. I'm sure some of the more mathematically-aware people around here could do the complicated maths for you that I mentioned earlier.

Best wishes

Aunty Margaret

margaretclare

Hi monkeygirl

Having looked at this again, are you sure you're claiming all the benfits you're entitled to? You say you're managing to pay the mortgage - couldn't you get the interest paid by Income Support? Have a look at this:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/benefits/benefits_for_people_who_are_sick_or_disabled.htm

Best wishes

Aunty Margaret

MonkeyGirl

Thank you for your help but I'm only entitled to DLA and Incapacity. They wont give us income support as they say our Incapacity is too high.


In answer to your other question. One credit card interest is 17 % and the other is 15%. The Loan we were looking at was for 60months ( 5yrs) with the interest at 6.6%. It works out the we would pay about £850 interest over the 5yrs with the loan option. Whereas with the cards it would be about £2000 interest over the 5yrs.