In a bit of a mess...a

marliepanda

Head_In_The_Sand wrote: »

Would paying off the 6k with a loan not reflect better on our credit file though? And that way we get to pay it back on our terms.

No, you'll still have the same amount of debt, and you'll still have a default.

Itll look better as the default will be marked 'settled' but youre literally talking 'very very bad' vs 'very bad'

As for it being on your terms, well you've already failed to meet one set of terms so it depends how much you trust yourself to not continue. As you'e 35k in debt, have little concrete knowledge of your outgoings and are upset about being embarrassed by tatty carpets I don't quite think you're there yet...

Pixie5740

Head_In_The_Sand wrote: »

Also presumably the interest over the term of the loan will be lower than the interest from the debt co?

Why do you presume that?

[Deleted User]

Head_In_The_Sand wrote: »

Also presumably the interest over the term of the loan will be lower than the interest from the debt co?

It will be a lot higher.

Head_In_The_Sand

Because credit card interest is higher than personal loan from the bank interest?

[Deleted User]

Buy your debt is with a debt collector. The interest will have been frozen. A loan will cost you a lot more even if you could get one, which you won't.

Head_In_The_Sand

Surely interest in credit card is approx 20% and in a personal loan it is more like 7%?

And if we can take the credit file from very very bad to very bad then that sounds like a step in the right direction?

Also just to explain, the credit default was incurred after one of our salaries stopped after a traumatic event (miscarriage). It has now resumed.

BorisThomson

Given your level of debt, who do you think will give you a mainstream loan?

Have you looked at your bank statements yet to work out where your money is going?

Head_In_The_Sand

I will be doing that over the next few days Boris. I think my Credit score may be enough to get a personal loan (?) - on paper at least we have almost £1000 disposable income per month.

[Deleted User]

Head_In_The_Sand wrote: »

I will be doing that over the next few days Boris. I think my Credit score may be enough to get a personal loan (?) - on paper at least we have almost £1000 disposable income per month.

Your score is irrelevant - no one sees it nor judges your credit-worthiness from it

If you do have £1000 per month spare (on paper, as we've established), then to be frank, how have you gotten in this pickle to begin with?

Ebe_Scrooge

OP, your user-name is most appropriate.


Please, I'm in no way meaning this to sound harsh, so please don't take it the wrong way. You've been given lots of correct and very useful advice here, yet you seem determined to ignore it. Borrowing your way out of debt is not going to work, it'll only make matters worse.


By your own admission, you don't know where all your money is going. Your first step HAS to be to create a full and accurate SOA. Be ruthlessly honest with yourself when you fill it out, account for everything you spend. Regular outgoing such as mortgage, insurances etc. are pretty easy to account for. It's the "odd treat here and there" that you may need to dig around in your bank statements to identify. But until you've done this, you're really just going to go round in circles. When you've got a complete picture of your income and outgoings, then you can start to make some headway and begin to address the problem.


As I say, this is intended to be helpful - please don't feel I'm criticising.