Need to borrow £8k with dodgy credit score

cantstopspending

I’m sorry if I ramble on here but I want to get as much info in so that some money genius out there may offer some advice!
My husband and I recently married and we both have individual debts. I have a loan which I am 2 years into and 2 years to go (at 6.7%), which I pay £95 a month on. I also have one credit card at £1000 which I make min repayment on every month (I know this is bad L). My husband (in an effort to pay for our wedding) has 2 cards paying out approx £60 and £90 a month that are crippling him.

We want to consolidate our debts (plus put a bit by for Christmas) and borrow £8000 over 4-5 years (depending on the repayments). We recently applied (stupidly) for an Alliance & Leicester loan at the special offer rate of 6.3%. We thought it would be safe as we have an account with them. Our application was rejected due to insufficient credit score. Not knowing the ins and outs I had suspected this as whilst we were on honeymoon our DD for credit cards failed. SO we both have this within the last 3 months. For this reason I wasn’t going to appeal the application.

Since this ( all this only happened last week) I have done the Smart Search link in Money Super Market that I found in Martin’s Loan article. And it says that my credit score ‘needs improvement’, but obviously this search isn’t exhaustive. So….I took martin’s advice and used the Equifax loophole and got a credit report for myself and my husband. Enlightening stuff! I had no idea my old credit cards were still kicking around! So my plan is to cancel all those old ones. I also managed to default on a Cable payment (didn’t know this) when I was a student in 04.

But how do I know what element of my credit history is counting against me? I have managed to get 2 credit cards and a mortgage in the past 18 months. But now we can’t get this loan?

My other question is: through the money supermarket smart search it recommends a loan with black horse at 11.9% over 5 years at £175. Which isn’t bad, considering. But how do I know that we wont be rejected for this and then enter the credit/loan rejection spiral? Because as I said before, the smart search with Equifax isn’t exhaustive!

I suggested to my husband that he ask credit card to increase limit and just use this as a loan but that was a no!

He wants to get a secured loan but hasn’t read the articles on this website that say NO WAY – only as a last resort. I tried to explain to him that they were bad but didn’t really know the answer myself. He said what’s the harm when we will defo repay and how could they repossess the house for just £8000 – again I didn’t know the answer but kept saying no way!

I’m sorry I have rambled on so long but can anyone tell us what the best solution is? Really appreciate it!!

Thanks
J

lindens

May I suggest looking at this another way?
That you actually go over to the Debtfreewanabee board and maybe get some advice about managing the debt you already have by cutting back and making better deals on essential bills?
Getting debt to pay off debt is a no-no (been there got the tshirt many times - see my sig now :mad: )
Getting a secured loan ( for however much) to pay off unsecured debt is a bigger no-no. Your OH says you can pay it back - what if one of you is injured or ill or if you get pregnant and you lose an income?

The good people over on the DFW board are very friendly and nonjudgemental and will really help you. Read the first post for newbies and post your SOA if youre brave enough. TBH, actually doing a SOA is an eye opener in itself so i would recommend this anyway.

Sorry if that was not really what you wanted to hear, but take it from somebody who has been where you have been, I wish I had made that decision alot earlier in my life.

themaccas

Hi I agree with lindens, can you post this on the debt free wannabee board. Consolidation is NEVER a good idea, many of us have been there before and racked up further debt because we haven't cancelled the credit cards and we've thought 'just this once' and 'l'll pay it off next month'. You will be able to pay your debts off but there is not a quick fix easy solution - I promise consolidation is not your answer.

DFW are a friendly bunch hope to see you over there

hugs