8k debt - want rid!

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