Which loan is the best for bad credit??

onthewayup_2

Hi there! :santa2:
I'm pretty new to this website but already I am feeling the love!! :smileyhea

Right, i'm ready to face my debts head on! Can anyone help with which way to turn next?
Our joint debts are: £9400 :eek: _pale_

Loan £2200
Credit Card £6200
O/D £1000

Total monthly incoming - £2390

Total monthly outgoings - £2024

Mortgage 550
Council tax 105
Insurances 160
Gas and Elec 80
Water 20
Home Phone 40
Mobile 25
Petrol 100
Road Tax 10
Food 200
TV license 10
glasses/contact lenses 25
newspapers 14
Entertainment 240
Debts (loan & credit card) 295
Vets (cats) 50
Work expenses 100

This leaves us with £366 a month extra. Not sure where this money goes (need to look into that!)

We would like to be debt free in 3 years, but much sooner if possible :j

I am looking for a loan to reduce the monthly interest on our current loan & credit card. We have been declined low interest loans because our credit ratings are not too good (late payments on credit card) & although my partner is in full time employment, I am self employed, so again i am high risk.

We have been offered a consolidation loan with Ocean Finance with a seemingly low-ish interest rate although I am a bit dubious?? Just sounds a bit too good to be true? Does anyone know about Ocean finance or which loan companies are the best?

I have been doing the £10 a day challenge for November & will be carrying on through Dec!! Current balance from quidco & ebay: £245 :j . I've registered for mystery shopping & doing the occasional survey & pigsback etc...

Anyway, please send me any advice! Thanks for reading - hope to hear from you soon! :hello:

wherediditallgo

To be honest, I would steer clear of consolidation loans whoever they're from. They very rarely work out for the best, because (a) people don't get rid of the credit/store card or overdraft on which the debt was incurred, so they end up using them again & before you know it they owe money on those again as well as on the consolidation loan, & (b) you're paying interest again on money that you've already paid interest on, in a new agreement which will lose you whatever favourable terms you had with the existing creditor & for possibly more years than it would have taken to clear the debt in the first place. They are particularly risky if they're secured on property.

Please contact any of the organisations in my signature for debt advice, which they'll give free of charge & without judgement. I would also see if I could negotiate a reduction in interest with the creditors, or ask them if the interest could be frozen temporarily (eg for 6 months) to help you. Looking at your outgoings, if you want to be debt free within 3 years, maybe you could cut back on the entertainment & newspapers. For example, you can read newspapers online free of charge. When I started doing that, my spending on papers went down from £12pm to zero - now I only buy papers if I'm going on a long journey & want something to read to pass the time, & only then if the local freebie isn't available. Reducing spending in those two areas alone would give you significantly more money to put towards the debts. I really don't think getting another loan to deal with existing debts is the way to go.

CLAPTON

first thing is to find out where that 'spare' 366 is going... with that money you could easily be debt free in under 3 years.
so
a. start keeping spending diaries and write down everything you spend for a month or so and this will help you find out what is actually spent. Lots of money can disappear in work lunches/ coffeee and do you really only spent 200 on food, what about haircuts and hobbbies

b. work out all your annual and one off and occasional expenses ... try to guess your yearly totals, divide by 12 and add to your SOA... so eg maybe clothes, car servicing/RAC/AA, repair fund, any holidays, weekends away, any xmas expenses, the odd present or two, things for the house etc.

also ..what is included in 'insurances' as this is quite high
again what is 'work expenses' , again another 100.

Subject to what you find from the spending diary etc it seems quite realistic to be debt free in less than three years.

As far as the debts are concerned , what are the APRs of the current debts?

mrsspendalot

The items that stand out for me are food, newspapers and entertainment.

How many people are you feeding on that? If there is just you and your partner you can certainly reduce this. I spend no more than that feeding a family of 5. Newspapers - can you read the news online for free? Entertainment - what does this cover? This is quite a lot of money when you are in debt. Could you reduce this until your debts are clear?

RoxieW

:santa2: hey!!! horay! well done for posting. bumping you to see if anyone else else has any advice - you might get more replies if you changed the title to something like 'SOA - please help' or something stating there's an SOA in there for people to sink there teeth into. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

itsnever2lateisit?

Agree with the 2nd post, you need to establish where the 'spare' money is going, so keep a spending diary, of EVERY penny spent (or send me a cheque:D )
Mobile phone--- check that you are using the minutes every month, if not reduce the plan or even consider PAYG

Contact Lens---Check the web these can be bought for less than half the high street price, and are often the same brand

onthewayup_2

Thanks everyone for your advice - as of today i am going to keep a diary of eveything me & my boyfriend spend!! Well I will try to keep track of what he spends!

I've always said no to getting Sky, but (tonight for example) he's going out to the pub to watch the fooie & will obviously spend money whilst he's there so which is best? If we had sky he says he'd stay in...

anyway, i'm going to contact those organisations to get advice re loans etc - thanks!

I am going to get our lense prescriptons & look for cheaper ones online!
I'm going to cut down on food bill & cook more!
I'm going to try to cut down everything else - it doesn't ever feel like we've got spare money but obviously we have so need to find out where it's going!
I'm going to try to get my boyfriend into doing all this too - he tends to bury his head in the sand so i find it's a battle i'm fighting on my own, but i'm feeling a lot more positive for just writing it down here!

Cheers! :hello:

sammiboo

Hi there

Welcome to MSE - your debts arent massive between the both of you so i wouldnt worry too much, but it is better to get them paid off as soon as you can comfortably.

Do you know what interest you are paying on your debts?

onthewayup_2

Hi there sammiboo!

Thanks - It makes me feel better to think they're not huge, but they are about 18% i think which is the part which annoys me so much!! - eeeek!! :eek:

onthewayup_2

Hey there RoxieW!! :hello:
Thanks for your support honee - always mucho appreciated! Blimey, you've had lotsa replies for your ''saving 50k in 3 years''!
I will no doubt sound silly but what is SOA???!xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

RoxieW

not silly - SOA is Statement of Affairs - just like you've done. But its better to put it in the title (in my opinion) or put diary or something if thats what you want to do. then you'll get more people looking at it and offering advice rather then the title as it is at the minute.

btw - check out my new sig! are you loving it? we're sad little mse buddies aren't we :eek: :beer: :money:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx