Friendly banks for loan for an ex-bankrupt?

ahm1991

Hey all,

I was a member on here a good few years ago but I can't remember any of my details so I've created a new account.

So I went bankrupt around 2016, no IPA and was discharged as normal after a year.

Since then things have improved for me drastically (trust me, life does get better post-bankruptcy!) and I'm looking to purchase a new car. To do this, I'll need to take out a loan of around £25,000 to purchase but so far, no joy.

Upto now I've only been using the "Loan Offers" tools from the likes of Clearscore, Totally Money etc which show no one as approving me, other than a company I've never heard of with a guarantor and APR of 49.9%

I've checked the major high street banks and Nationwide and all of their wordings ask if you have ever been bankrupt, not if its within the last 6 years, so I don't want to risk applying and then potentially damage my credit score if they say no.

Have any ex-bankrupts had success in taking out a (larger) loan post bankruptcy and who did you use?

Ty

Grumpelstiltskin

Why do you need to spend £25000 on a car?
When you can answer that you may be able to find a way forward.

ahm1991

I don't need to, I want to.
I'm in a position where it's affordable for me to do so on a monthly repayment.
Hence I am asking if people in similar situations in the past may have some recommendations of lenders that will be able to assist with this.

sourcrates

I would suspect the reason why you haven`t had many responses to your post is because the majority of ex bankrupts do not want to offer advice which would put you in the position of being in hock to a bank for a large sum of money again, especially 25k for a car.

It may have been such financial behaviour in a previous life that contributed to them becoming bankrupt in the first place, and understandably do not wish to see a repeat of the mistakes they may have made.

Of course there is no one correct answer to your question, every lender has there own specific lending criteria, and just because a particular lender may have lent to someone who was previously declared bankrupt, does not mean they will automatically lend to you.

Yes it would be helpful if banks declared to begin with that they give loans to ex bankrupts, but that`s not how the system works.

ahm1991

Thanks sourcrates, good to see you're still around and being as helpful as ever. I understand completely what you mean in regards to repeating the same mistakes.

I imagine that a lot of people, similar to myself, stopped using this forum after their bankruptcy is over and they carried on with their normal lives. From memory, there were always recommendations on mortgage brokers and similar for discharged bankrupts, so I didn't know if there was similar for loans. Alas I have the alternative of loaning it from my business, but I wanted to use that as a last resort.

MalMonroe

ahm1991 said:

Thanks sourcrates, good to see you're still around and being as have helpful as ever. I understand completely what you mean in regards to repeating the same mistakes.

I imagine that a lot of people, similar to myself, stopped using this forum after their bankruptcy is over and they carried on with their normal lives. From memory, there were always recommendations on mortgage brokers and similar for discharged bankrupts, so I didn't know if there was similar for loans. Alas I have the alternative of loaning it from my business, but I wanted to use that as a last resort.

Hi, I have to say that I disagree with what you say here about people not using the forum after their bankruptcy. The exact opposite is true of me. I had a DRO in 2013 and I considered it to be as serious as a bankruptcy. I couldn't believe that I had been so fortunate as to have been allowed to receive help for my debt problem and was being given a second chance, although it would be hanging over me for six years.

It meant I really needed the forum more than ever. I've learned such a lot from the (mostly) lovely folk on here. It was comforting to me to hear others' success stories. Carrying on with my 'normal life' for me was not possible, either during the DRO or afterwards. I had to change all my borrowing and spending habits completely.  Life did get a lot better for me, as you say it did for you but it was solely because of my revised attitude towards money. I learned so much in the six years of my DRO about budgeting and managing credit cards and never going overdrawn on my bank account. I consider myself to be a spending addict and I need reassurance every now and again and I can get it from this forum. 

What I'm really trying to say is - having been in a similar position to you I would proceed with great caution, £25k is a lot of (far too much) money for a car, especially when you're not really long out of bankruptcy. It's only a material possession and one that isn't even yours if you have to get a loan for it.