UK Graduate loan advice & General advice.

Joonyer

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Hi all

New to the boards but really starting to realise I should have been here a while back!

I'll try to keep this as brief and to the point as possible.

My current situation.

I'm about to finish my 3rd and final year of uni (on may 6th) and I'll be moving in with my gf straight away. We have our flat, signed and paid for etc, and it's ready to go.

I took a gap year after my 2nd year, with the aim of working full time and making some cash. Due to reasons I won't disclose, I ended up working less than full time, and spending far too much constantly. I'm hugely regretting it now but never mind!

I owe my gf's dad a bit of rent money which he's cool for until I'm sorted - I'll be getting into work asap as I'm speaking to graduate recruitment agencies and seeing my careers advisor again on monday, along with mountains of help from a financial/business whizz that I live with (legend he is). I'm on for my 2.1 and I'm hopefully heading for sales/PR line of work, and I'm extremely confident that I'll be sorted within a couple of months.

My finances

I will be leaving uni £2,000 overdrawn on a Natwest graduate account. Now, I lied to Natwest at the start of the year and told them I had graduated so I could get the extra £300 on the overdraft (needed it at the time) which they believed as I'd had a gap year and never told them. The interest free bit on this, I presume, will run out very soon, though I need to look into that.

I have a natwest credit card with a £350 limit, which currently has £300 on it and I'm paying the minimum each month. I've had it at £350 since I was 18 and I'm really good with it generally, but obviously would like to clear it.

I also have a standard overdraft of £150 with Lloyds TSB on a current account, which accrues small amounts of interest, but also has £25 a week going into it, so it's not a big problem, and will be cleared with my grad loan, then I'll be closing the account.

On top of that, I owe a bit to my gf's dad like I say, so basically I'm contemplating a graduate loan.

The problem

What I need to know from you knowledgable lot is, would it be better for me to go and speak to natwest, and convince them to give me the graduate overdraft interest free for another year - I'm an incredibly good liar, and I'll just inform them that I told them after my 2nd year that I was having a gap year, so this is their mistake and not mine, and I'm not happy about it at all, and am contemplating moving my business elsewhere.

Would this work? They'll either say "you're lying, we know you're lying, so we're either gona do you for fraud or you're gona pay it all back now." In this instance, I'll need an extra £2k on my graduate loan to clear that overdraft immediately. However if I can get it interest free for another year, would it be more financially viable to get £2k LESS on a loan, and just pay the overdraft off gradually throughout the year? This would require me to be pretty strict, but I'm more than prepared to do it now I'm in my own flat and there's so much at stake.

Secondly, my credit card. Do I account for the £300 on it with my grad loan and just clear it so I don't have to worry, or should I balance transfer it, so it's interest free for a few months, and pay it gradually like that?

My only qualm with that would be that if I'm paying for rent, council tax, bills, grad loan repayments, credit card repayments, and my overdraft each month, it's gona be pretty damn tight.... So that's why I was contemplating just getting a bigger grad loan and clearing the overdraft and credit card, so I can just focus on repaying the loan.... but that might mean I pay more overall, depending on the loan, which is what I don't want, and why I need you lot!

So yeah, I'm a bit confused. As ironic as this sounds, I'm pretty good with money when I need to be. The only reason I've got into this situation was down to a weed habit (behind me now, don't judge!) but even then, I've never got myself in any REAL trouble. I could have upped my credit limit long ago but didn't out of choice. The only bad thing was lying about my graduate status, but I can blag that as a mistake.

I've got a meeting with a halifax advisor on wednesday to discuss opening an account with them for when I'm working, and doing a balance transfer on my credit card. My gf works for them so it would make life easier for us both overall.

So what would you advise? Do I get a big grad loan and clear all my little debts? I don't mind keeping them all and juggling them carefully, I'm fine with it and I know that sometimes consolidation can make you worse off, so I'm being cautious with it really.

The graduate Loan

Next is Grad Loans. Could you please recommend me the best deal for my situation? Which bank should I use, and what should I say? I'm hoping that from my current situation, my degree and my career focused state, it won't be an issue. I used to work for a loan company (gap year) and we were throwing loans at people who were NEVER gona be able to pay them back; however with the current issues with interest rates etc, I'm a bit concerned that people won't be willing to lend at a decent rate as it HAS to be unsecured. I don't want to secure it on my parents or anything as I need to do this for myself and build a bit more of a credit rating.

Any advice AT ALL is welcome and appreciated. I'm not great at maths but I can manage my money, I just need some expert advice (beyond that of my legendary housemate, who actually steered me to this site).

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the epic post!

Regards,
/J

melancholly

the first thing i strongly recommend that you, is to speak to natwest and find out how they will stagger the introduction of interest to your overdraft, and what the level of interest will be.

you may well find that you still have £1500 of an interest free overdraft for another year which will help a lot (or it may be £1000 - I really don't know).

i'd recommend you get signed up with every temp agency you can find, so that you can get some income from the minute you finish your course. you can then move into a 'graduate' job whenever you get one, but you'll still have money coming in.

it's worth going to the debt free wanabee board and posting a SOA (link at top in stickies), with all the details of incomings/outgoings/interest rates/debt owed. when it's all there in black and white it's much easier to go through and see if you can manage with what you have, before going straight into getting more loans.

jonesMUFCforever

To get a Graduate loan at some banks you need to show a copy of your graduation certificate.
How do you intend to get round that one or will you just print off your PC?

Is there any length you will go to to lie to get your own way.

When they find you out (quite soon IMO) you will have a CIFAS marker on your file and you can kiss goodbye to credit for the foreseeable.

PS You won' be able to blag yourself out of that!

Joonyer

Alright jonesy son calm down, it's not like it was some calculated devious lie, it was just a snap decision made in the heat of the moment as I was broke. I'm not intending on lying at all to get myself sorted, I'm doing things properly. Blagging my way into another year of interest free overdraft won't be hard though, it was their fault for not noticing that I've been a student for this entire year (obvious due to getting regular payments from the LEA and money coming out from my uni for rent) so it's not TECHNICALLY that bad.

As for the graduation certificate, of course I'm not gona print one off my PC and I find the suggestion incredibly condescending - contact from the dean of the uni will be enough, which I've had confirmed. Seriously, please don't talk to me like I'm some idiot fraudster as I find it rather insulting.I'm not an idiot and I'm not stupid with my money, I'm just here to ask for my next best move and your attitude helps no one.

@Melancholy: Thanks for the info mate - I'll make the post you're talking about first thing tomorrow morning as I have a lot on my plate tonight, but hopefully that will result in some further advice, so that's much appreciated

As for the staggering of interest on the overdraft, I never thought of that - if it's not too bad then I'll just get on with it, but seriously, it was technically their fault because they should have noticed, and I could have easily just got mixed up, so it's not fraud per se. Someone in my position could have got here through ignorance, so I'll claim ignorance.

The temp agency won't be necessary as my friend owns a pub there where I can work full time for as long as necessary, but I'll be setup with a job within 4-6 weeks provided I get my 2.1. I'm extremely career focused and I have great job experience in sales from my gap year, so there's nothing stopping me. Most people who can't get work as graduates, aren't doing it properly.

Thanks again Melancholy, much appreciated.

regards,
/J

dannynixon

And as for a graduate loan with Natwest, they will not give you one unless you are in work. And only then, you will struggle if you ared on a temporary contract.

I graduated last July and started work as a teacher in Sept earning 20k p/a. I asked to borrow 2,000 over 2 years but because my initial contract was only for 12 months, they said I could only borrow for the length of my contract. Without a job yet, I know for definite that they will not give you one, no matter how much you tell them you will be getting a graduate job.

I had no other loans or anything and after bills I had a good 500 left at the time and they said no, lol. Funny old world...

Seriously though they will not give you one

Joonyer

Well I don't want a loan with natwest anyway as I've found them to be pretty rubbish when it comes to customer support I might be able to avoid a loan altogether to be perfectly honest, but I'm just considering ideas really.

Like I say though, when I worked for a loan company they were handing them out left right and centre, but with the current state of interest rates I might not be so lucky... plus I don't want to be paying through the nose for one. It's down to loads of things really, so I'll investigate and make some calls. I think having a good credit rating like mine, and my degree, will help me out plenty - generally it's down to the manager's discretion in these sorts of cases so who knows! I'll get on it though, thanks for the advice

/J

dannynixon

No worries, hope you're lucky with it all. If you think you can mill through without a loan then try not to take one. If all else fails, you could get a credit card with 0% purchases and balance transfers to transfer the extra 300 on the overdraft and your natwest visa. This way you will not be paying interest on either and as long as you are strict, you will not be out of pocket

dannynixon

By the way Jooyner,

Brief? Your first post was 1,024 words long lol.

cadavari

Thanks for the great advice.

Joonyer

dannynixon wrote: »

By the way Jooyner,

Brief? Your first post was 1,024 words long lol.

I do English with Creative Writing - Brief isn't in our vocab I just wanted to be thorough really; as you can imagine this is all very much on my mind at the moment so seeing it "on paper" as it were is always helpful. To be honest I'm confident, not worried - I graft for what I make, and I don't smoke, I barely drink, and I'm not the type to go out "clubbing" so I'm quite happy to focus on clearing my debts over the next couple of years, for the sake of long term security. It's not an issue to me, it's just about keeping on top of it all at the end of the day.

I should have made this post in the "debt free wannabe" forum so I'll chop it down a bit and put a version of it in there.

Thanks again for your advice folks - Dannynixon, that's a great idea about transferring some of the debt over, cheers for that. It's good to get some opinions you know?

regards,
/J

dannynixon

Yea definitely pal, try DFW like you say. You may even get some more ideas.

Dan