Cahoot... repaying flexi-loan (Grr!)

The_Illustrated_Man

Hi everyone

Sorry for diving in at the deep end with a question but I'm having some trouble.

I have a cahoot flexible loan which (like a lot of other peopl) I'm paying an exorbitant rate of interest on. I've called them today to offer to make a credit card payment to clear the balance but they tell me that they are only able to do this if the account is in arrears and then they would only take the amount by which the account has fallen into arrears, not the full balance.

I've contacted my credit card company who tell me that they can't take a balance transfer as my cahoot account doesn't have a 16 digit credit card number associated with it.

Can anyone suggest how I can get out of this trap because the options that Cahoot and my credit card company have given me either a) can't be done or b) will cost me about £120.

I've done a bit of looking around regarding the cahoot interest rate hikes and from what I can gather I'm pretty much stuck with them (admittedly I hadn't taken the time to check the account regularly so I only cottoned onto the huge interest rate hike at Xmas time). That said... is there any way I can pursue them to get some of my money back?

Advice very much appreciated... I feel quite literally trapped by the current circumstances

Thanks in advance


Jon

Rafter

Do your credit card company issue cheques? You might have to pay a fee, but that might be a route to get the cash to cahoot. Alternatively I think MBNA still allow you to pay off loans using a credit card - something called a special balance transfer but they may have stopped this practice.

If you have good enough credit to get a credit card, can you not get a better loan and use that to repay cahoot?

R.

queen_of_leon

can't you transfer the money from the cc into your current account (there will be a fee) then pay the full balance to cahoot from your current account? i would contact cahoot first tho and get a 'settlement quote' ...i'm sure the quote is fixed for 30 days and no further interest will be charged if you pay it within that time.

DRS1ONE

I went through the same problem a couple of years ago. I wrote a cc cheque to a current account and then paid that way. Cahoot flexi loan in my view is a bad account to have the interest rate goes up and up and up.

phildamb

Who is your cc with? Most providers allow you to transfer a loan onto your CC such as Capital one, Egg and Barclay card.

The_Illustrated_Man

Thanks for the replies.

I'm trying to avoid getting another loan at the moment... my thinking was to transfer the cahoot balance along with some tuition fees I need to pay to a 0% interest credit card.

I haven't got any cheques available at the moment from my credit card company so that option is unfortunately out.

I could get a cash advance on my credit card but that's going to end up costing about £120 quid (£90 fee from my credit card company plus whatever the charge for a BACS transfer is.

In my opinion, they aren't making this particularly easy for me to get out of

queen_of_leon

i don't think anyone is suggesting u get another loan, have u tried enquiring about the rates for a 'special balance transfer' as rafter suggested?
there will be a fee attached which ever way u do it but u have to think whether it will cost u less in the long-run.