Lloyds stuff

[monkeymagic717]

Writing on behalf of one person. She got into abit of trouble earlier in the year which she managed to get out of bank charges wise. Moving into a new job and some complications and she's in the same position again.

 

Bank have charged her for this month and it will be £400 over the next two months they are charging her.

 

She had a call today from a company who are willing to regain her bank charges for her at a cost of £40 (admin fees). Is she better off doing it alone or letting them deal with the hassle?

 

She has loans which total around the £30k mark. She has a low credit rating. She wants another loan as she is now in a decent paid job and would finally be turning the corner.

 

Her loan repayments per month are £550 per month, £215 on car repayment and her monthly wage is just under £1500 per month (after tax). Whats her best options?

[elsinore]

Why does she want another loan, MM?

 

Els

[monkeymagic717]

She has one small loan and a loan for 8,500 which is outstanding at the moment, she would like to pay off those two loans and have little leftover for other things

[elsinore]

She has one small loan and a loan for 8,500 which is outstanding at the moment, she would like to pay off those two loans and have little leftover for other things

 

Well, MM, I don’t think it would be a good idea to recommend even more borrowing. That could mean increasing her indebtedness to an even more unsustainable level.

 

She has a poor credit rating, so any offer of a consolidating loan would be at a penal interest rate. That interest rate would probably be greater than the rate on the old loan. Any short term benefit derived from a bit of useful cash will be paid for, in the long term, many times over.

 

She would be better to concentrate on reclaiming her unlawful charges. There is no need to pay anyone to do this work. I would be suspicious of an apparent £40 admin fee, as it’s more likely that the company would take a percentage of any refund as well. All the information and assistance relating to bank charge reclaims can be found in these forums and it’s free! If she follows the recommended method there should be no hassle.

 

In the meantime, she should make a great effort to stop the rot by covering the bank’s charges and then, if she can, stay in credit.

 

Els

[monkeymagic717]

Thanks for the response.... good read that. However short term, she won't be able to get out of her current situation due to the bank charges putting her into her overdraft and with bills to pay how is she going to cover everything? Loan would sort her out and with her marriage next summer it would ease her burdens greatly i hope!

[elsinore]

Sure, it's a tough call. This is a classic case of a bank working sympathetically with it's customer to ameliorate the situation - NOT!

 

How about opening a basic bank account elsewhere, have some, or all, of her salary paid into that and transfer any DDs, SOs, etc?

 

Els

[monkeymagic717]

Sure, it's a tough call. This is a classic case of a bank working sympathetically with it's customer to ameliorate the situation - NOT!

 

How about opening a basic bank account elsewhere, have some, or all, of her salary paid into that and transfer any DDs, SOs, etc?

 

Els

 

As she's started her new job... she wont be paid for a while though and her need for money i think is pretty urgent

[elsinore]

Go on, tell me she's maxed out her credit cards as well.

 

It's very difficult to know what else to suggest.

 

Has she tried talking to the bank (in her branch, with a manager, not with an erk over the phone)? She might just get them to suspend charges on the strength of a new, better salary to come. That, of course, may lead to an offer of a loan!

 

Maybe her family can help?

 

Els

[monkeymagic717]

She has 1 debit card and thats it.

 

She already has loan with the bank that her account is with!

 

I wouldn't recommend to her or anyone to ask someone else let alone family..

[caro]

You say she has a loan of £8,500, a smaller loan and no credit cards, so what is the rest of the £30k she owes? It's hard to help without the full story, but I'd agree with Elsinore's advice. Of course if her family can't help then they can't but I see no harm in trying that route if it's an option.

[monkeymagic717]

You say she has a loan of £8,500, a smaller loan and no credit cards, so what is the rest of the £30k she owes? It's hard to help without the full story, but I'd agree with Elsinore's advice. Of course if her family can't help then they can't but I see no harm in trying that route if it's an option.

 

Sorry.

 

As far as I understand it, she has one loan that has nearly all been paid off around £1300 outstanding. One loan for £8,500 and one loan through her bank of around £20k. Ideally she would like to consolidate the first two loans and pay them off and have just one other loan of around 16k as well as the 20k one. She has a visa debit car with one bank. No store cards, etc etc. She doesn't pay rent now as she's at home. Pays £200 per mth for her car and thats it. Doesn't go out cuz of a personal situation, buy clothes and is due to marry in the summer. She is a sound person but through a couple of unfortunate circumstances, a friend let her down and her job fell through, she has fallen into her o/d twice this year.

 

She left one job through hassle there and worked as a temp. One company she temped for didn't like the fact she was having time off to go for interviews and gave her an ultimatum. With her need to get full time work she had to leave the temp job and the permanent position she thought she was going to have, fell through the weekend before she was due to start.

 

Now she has managed to get this job and is trying to get herself back on an even keel. I mean after 9/10 years of a "perfect record" to get screwed just a few months trouble is pretty sad but she doesn't know what to do.

[b8byd]

If she's paying 200 quid per month for a car she should sell it! And if a car is absolutely essential, she could buy a cheap runaround.......

 

That's what I would do.

[monkeymagic717]

If she's paying 200 quid per month for a car she should sell it! And if a car is absolutely essential, she could buy a cheap runaround.......

 

That's what I would do.

 

She gave a good amount for a deposit and didn't know her situation would turn out like that though.... as I said before she had never had a problem and never had contact with her bank unlike this last 6 months

[caro]

The problem is this is how it starts. You can be fine for years, and then encounter one difficult time and things start to spiral out of control. If she can stop that happening now then she has more chance of getting back on top, but generally it's best not to add debt to more debt. Only she can decide what is best for her.

 

If she's paid a good deposit on the car, she should get a decent amount back for it, and might be able to save herself £200 a month by having something she can pay cash for, even if it isn't so nice. She can always get something better later when things are more stable.

[monkeymagic717]

Thanks for the responses. I have mentioned this to her. She still wants to pursue the loan application but seems to be having little luck. Any suggestions on this front? Getting a loan with a low credit rating seems very difficult.

[caro]

The chances are that any loan she can get will be at a very high rate of interest. Chances are that with debts of that amount she won't get one, especially as she's only just starting a new job. Might be worth checking her credit history is accurate with the credit reference agencies.

[monkeymagic717]

She has continually worked for the last 3 years though? How can she check her credit history and amend any errors? She is under ALOT of stress in trying to get this loan

[GuidoT]

Here is a good starting point.

 

No need to purchase the fancy £12 report (although I like it as it is instantly download) you can obtain the statutory version for £2 here.

[monkeymagic717]

According to this she pays £550 a mth on 1 loan which just ain't true! How can she change that figure? She has a small loan under £1400 with Black Horse Finance who she is also paying a car loan through. Could she go back to them to increase her loan she has or is there no chance of that?

[caro]

See if this helps at all: Credit reference agencies : FSA Money made clear – products explained

 

It includes links to all 3 credit reference agencies. You may find other things on other reports.

 

I'm not really clear why she is so desperate to borrow more money. She may have more success with an existing lender, but I think there's a good chance it will be more expensive in the long run, either by way of a higher interest rate, longer loan period, or both. Applying for lots of loans also looks worrying for lenders, so she needs to be careful not to apply for too many.

[monkeymagic717]

The credit report is damaging her quite badly she's not even able to get loans through places such as citifinancial. She only looking for loan to cover her payments for the month just gone and next months until she's back on track. So a loan no greater than £7,500 but no luck so far and she is deeply worried about making the payments for this month.

[caro]

I think that this is more of a debt problem than a Lloyds problem. Personally I think she would do much better to contact her creditors, explain the situation, and offer a token payment. £7,500 is quite a substantial loan to cover a couple of months. The bank MAY even be willing to increase her overdraft limit for a couple of months until back on track.

 

If there is any chance at all that this is a longer term problem, she'd probably do better to get proper debt advice. Would you like this thread moving to the Debt Forum?

[monkeymagic717]

I have her made application for her claiming back bank charges which I will need help with once I have recieved reply from Lloyds, so if I can keep all posts on here, it'd be easier for me to see!

 

She has heard from "tenant loans" today who have accepted her and have lenders "willing" to lend her the finance. Has anyone heard of them? They want a fee of £49.95 before putting her in touch with lending company, what should she do?

[gizmo111]

She has heard from "tenant loans" today who have accepted her and have lenders "willing" to lend her the finance. Has anyone heard of them? They want a fee of £49.95 before putting her in touch with lending company, what should she do?

 

She should avoid them like the plague, they will take her money and she will get loads of phone calls from different lenders who will most likely either not offer her a loan, or offer her one at huge interest and set up fees.

As has said before on the thread if she is just struggling with one months payment then she must write to the lenders and explain the situation. You say she is getting married in the summer, can her partner help out? It would be wise for them to get their joint finances sorted now before the wedding, as once they are sharing household bills, this sort of problem could cause lots of problems.

 

Good Luck

[monkeymagic717]

I thought it was dodgy when she told me and contacted a finance advice company who said much the same as yourself Gizmo, as in it's not something they would recommend. They gave her the spiel as that they couldn't offer loan and then not honour that as all calls are recorded and they wouldn't want to get sued etc.

 

Any other suggestions in regards to where she can get a loan from as she is adamant she requires a loan and it would be ideal if it would incorporate some of her existing loans.

 

Thanks