Sainsbury's bank are doing loans starting at 4.9%APR for amounts between £7500 - £15000. Rate will be subject to credit score. I also believe you need an active Nectar card, used within the last 6 months to get the above rate
By no means an expert, but unsecured you will probably end up with a crap APR. Are you a home owner? If so, could you do anything with any equity that you have?.
I know there are some financial bods on here so they might be able to help, but I think you are going to struggle with the affordability factor. Lender can't force you to pay off the existing debt, so the chances are you will be assessed against a potential 15k debt.
Where do you owe the money at present?. As it isn't reducing much, I assume it is Credit Cards and you are paying the minimum? If it is credit card debt and you say your rating is ok, can you not look at shifting it to a 0% APR card - at least you will get 6-18 months of no interest.
depends what interest rate you are paying at present. Building societies and banks are doing good rates at present (check someone like Moneysavingexpert). don't go anywhere near pay day lenders. If you are paying high rate at present and want lower interest rate and have good credit history, someone like Zopa.com (or other peer to peer lenders like them) might help.
Vinnie...if you have a pretty good credit score, it suggests that you are making regular payments and not missing any. If that's the case, you should be able to consolidate fairly easily. There are a few 0% credit card details out there, but beware that they carry a percentage fee of the transfer. Moneyfacts have all the details...most of them for 27/28 months.
Assuming your debt is on credit cards (i'm not sure as you haven't actually said where the debt is) and your credit rating is good then surely you'd be able to apply for another credit card whilst doing a balance transfer at the same time. Then it'd obviously be interest free for up to 12 months.
If it unsecured they can't make you pay it back, and balifs can't enforce it either, they can get a county court judgement against you for it though and then a court bailiff has powers to seize stuff.
They probably can't be arsed to collect my 200 odd quid then.
That 200 quid is probably about 15k by now!
It would be a LOT more than that!
Having worked it out on the basis of taking a £200 loan and not making repayments for four years you would in fact owe £630,000,000 (No joke). So I hope you've saved up JT
Think Wonga have a max amount it gets too before they pass the debt on. Debt agencies then wont add any fees ontop until it went to CCJ. If its been 4 years tho, the debt agency have probably already written it off.
Vinnie, have you ever tried asking a credit card company what rate they would offer you for the entire life of the balance? The 0% balance transfer offers always take the headlines - but if you speak to them on the phone to see what they can offer you for the entire life of the balance, I found that it can often be a really competitive price.
If you do get a good offer from one of the cc companies, I'd also recommend keeping your existing credit card account active, but destroying the card for that account to make sure you don't use it. Your credit rating can actually improve if you are using a smaller percentage of your disposable credit.
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Where do you owe the money at present?. As it isn't reducing much, I assume it is Credit Cards and you are paying the minimum? If it is credit card debt and you say your rating is ok, can you not look at shifting it to a 0% APR card - at least you will get 6-18 months of no interest.
http://www.payplan.com/debt-consolidation-loans.php
http://www.stepchange.org/Debtinformationandadvice/Debtsolutions/Debtconsolidation.aspx
http://moneyfacts.co.uk/credit-cards/best-credit-cards/
Not easy, I know, but you need to take advantage of it to pay down as much as you can in that time.
Assuming your debt is on credit cards (i'm not sure as you haven't actually said where the debt is) and your credit rating is good then surely you'd be able to apply for another credit card whilst doing a balance transfer at the same time. Then it'd obviously be interest free for up to 12 months.
I want to cancel the cards as I just keep topping them up!
That 200 quid is probably about 15k by now!
The 0% balance transfer offers always take the headlines - but if you speak to them on the phone to see what they can offer you for the entire life of the balance, I found that it can often be a really competitive price.
If you do get a good offer from one of the cc companies, I'd also recommend keeping your existing credit card account active, but destroying the card for that account to make sure you don't use it. Your credit rating can actually improve if you are using a smaller percentage of your disposable credit.
3% transfer fee with 1.5% cash back
http://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/creditcards/landing/platinum-card/default.asp?so=Moneysupermarket_BoS243_1