Bad Credit Loans

A friend of mine apparently has bad credit history and has a few debts that need to be paid off in the very near future. She's applied for a few loans but keeps getting turned down. Her solution seems to be to go to one of these "we give anyone a loan, no matter your credit history" companies but I'm just a little worried she'll get into some problems if she goes down that route, especially with such high interest rates. She's currently between jobs (like actually, she quit her job last week and starts a new one next week). I was just wondering if anyone had any advice, experience of this sort of thing or knows of any good loans companies that she could turn to.

Thanks in advance :smile:

Reply 1

Talya

Can't she work out a payment plan with the current lenders?

Reply 2

SmilerNuts

Sadly not. She was a bit stupid over the last year and didn't bother paying when the money was due, instead blowing it all on clubbing and such like, so it's all built up and the full amount is due within the next couple of weeks.
Her dad is her guarantor for the debt but apparently she'd rather take out another loan than get him to pay.

Reply 3

andy_cole2

NO do NOT get one of these under ANY circumstances. How old is she, what kind of job is she doing how much is she earning etc. SHe can get a credit test done online, it costs a little but she can use it to assess her situation. 2bh without knwing anything about her or her finances (and it being private information anyway) the only thing i can recommend is that she goes nowhere near an easy credit option, like the ones they advertise on facebook etc. These are terrible 1400% interest is a joke, she'l be paying it back until the day she dies. The options available to her are getting a 0% credit card and doing a balance transfer where she'l pay a maximum of 3.5ish% interest on the original transfer and then nothing till the 0% runs out. Or if her credit history is so bad there's no way she can do so getting money off her dad is by far the next best option. even if she promises to pay him double 100% interest, she'l still be doing infinitly better than through easy credit.

Reply 4

SmilerNuts

She's almost 19, her new job gets her around £15k per annum I think. It's just cause she needs the money fast that she's stressing out, she can't really wait for wages coming through.
She did think about that credit card idea but she got rejected for the ones she applied for which was a slight stumbling block...

Reply 5

Spotty Dog

It depends exactly how desperate she is for the money.

Personally I wouldn't suggest it. Unless she's got people banging on the door with warrents to remove things, then she doesn't really need the money.

What I would suggest she does is to talk to her credit agencies. They're really not as awful as she thinks they are. I was in the same situation a little while ago and found them to be actually a lot more understanding than I expected them to be.
I hope she realises that she really needs to get a grip on her finances; If she's been applying for things left right and centre she's likely to get rejected anyway. Creditors tend to get jumpy when they see lots of searches on credit files. Get her to sign up for Experian if she's worried about her credit file; It'll help her keep a good track on it and see how good/bad it actually is.
If money is still a huge worry for her, I found the CAB to be extremely useful. They helped me set a buget and understand how to stick to it, and sort all my finances out.

Hope she's ok!

Reply 6

Talya

She definitely needs to talk to Citizens advice ASAP.

Reply 7

andy_cole2

it must be quite an impressive debt she's built herself if she's able to still owe that much when she earns so much.

Reply 8

SmilerNuts

I think she just earns a lot but then has a habit os using the money to lead a lavish lifestyle, eat out 3 or 4 times a week and such like. Obviously I've had a word and she's cut all that sort of stuff out but the debts are still there.
I'll try and get her to CAB when she's next free and guess we'll just have to hope she can rearrange it with her creditors, as if not then she's in a hole.

Thanks for all the help guys :smile: