How hard is it to get a loan to consolidate credit card debts ?

[Lesciteesdor]

We owe a significant amount and we never defaulted a repayment and we pay more than the minimum. Please don't judge me, things have been hard, I have suffered with depression, hold on to a difficult job. I feel I'm drowning :(

Get advice from CAB or Stepchange, free and over the phone. They will help you and likely get the interest frozen which will help.

@Lesciteesdor I don't think anyone will be judging you. I am minus on my overdraft, have a career development loan with the bank and a student loan which comes straight out of my salary. £400 a month from a single salary so I've also been considering a consolidation loan.

As far as I'm aware, it's not that hard as long as your credit rating is good. Just remember, if you get turned down for one and keep applying for others, it will go down as a red mark on your credit file. Be careful. Best thing to do is shop around and actually make an appointment in the bank to go and sit down with them,

Trust me, there are thousands of people in similar situations to you. You'll be okay. Best of luck.

Sorry it’s come to this. I’ve heard great things about the charity Step Change and the CAB might also be able to give you advice. I can’t comment on your likelyhood of being accepted for a loan as I don’t know anything about your financial situation or how much you’d be looking to borrow but you could use one of the comparison sites (like money supermarket etc.) to explore your options. Balance transferring some (if not all) of the debt onto a 0% card(s) might also help you get it repaid quicker but you’d have to have a decent credit rating so not sure if it would be an option. Good luck.

My credit score is 846, went down by 93 points. Don't even know how :(

A friend of mine is in this position. He found all the consolidation loans seemed to go up to a ridiculous APR after 12 months so be careful and read the T's&C's carefully. He chose not to do this for that reason. He owes a large amount though and has decided to sell his house to clear it.

We owe 25 k - my salary is increasing by a lot from May so I should just carrying on repaying as much as I can and wait a few month to get a loan.

I'm at loss, thank you so much for your support

Go to money saving expert. Lots of advice on there

Hi I would definitely register with Money saving expert (MSE)- you can do a soft search and they give you your likely %of being accepted. If you decide consolidation loan is right for you I would speak to bank in person that way you can explain you want to consolidate and this could work in your favour. Otherwise it might look like you have high credit cards and a loan so how will you afford all the payments. Have you considered a balance transfer card at 0% interest which could save you money in the long term. Again MSE will give you lots of info.

Just come on here to say that I wish I hadn't got a consolidation loan.

At one point I borrowed 15K to clear a loan and a credit card. They whacked on 6.5k interest. Taking the total debt to 21.5k. On top of that I also had a credit card which due to a series of unfortunate events, creeped up to 8.5k. Taking my total to 30k

I had found out about Money Saving Expert at that point, and I wrote to the CC company, asking for help. They froze the account, no more interest was added, and I started paying it bit by bit each month.

Had I known that's what I could have done, I'd have done that with the other CC and loan, and saved myself 6.5k. It actually makes me feel sick if I think about it too much.

But I don't want someone else to go through this!

Go onto MSE, they have templates for letters etc.

Debt is now down to 13k. So although I have cleared 17k, I could have been down to 6.5k by now

Good luck OP. No judgements here. Shit happens.

Thank you everybone. I have been on a mse and they all say that it's a bad idea so we may get 0 % credit card, one family member is giving us a large chunk of money to help

We owe £14k over 3 credit cards, a store card and a overdraft. Felt totally ashamed and didn't want to admit we was in the shit.

After lots of research online and reading reviews until my brain hurt we decided to call a company called Pay Plan for some free advise. I had read mixed reviews on this company but we went ahead and signed up. They consolidated all of our debt and gave us a figure which we expected and a estimated end date. They have a live chat facility and are really quick at getting back to us with what we think are the silliest of questions. *They charge no fees to set up and 100% of what you pay goes to your debts, they also work as hard as they can to freeze the interest although they do state they cant guarantee this - BTW I don't work for them although I feel I could Haha!!

We now pay one monthly payment and know they will do the rest for us. Its a huge weight lifted and we know in July 2020 we will be debt free

Good luck with it all x

Have a look at debt free 2018 on money matters thread lots of advice and talkinpeace is an angel in what to do.

In a shocking turn of events, I managed to consolidate all of mine and dps debt just by applying online.
I’ve got 3 jobs all of which have no guaranteed hours, and DP was made redundant before Christmas and is still looking for work. Loans all gone through and we are all consolidated and will be clear in 34 months with 0% interest. (Debt is about a years wages on the national living wage)
You should have no problem consolidating.

Your situation isn't anything to be ashamed of. There are many people going through the same thing in some way or another. I would just say that going onto an agreed arrangement with your bank such as freezing interest or lower monthly payments are good but will have an affect on your credit score. If your intending on applying for credit in the next year such as remortgage then you may want to look at alternatives. I work in the financial sector and would defo recommend speaking with stepchange. It's a really good charity that can give you tailored advice on money matters