where has the credit gone?

[winterblues25]

I’ve usually never had a problem being accepted for credit but just tried to increase my credit limit on my card recently and was refused, new balance transfer card and loan applications refused, credit score good, even the balance transfer offers on my credit card which I’ve had for years have been withdrawn??

Where are these families with much lower overall incomes than ours, once all top ups/subsidies are taken account of?

If that is true then you are not going to be able to pay off the extra £3k per year are you. So the debt will grow.

So our total debt is about equivalent to 2 months of our joint income

Yeah, I wouldn't lend you any more money either. If I had unsecured debt to the tune of a sixth of my annual take-home, I'd be looking at what I could sell, whether I could lower my outgoings, and whether I could increase my income by taking more hours or a second job.

I would not be buying extra sets of school uniforms that the kids will only grow out of "just in case". I went through the whole of my school life with one skirt, one jumper, and two shirts. Spills were spot-cleaned.

I only get a few hours of broken sleep with the baby as it is so I can’t be staying up to wash one set of uniform etc

Primary aged children do not need clean uniform daily unless there has been a serious spill. Spot-clean obvious marks on trousers, skirts, and jumpers. You then only need one set of those, and two shirts.

If there is a serious spill, use the quick wash on your machine to get it done in 30 minutes and dry it over the radiator overnight.

I got to the end of secondary school with one set of uniform and two shirts. So did my sister.

I think you need a reality check OP.

Minimum wage workers take home 2k a month now.

Your combined income is less than that.

I would speak to debt consolidation charity because I don’t think you can actually get out of this without freezing that interest. It’s not a debt worth 2 months wages because you still have to pay for everything in those months. So it doesn’t work like that!

Debt is debt. It doesn’t matter if it’s ’frivolous’ or essentials. It still impacts your credit score in the same way and you’ll still pay the same interest on it.

I used to be in about £20,000 of debt and learnt a very expensive lesson about living within my means! My bank once revoked even my cash card which was embarrassing as I had to go into branch to withdraw cash every time. Have you looked on moneysavingexpert? They usually have good comparisons for credit.

And get your kids to change out of their uniforms and into play clothes as soon as they get home. That on its own massively reduces how dirty the uniforms get.

Tell me, what does your husband do to help organise all of this chaos?

Missing socks? Do you not have drawers that socks live in? Doesn't your husband put the kids' clothes away once they are dried?

Gosh my partners parents have had this problem! It’s really annoyed them and taken lots of getting used to.

Basically when they payed off their mortgage that’s it basically. No credit! Couldn’t even get a car loan after buying from the same garage every few years and running fleets of cars. Never missed a payment.

I would probably take out another mortgage! Just whack it in an investment account.

I got a letter fro mmy bank at the end of November stating I hadn't used my credit card with £15k credit limit for over a year and if I didn't use it by the end of December they would close my account. I have an excellent credit rating and 2 other credit cards both with nothing on so I let it close. I do think banks are tightening up credit. I know this also happened in 2006/7 before the 2008 credit crash.

If OP needed more money to pay the gas bill, nobody would be judging.

She wants to extend her credit to buy her kids designer shoes, and is pouting because the bank have said no. That’s what we are judging. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

A pack of 2 school polo shirts is £3 from Sainsbury’s, a pack of 5 is £16 from M&S (and they last for years so can be handed down). School uniform is not why OP is £8k in debt.

How old is your DH? He could be very close to having SLC payments stop if he’s your age and graduated at 21, as student debt is written off after 25 years under the old plan. That will free up some cash too. Good luck, you’ve had some harsh responses here.

This is just nasty to read. OP you best asking on the money supermarket forum rather than here. It's an absolute pile on.
I know loads of people who carry high loans and credit cards, the average consumer debt is over 2k so with apparently 98% of mn posters living with no debt then it makes sense that you are one of the people with higher debt to average out the figures.

4k a month income isn't loads anymore depending on where you live. Make sure to check your clearscore, it tells you what's affecting it. Good luck for paying a lot off so far, keep going.

Try MBNA

also download credit karma to see what card you are approved for

When you apply for any credit or apply to change bank account, it leaves a small mark on your credit rating even if it doesn't drop the rating. If you've applied for a few things, it can raise alarm bells and cause you to be rejected. If you use moneysavingexpert's soft credit search, it tells you where you'll be accepted but without leaving an imprint on your credit rating before you apply. So try googling mse credit soft search and start there. Good luck!

Ypu say that you dont understand the reasoning/logic.

But you dont need to. You simply need to accept it. The fact is that the lenders make the rules and you signed up to those rules when you took their money, they can do what they like.

Your credit has dried up, so you need to learn how to live without it. Your minimal lifestyle expectations are irrelevant. You can't afford them, so change them or earn more money.

It really is that simple.

The OG plan 1 isn't written of until 65.

When you say you’ve been “fine up until now”… you have cleared 50% of debt that was at its highest 10 years ago.

What was going on 10 years ago that meant you got yourself in to such debt? @winterblues25

You also say your credit has “always been been good”. Surely not when you were in lots of debt?

And the “reasoning / logic” in the OP’s case is very clear. Every month they are paying the minimum off their credit card debt. So every month their debt is growing, and growing.!

harsh as it sounds, I agree with this.
we have two mortgages, a young child, one v good income, and never had a credit card. We have one loan that was a 0% interest loan scheme offered by government for certain types of home improvements and we asked for 3k for new boiler. We have a strong / strict (ish) budget. We spend carefully on big things. I think the way you see money is quite unusual tbh and most people would be scared to have debt they couldn’t repay. I think the thing that strikes me most is you don’t really have a plan for how to repay the existing debt you have. You are just going month to month with it as a continuing thing in the background - I think most people would say ‘ok we owe 1000, we are paying 250 a month and then by month 4 it’s gone.

you need to find a way to reorganise your budget so that you have savings to spend on the things you’re mentioning imo. That’s a much healthier way of living financially imo

Mine was written off at 45? I mean I’m not sure of the name of the loan but it was the original student loan plan.

I’d also have more sympathy if she hadn’t peppered her replies with digs about people on UC.

Not going to comment on how you use/view credit - worked in insolvency, what you describe is very familiar.

Have you heard of “persistent debt”? It is an official criteria from the FCA, basically if you’re only paying minimums (or close to) for a long time you may fit that criteria. Your lender has to do certain things but it will also make you unattractive to other lenders.

The other thing is that it sounds like you’ve made a few credit applications all at the same time (whether successful or not) so that will be part of it.

I don’t have any trouble getting new credit, balance transfers still around for me….. I don’t have any balances to transfer tho! it will be your credit use behaviour that’s the deciding factor.

If your credit card debt is about to go to 25% interest and you can’t get a cheaper rate how will you manage that? Could you remortgage and use the money from that to pay the debt off. Not sure if that’s possible but it would be lower interest. If you do that though you need to stop using credit cards, you can’t keep repeating it.