Being "normal" again

[tigger]

Our old run-around Rover 400 died last Friday – failed MOT, £500+ to repair but the car is only worth £175!!. To add insult to injury we’d already paid out £125 the previous week on brakes & tyres which were needed pre-MOT. We fly out to Tenerife next Tuesday so were faced with a nightmare situation of having to use our holiday spending money to buy a car (basically a <£500 car already on MOT death –row).

Couldn’t find anything on autotrader so we bit the bullet and rang a company that specialised in car finance for people with a poor credit history. Fully expecting a rejection so were shocked to be told that they would be able to help us and to bring all the necessary paperwork (proof of address, income etc.) in to them the following day. Later the next day we drove home in a 2010 Vauxhall Zafira. Monthly repayments are well within budget (less than the old IVA monthly payment) and after 12 months the deal will be re-financed anyway onto a lower APR. (i.e. our credit rating will have improved significantly by then).

My new Vanquis card arrived this morning as I was reading up on the government’s help to buy scheme details for 2014.

So as I type, I’m sat with a new credit card in my wallet, a new family car parked outside, piles of ironing to be done for an all-inclusive holiday to Tenerife, and contemplating getting out of rented accommodation and buying a house next year.

Personally I find this return to an almost “standard” financial life very scary!! Or as my wife put it “isn’t it weird being normal again?”

[ginger323232]

Tigger - enjoy your new car as well and the all inclusive holiday. Only advice i would give is save yourself the leg work and use a mortgage broker when the time comes.

[tigger]

Thanks Ginger - we will be going down the broker route.

And of course nothing is ever done until numbers are entered and crunched in the all-mighty budget & expenditure spread sheet [:)]

[Shining]

All the best it's always good to read there's life after IVA posts.

[tigger]

Post-IVA is a different country - like being allowed to play with the grown-ups again.

Although some IVA habits still hold strong - we sourced a lot of our holiday clothes from charity shops and used eBay to raise cash to buy euros [:)]

To anybody at the start, middle or end of an IVA - your life will go back on track...and that's the scary part!!
(YOU are back in control of your own destiny)

[back on track]

im already back on track lol[:D]

[back on track]

who was it you used for car finance?

[tigger]

We went through a comapny called "cheshire trade centre" - they're more of a financial broker that sell cars. Guy we dealt with was really good and worked hard to get us a reasonable deal.

[MelanieGiles]

That is brilliant to know tigger. Do they only operate in the Cheshire area?

[tigger]

Hi Melanie,

Yes, they're Chester based and only cover the local area - which is big enough! (cheshire/Merseyside/N. Wales)

[MelanieGiles]

Very good to know - and hopefully other forum posters in that area can take note of your experiences.

[Michael Peoples]

Perhaps it would be worth letting this company know about this forum as they could generate a lot of business from this.

[MelanieGiles]

Hopefully Andy or Admin will pick up this post and make direct contact with them.

[luluj]

Great news and well done. Now go away and enjoy that all inclusive break x

[Shining]

Just been looking around their website may be useful to many x