www.iva.co.uk

Hi Guys,

I've been in a self administered DMP now for 2 and a half years and it's going okay. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, just!

However I must admit I am getting fed up with having no spare cash and no real emergency funds! I'm paying back my creditors just over £500 a month and after all the other bills are paid I'm basically living on £60 a week for food and entertainment, so as you can see I don't have a lavis lifestyle at the moment. All my own fault I know ofcourse.

This website caught my eye recently, **website name removed**, and they seem to be making it easy to get a loan to pay off all my current debts. Working it all out I could get one of these, save myself £250.00 a month in payments and still finish the loan payments maybe a year, maybe two, after I was going to finish paying off the DMP.

I my mind having another £250 a month to play with might be worth the extra lenght of time to pay off the debts.

Has anyone had any dealings with this company because it does seem a bit too good to be true in some aspects, i.e you chose the loans amount and your monthly payments and 100% guaranteed acceptance etc.

Any other drawbacks with this sort of thing etc?

Thanks for your help guys as always.

**Sorry Yahwob, I have removed the website address as it's not really appropriate for the forum**

How long will this loan last? If it is longer than 5 or 6 years, have you considered the IVA option? It may be worth seeking some advice from www.iva.co.uk

It probably is too good to be true. Someone who lets you choose how much and how much a month to pay? I wonder how high the interest rate is?

Yahwob - you could find yourself in a much worse position in a few years rather than struggling for a bit longer and being totally debt free.

My advice is simple, debt from banks got you to this point, whatever you do, don't contemplate taking on more debt to dig yourself out, it would be like like throwing a brick to a drowning man. The only winner in this scenario will be the lender. DONT DO IT... PLEASE!

There is nothing wrong with consolidation loans, so long as they are used sensibly and there is no temptation to use existing credit sources again - which in your case will not be an issue as the accounts have probably defaulted.

You may find it difficult to get such a loan, if you have a poor credit rating, and you should beware Greeks bearning gifts, as rarely are these advertisements giving the full picture.

No harm in looking though as it might just suit your own purposes, and very well done for administering your own DMP. Not an easy feat in my experience.

I had 2 consolidation loans and made a pigs ear of sorting myself out twice!!!

Paul

ditto!!!!
Only works if you can honestly say you will not need further credit down the line, who can predict the future!!!!

Thanks for the replies so far.

I did take out a consolidation loan 5 or 6 years ago to clear my credit card debts and then made the classic mistake of starting to use my credit cards again so in the end I maxed out my cards and had the consolidation loan on top! Which is why I ended up with debts of £30k !!

However this time as Melanie says I won't be able to use my cards again so that problem shouldn't arise and with the extra £250 a month to play with I should be able to save for emergencies which is something I can't do at the moment.

I currently have reduced my debt from £30k to approximately £20K but at the rate is reducing it will still take me around 6 years to pay off whereas the consolidation laon will be for approx 7 years, an extra year I know but at least I will have an exact end date and I will have that leeway with the extra money per month.

To be honest thats whats scaring me the most, the fact that I literally have no money left over per month at the moment, so far I've been lucky, every time somethings gone wrong with the car etc I've found a way to pay for it but I know my luck won't hold, certainly not for the next six years and I need to be able to build up some sort of savings.

I know ultimately I'm the only one who can make the decesion and I am worried about taking out a new loan but to me it makes sense in the long run.

A consolidation loan for someone with a poor history as you probably have Yahwob will be provided by some of the less friendly companies,so please be careful what you do,and if you are going to take the loan out read the agreement 10 times,then read it again to make sure you understand any charges that may apply for late payments etc.

Many of these firms border on loan shark status.

Paul

It may be worth asking your creditors for settlement figures as they often accept reduced amounts from those in DMPs. Alternatively, you could ask them to reduce the payments if you are struggling and while it would extend the repayment term it may make it a bit easier.