blonde poker forum

Bit of a longshot this and none of you here know me but I am sort of running short on ideas so wondered if anyone here had been in similar situation....I am in dire need of a loan but have been unable to get one (or any sort of credit for the past 5 years) due to bad credit history (missed payments, ccj's) a lot was due to my two finger attitude to the bank who were never able to help with a consolidation loan but this has had major repercussions. A few years back I binked 50k in the lottery and was able to clear my debts of the time and used the rest as a deposit on a house, bought a car and stuff for new house...it didnt last very long. the change in house meant cost of living went up and i changed jobs resulting in a loss in salary due to stress with some wankers in my work at the time...so started putting some extra expenses onto credit card which bank practically forced onto me after i deposited the 50k (same bank who wouldnt loan me a pen just a few weeks before) i was stupid and took everything they offered me thinking i didnt need it, life was sorted and i thought i could use it responsibly to help rebuild my credit score. then one day on sky TV i came across poker! Have never been interested in any sport in my life, but this was something else and I was immediately hooked, it was a night long special on challenge TV of the full tilt red rock championship....before the end of the night i was already sticking a few hundred dollars on my CC at full tilt. I lost it pretty quick so redeposited hoping to win it back. but i didn't, so i redeposited again. skip forward a few months and I had transferred my CC to another for 0% apr, and managed to max out the existing CC (5k) at various sites. it was at that time that i decided to learn more about poker than what hands beat what and came across some glorious advice like BRM etc....of course I had to deposit some more to try out this BRM and I became obsessed with the chris ferguson challenge...but being perfectly honest (which i have never been until now) for the past 2 years i have deposited, tried to grind, tilted, spewed off, redeposited. I have the luxury of having a decent paying job and my partner earns money too so Ive never needed to borrow money off people (aka staking) to lose at poker...but effectively im ripping my kids off as we have had a pretty shitty life these past 2 years to be blunt....its pretty obvious to me that i am never going to win in poker as much as i love the game, and i would still like to keep at it as a hobby...i am capable of playing good poker and sticking to a tight brm....but every so often i come to my senses about just how much i have lost, i panic, and suddenly all logic goes out the window and it becomes a race to turn my $200 roll or whatever i have at the time into $20,000 overnight. i have a terrible gambling problem, simple as.

I want to clear my credit cards and overdraft and raise a bit of extra money to patch up some of the problems caused by funnelling away every spare penny ive had for the past 2 years into the poker economy, namely making it up to my family big time. i devised a plan and worked out how much it costs to pay off my existing debt in the current setup, and compared it to how much it would with a new loan...and the savings/benefits are just huge...just now if i was paying my debts as i should, it would be £850 per month...thats before mortgage shopping travel etc....my take home is 1900  a month and my partner takes home over a grand. i probably waste about 500 a month on poker. i wanted the bank to give me a 15k loan which with good interest could work out around 3-350 a month. the bank wont loan this to me on account of my bad credit record and consider it irresponsible lending, but clearly i have the money to waste (if paying off debt was as easy and as enjoyable as depositing money to a poker site, i would be debt free several times over!!) looked into some of the p2p lending sites such as zopa etc. but they still credit score so no dice.

what im trying to ask is, does anyone know of any way of borrowing money with a means tested approach to eligibility rather than a computer says no response? has anyone been in a similar situation and been able to find a way out? i have spoken with debt management companies but tbh these are no use, they dont really reduce how much you are forking out and my debt is mostly all cc's with huge apr's...i want to move this elsewhere but get some extra money out of it aswell as we have lived 2 years pretty much in the gutter. i was reading the railtard1 thread and had to laugh at how he managed to get himself out of his mess, and wonder why me as someone who knows what money means (well i used to) and works hard have nowhere to turn.....sorry this is a bit of a tl;dr and obv of no concern to anyone here but im guessing i cant be the only one whos been in this mess so hoping someone knows a better way out?? cheers.

keilan (the guy who contributes towards your wages!!!!)

man up and snowball imo

http://www.fool.co.uk/Get-Out-Of-Debt/guides/Snowball-Your-Debts.aspx (also see page 9 re consolidation)

http://boards.fool.co.uk/dealing-with-debt-50079.aspx?mid=12064042

poker is marketed as some cool way to win a fortune but the reality for 95% of people is that you lose. keep $100 online and play micro's if you can't knock it on the head altogether.


made me smile.

GL!

Urghh...motley fool....been there....5 years ago....didnt help...binking on the lottery was the only thing that helped...hence chasing the gambling dream ever since....biggest problem is i have now fallen into the scam of payday loans, so every month i lose my entire wage and need to reborrow it....snowballing/traditional debt management is not going to fix this...just a big stash of cash to blitz it all, its maybe blinkered vision but i just cant see past it...

This is probably the advice you don't want to hear, but imo...


Stop gambling.

Stop borrowing.

Work hard.

Speak to your creditors and agree a sensible, sustainable payment plan.

What Mr Red said.

You say you want to continue to play poker and get extra cash because you have had a bad few years, this definately isnt the right attitude.

Youve had the good times, you need to cut everything you possibly can now and live on the bare minimum.

On a side note how on earth have you got payments of £800 on £15k of debt?

Could you not bite the bullet, downsize house, clear the debt that way and start from scratch?  Or is does your partner not know about things?

Good luck whatever you do.

Red's advice is as good as it gets, but I'll add a little.

Most of us have been in a self-inflicted money hole at some time in our life - I know I have.  In my case, at least twice.

There are LOTS of ways out of it, lots & lots. Borrowing to feed the borrowing is NOT one of them, you are just pouring petrol on the fire.

At 32 years of age, I was.....

Penniless.

Homeless

Car-less

Job-less

Not a bean to my name, nowhere to live, no car, no job.

I begged a job, & applied myself to it.

The next 3 years, as I oh-so-slowly worked my way out of the hole, gradually clearing everything up, bit by bit, week by week, was the most satisfying of my entire life. I "allowed" myself a daft amount of money to live - a tenner a week I believe -  & had to find ways to manage. Beans on toast every day never tasted so good.

PLEASE don't think borrowing - again - will solve anything. It won't.

And deffo do NOT mess with poker, or any other gambling, during the fightback, it will do your head in to claw back 100 quid here & there, & then do it at poker.

Good luck.

Time to show if you have any backbone.....

Mr K, thats soooo wrong.

Borrowing at a sensible rate to consolidate keilans credit card debts is with out doubt one of the most sensible things he could do.

If he has 3 credit cards at £5k and 20% interest paying £200 a month on these cards is no where near as effective as paying £600 a month against a £15k loan at 8%.

The problem is peoples self control. Most people who consolidate then either re spend on the credit cards, or they reduce their repayments to say £300 a month so they can have some spending money.

Debt consolidation is good but you must still follow it up with your beans on toast approach.

It's just my view, Stu, based on having been there myself.

I just don't think borrowing is the way out of it, working out of it is my idea of the permanent solution.

Each to their own.

Whatever he decides, I wish him the very best. It's not so nice being in a hole, but getting out of it  - properly getting out of it, by his own efforts, & not the easy route of moving the problem down the line - is the bestest thing ever.

PS - I'm glad we agree that the beans on toast approach does play a role.

Beans on toast is just an amazing meal, its when you start to sprinkle cheese on top you know you have got above your station.

I think your view of debt consolidation is correct in probably 80% of cases, its just a way of someone refinancing so they can spend more.

This is the person though not the debt consolidation, done right it can be a ladder and everyone knows that ladders, when your in a hole, are a god send.

PS - I want some beans on toast now, thanks.

Each to their own yes, but how is a £15k loan "more borrowing" than £15k on credit cards? It's the same amount of borrowing, just done smarter. It's like the old question, which is heavier, a ton of feathers or a ton of lead? Credit cards are the lead.

But smarter not to borrow, imo. That's all I'm saying. Pay it off, move on.

Pfft I cant eat it without Caviar on mine

Seriously tho- alls good and well taking out more debt to consolidate your current debt at a lower rate(but consolidating is the key thing) poster has already said he took out debt before to clear other debt and ending up maxing out his previous Card too so seriously has a problem with control. Whats to say he wouldnt do the same this time.

If your gambling splurges are seriously under control then good luck I hope you get the loan to pay off current debt but one thing Gamblers do A LOT is lie to themselves... the safest and most probably cheapest way of doing this is taking red's advice

P.S Beans on toast with Cheese grated over the top is the bomb!

You are probably away of it already Keilan, but this really should be your number one checked website every day, it has helped millions get out of debt.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

+1  great advice and savings

Thanks for all replies. Yes am aware of most the debt free resources out there having been there 5 years ago...Im very bad with organisational skills and forward planning, thinking of bigger picture etc...the situation just now is where the money comes in and goes out straight away and I borrow straight away from payday loan companies to last me the month...so I can lose anything from 1-200 a month just on interest alone as these companies need paid back the full amount each month. My overdraft constantly goes over and I am charged £150 per month from my bank for being overdrawn, 3 credit cards at 250 250 100, one of the pay day loans I missed the payment of due to a big cock up I had recently where I had to pay up front for hotels for work so the pay day loan was delayed by a month, cost me £700 to pay a £400 loan the APR was something like 2940%, the APR on my CC's are pretty high aswell, maybe 30% so I deff need to get this shifted elsewhere...a consolidated loan itself would be around the 350 mark a month which is much more manageable and if it could be a direct debit would be paid off each month before I know about it...my mortgage is currently 750 but it is going to come down after the new year to 500 odd but my goal would be to be paying 350 on debt and then continue to pay my mortgage at 750 or even more so we can get that cleared quicker, only had it 3 years so far so the more we can pay just now the sooner we should expect to have it paid off....just turned 28 here, but kids of 10 and 7, those buggers arent cheap! Its so frustrating, glad one or two of you can see my point in why a loan would be the best option here...i have been off work a few months with depression aswell so not really been getting my usual wage, trying to sort this out by just paying it is just going to drive my confidence down more and balls up our xmas....uuurrgghh sick life....

after reading your last post mate you should get yourself to your Local Citizens advice Bureau- they will lay everything out on the table and give you advise on best how to proceed, explaining all your avenues

I have no experience of them but a colleague is working his way out of a similar hole with an IVA.  From what I understand, its an arrangement where your debts are frozen, interest stops accruing and you pay off what you can afford, in monthly instalments over 5 years. After 5 years the rest is written off.  May be worth looking into.

Try Googling for  "IVA"  or "Individual Voluntary Arrangement"

So your not working either?

I think you need to talk to someone about an IVA, before you lose your house.

I am still employed...I am on sick leave until 17th this month...

I dont think IVA's are available in Scotland, its a different thing called a trust deed, my mum actually went through this recently, but she didnt own her house so i dont know if it affects your mortgage or not....they also dont provide you with cash which i am depserate for for home repair / central heating oil / car repair / xmas .....

+1 on the IVA.

My missus was in a ridic amount of debt when I met her and she when to a free debt management company, I'll get the details when she gets back later today for you. She had all her debts frozen, got some of her monthly payments reduced, in some instances was able to negotiate a lower settlement fee with lenders and whenever any of them would give her any shit, the debt management company stepped in for her.

Cant remember the figures but I think she had about 7k outstanding and shaved maybe £1k off with their help.

will get details for ya asap

Beat me to it.

I also know someone who has one of these. You dont need to pay one of the 'IVA Companies' to do this for you either.

You basically write to each company and inform that there is no way you will be able to service the outstanding debt you have with them.
You need to show your financial situation to them in detail and make a proposal to them.

I believe an average proposal would be that there is no interest added, and you will repay circa £10 a month for 5 years.

Your basically saying accept my offer to pay you this, or I'm going to declare myself bankrupt and you will get nothing.

Ignore me, she didn't get an iva, got my facts twisted

yeah this, they have all the same information that Debt Management companies have - but they don't charge for it, and they're more influential.

At the moment you've got a bad credit risk score - because you're a bad credit risk, if you give all the details to someone personally they're going to come to the same conclusion as a computer doing it automatically would do.

The CAB can help with the ideas people have already mentioned and they'll know of any other ways which will be even more appropriate.

Ok, she didnt get an IVA, my mistake. She used these guys who were free as a debt management company:

http://www.cccs.co.uk/

Personally I'd rather sell my house than get an IVA. You think it's tough getting a loan now? Wait 'til you've got an IVA against your name. You won't even be able to get a phone on contract.

If there's enough equity in your house to clear your debts then just do that and start again in rented accommodation.

It sounds like the interest you're paying is crippling and it's only going to get worse.

Can you borrow against your house? Any chance of a re-mortgage with some cash left over to pay off your loans.

It might be worth talking to a bank about re-mortgaging with debt consolidation included.

Whatever you do you need to do it fast and quit all forms of gambling 100% or you'll fuck your whole life up. If you were older I'd probably think differently. You're still young enough to get going again though and if everything you've got is in your house then that's the thing to use to try to get out.

whats the value of your house?

and whats the mortgage balance on it?
 
try giving these a call, phatomch and myself where both in the secured loan game, you will pay somewhere around 13% but they can spread that over anytrhing upto 30 years or until you are 80. It sounds a high interest rate and it is compared to a mortgage but, it has no early repayment clauses so you can get yourself out of trouble and then remortgage in a few years time on a (normal mortgage rate).

Dependant on you property type they will go upto 75-80% ltv  (loan to value)  so if your prop is worth 100k and mortgage is 50k they will lend between 25-30k.

http://www.blemaingroup.co.uk/blemainfinance.html

banks wont touch at the moment due to the historic bad credit. Unless he has a major low ltv. And the only company doing un-secured loans is Blackhorse and they are very picky over who they will lend to.

13% isn't that bad really as long as he can clear everything with it and then focus 100% on paying off that 15k.

Keilan. Have you told your Mrs about all this particularly the spewing chunks on gambling?

She needs to know so that she can help make sure you don't do it again.

Probably have read this wrong but you say you take home 1900 per month and your partner takes home over 1000, you pay £150 for being overdrawn and you pay £600 to credit card companies, so that leaves 2150 per month? Obviously you have other living expenses but I know alot of people that would like this amount coming in every month.

Can you not agree a lower monthly payment figure with the credit card companies? Close your Poker accounts from what you say that will save you £500 a month straight away. You say you have a gambling problem have you contacted any groups? Gamblers Anon or any others.

Actually I think i just said what Red advised only he puts it better.

Good luck with whatever route you take

Stop gambling and your life gets better. Don't even buy a lottery ticket. Forget about poker as a hobby.

There are a number of ways forward IMO, if you are in financial difficulty most banks will want to arrange something for fear of you going bankrupt.  First and formost you need to complete a monthly budget, it needs to be 100% honest, including all debts that you have along with other living costs right down to toiletries and entertainment (not gambling related obv). 

Once you have done this you can either deal direct with your bank, if most of the debt is in one place they are likely to help but if you have it all over the shop each bank will try to get you to pay them the most.  The more sensible thing to do would be to contact one of the following Charities.  Whatever you do don't google them and click on the first link up as your likely to go to a fee paying company that will keep pushing IVA's which might not be the best option.

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/

http://www.cccs.co.uk/

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/

The best one IMO is national debt line, they have all options available and don't actually administer the Debt Management Plans (DMP's) or IVA's (if this is the best option - don't rule it out, everybodies circumstances differ) or finally which hopefully wont be what they recommend bankruptcy.

There are some helpful responses on this thread and some links to moneysaving websites which are all well and good when you can 'borrow' your way out of it.  If you have a good credit rating you can go and get a loan somewhere pay everything off and reduce your outgoings however if you are past that the options provided by the charities above are the best way to go.

A debt management plan is probably the banks/your best option.  The reason I say its the banks best option is because you will not have to write any debt off so they wont completely fuck you over on your credit rating! 

A DMP is where you make an agreement based on your income and outgoings and pay a set amount to your creditors, the banks will normally freeze all interest and charges which means your balances reduce v.quickly but normally they will spread the cost.  Once you enter the agreement it is reviewed every 12 months of if your circumstances change.

Anyway I'm rambling on now and all I meant to say was call the national debt line they will give you some excellent free advice.

Best Wishes

sovietsong

PS

- if your outgoings are actually quite low and you are struggling to make payments due to £300 a month into poker or whatever I think you know what the answer is.

the loan company i put up will do a secured loan of upto 100k with people with ccj's,upto 4 missed mortgage payments in last year.

Think I don't have enough equity in our property for a secured loan, value is 135, we put down 25k (including all fees) mortgage was for 114 and current balance is about 109 (after 3 years, nice 21k of interest!!!)...I take it we wouldn't get considered for a secured loan in this instance?

could you get a payment holiday on the mortgage for a few months? used to be able to change to interest only to save a few quid but think they're putting a stop to that. have you rung them to see if they can do anything?

You should really seek third party advice from a debt management company immediately. I recommend the CAB.

People have suggested you try and negotiate new arrangements with your creditors. Trying to do this yourself will be unsuccessful. The companies will just continue to make demands on the existing terms. It is only when you get a debt management company involved that they will start to discuss making any new agreement and freeze fees and interest.

You could approach your mortgage company about a holiday break but not many companies are that flexible in the current market. Again they tend to only open discussions once you have approached a debt management company and done an income and expenditure form.

Re: any suggestion of selling your property to clear your debts and renting one this sounds simplistic but the reality is this is probably not a realistic option once you consider the time scale involved in selling a property especially in a deflated market. Your also likely to lose tens of thousands if seeking a quick sale ie via auction. This option should be avoided at all costs especially if you have children. Creditors do have the option to seek court action against you and get a charge against your property ie they guarantee they will get their money if you subsequently sell your property, assuming that any profit is made on the sale.

Try and refinance but I doubt you will have much success with this unless you happen to find a company who will no doubt charge you accordingly for taking on a high risk customer.

Renegotiate your credit arrangements ASAP via a third party and your find your have additional monies that will allow you to reduce your debts. You may also find that credit agencies will make you offers to settle the debt for a reduced sum. They tend to start at 80% but can go down to 30% or even lower because all they do in the end is sell the debt on for as low as 10 to 15%.

But my biggest tip is stop gambling until you have paid of ALL your debts. After all you should only gamble with money you can afford to lose and for you at this point in time that is nothing.

Move to Scotland...cheaper housing...get a trust deed...will freeze all debts...wipe out 80% of debts...pay the remaining over 3 years...and after a further 3 years u can apply to have your credit history improved...u won't have a credit card in your possesion for a long time...however u will be at peace...this must be killing u mentally....tell the wife everything....drop poker...possibly attend ga too....

Will they lend me £100k for a house?

I've got 2 bank accounts, one I use for my income which has a outstanding loan and all my direct debits going out of it. The other account I use to pay me a little wage into.

Location: Inverbervie  ;)

no as a securede loa is a 2nd charge , therefore you must have a motrgage on the property brfore they will lend