Swift Finance

[paddy20]

Worst thing i ever did was get a loan with Swift it was for £ 5,727 in 2007 have been paying £35 a week - £140 amonth but their interest is £115 a month and i still owe £8,868 its never ending- any advice or steps i could take to lower the interest really struggling to pay it but it is secured on the house.

[factor-fiction]

What was the agreed term, paddy? And the APR?
Are you paying for any PPI in there?

[ubasses]

Have you spoken to your mortgage provider to see if you can realease equity from the house to pay it off. It would be a much cheaper interest rate. You would still be in the same position re the security on the house but at least you would see light at the end of the tunnel.

[paddy20]

Thanks for swift reply ha excuse the pun- cant remember the apr when i got the loan preety sure thers no ppi onit i am unemployed so dont think the mortgage firm will release any equity but didnt know they did that im hopeless at apr etc do you think its too high ?

[factor-fiction]

It's hard to say without knowing the term, but it's likely your repayments of £140 a month (nearer £150 if it is £35 a week) were never going to be enough.

[Captain2]

Looking at all your previous questions paddy20, you seem to have a lot of trouble with money. I think you'd be better going to your bank and asking for their professional advice and guidance. Good luck.

[paddy20]

So what amount do you think would bring it down quicker ?

[factor-fiction]

Hard to say, but as the payments are not enough to stop the debt increasing, I reckon you need to pay quite a lot more each month. ask Swift but it would probably have to be over £200 a month just to start making a dent. But I agree that you need impartial debt advice as I recall you have had problems with a previous loan too.

[factor-fiction]

To give some advice on the numbers I'd need to know what the loan period is, and knowing the APR would help too.

[paddy20]

thanks Factor-looking at the statement it says 15.39 % interest is calculated on the daily balance and applied to the account of each month payment.I was recomended the loan through a broker at the time needed it for house renovation -never again .

[New Judge]

As has been suggested, you need to find out more details about your loan, Paddy.

For a start, if you have been paying £25 per month more than the interest why has the amount you owe increased so dramatically? If you are paying just £25 a month off the principle (the amount borrowed) it will take something around nineteen years to pay off the loan but nonetheless the amount you owe should decrease steadily not increase by over 50% in six years. Also, £115 per month interest on a loan of this size equates to an interest rate of about 24% which is very hefty for a secured loan. (Credit card companies only charge about 20% on outstanding balances).

To give you some idea of a comparison with a high street bank, if you borrowed £5,700 from Lloyds you would pay £126 per month and the loan would be cleared in five years. You need to get all the papers for this loan together and show them to an advisor (the Citizens Advice Bureau might help). It seems to me you are being turned over.

[New Judge]

At £140 per month this loan should have taken five years to clear, Paddy. Either you have not made all the required payments as required or something is dramatically wrong somewhere.

[New Judge]

Forgot to add that the figures you have provided bear this out. The Lloyds example I quoted is based on an interest rate of 12%. Your loan at 15% is obviously for the same period but the higher interest rate means higher repayments (£140 against £126).

[New Judge]

And further examination confirms that if you owe them £8,868 they will indeed charge you £113.73 in interest (at 15.39%). The question that needs to be answered is how did your loan increase from £5,727 to £8,868?

[ummmm]

Missed payments? Charges?

[paddy20]

I am going to phone the Snags up soon as-and ask these questions only once or twice years ago had a few late payments nothing major to justify this amount-last time i phoned them-they said oh dont worry the amount will come down shortly- but it hasnt dont get statements very often-thanks so much for replies feel a lot better.