About Logbook loans

Logbook Loans are loans which are secured against your vehicles V5 registration document. The lender usually offers around fifty to seventy percent of the value of your vehicle, although many other factors are taken into consideration such as the make, model, mileage, age and condition of the vehicle. The interest rates on these loans are high as no credit check is carried out, although they are cheaper than other bad credit loans such as payday loans. With new lenders appearing all the time it is worth your while visiting a comparison website to make sure you are getting the best rate available. An important point to consider is that although you continue to drive your car whilst the loan is being repaid, should you default on any payments means the lender is within their legal right to repossess your vehicle under the “Bill of Sale Act”.

How Do I Qualify

As no credit check is done Logbook loans are aimed at people with bad credit even if you have CCJs or been made Bankrupt you are still able to apply, however there are some some stipulations your must adhere to before qualifying. You must be over the age of 18 and reside in the UK. Alongside this you must be the legal owner of the vehicle and possess the V5 registration document as well as insuring the vehicle is road safe and fully insured. Most logbook loan lenders will will only consider you for a loan if your vehicle is completely free of finance, although there are some acceptions to the rule. Details of your employment must be proven, this also applies to self employed. Finally most lenders will only accept loan applications for vehicles 10 years old or less however this may differ between each lender.

How to Apply

To apply for a Logbook loan you would visit the lenders own website and fill in the online application form, most will provide you with an instant decision. The lender will then contact you to verify your details, agree terms and the loan amount as well as arrange a home visit or branch appointment. Once the loan agreement is signed and documents exchanged the money is then deposited to you within 24 to 48 hours.

Logbook loans are only recommended as a short term solution to borrowing money and if you are sure you can afford the repayments. Anything other than this should be completely avoided as it will only hinder your financial situation.

There are other potential advantages, too. You may be able to reduce the amount you pay each month by repaying your debt over a longer period of time, thereby making each payment smaller.

A lot of the time, when people talk about debt consolidation, they are talking about a debt consolidation loan – a new loan for the purpose of paying off and ‘consolidating’ existing debts. But that’s not the only way of doing it.

Here’s a guide to other methods of debt consolidation.

Debt consolidation with credit cards

Credit cards aren’t just for spending. With a 0% interest balance transfer credit card, you could reduce the cost of repaying existing debts. This type of credit card allows you to transfer credit card debts to your new card and repay them interest-free for an agreed period.

The interest-free period tends to last between a year and 15 months on the top deals, although some don’t charge interest for as long as 18 months.
Remember that the better the deal, the harder it will be to qualify, so you’ll probably need a good credit history.

Also keep in mind that like a loan, a 0% interest credit card is only suitable for consolidating manageable debts. It’s very unlikely to help if you’re really struggling to repay your debts, because it doesn’t address any underlying problems with your finances. This article on the different types of debt you can consolidate may be useful.

Debt management plan

For more serious problems with debt, one option is a debt management plan. This is an informal debt solution that reduces your unsecured debt repayments to an affordable level – as long as your lenders agree to it.

If you arrange your debt management plan through a professional debt management company, your monthly payments will normally be consolidated into one monthly payment – to the debt management company, which will take care of distributing the agreed amounts to the lenders included in the agreement.

A debt management plan could help you if your existing debt repayments have become unaffordable – but paying less each month than you originally agreed can have an impact on your credit rating. And remember that reduced repayments will mean your debts take longer to repay, which could cost you more in interest overall unless your lenders agree to freeze it.

IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement)

This is a similar arrangement to a debt management plan, but it’s only available to people with no realistic chance of repaying their unsecured debts in full within a reasonable period of time.

Like a debt management plan, an IVA combines your unsecured debt repayments into one affordable payment. But unlike a debt management plan, it lasts for a fixed time (normally five years, but this depends on what your lenders will agree). As long as you keep up with your payments during this time, the unsecured debt you haven’t repaid by the end of this time will be written off.

An IVA will also consolidate your monthly payments into one, which will go to your Insolvency Practitioner (IP). Your IP will then distribute the agreed payments to each of your lenders.

Again, this will have an impact on your credit rating – and if you’re a homeowner you may have to release equity from your property as part of the IVA.

If you are in financial difficulties, a short term loan may not be the best way to solve your problems – it may mean that you end up getting into greater difficulties later on. Putting off the problem is not the same as solving the problem. There are numerous charitable organisations such as Community Money Advice who will give you free, no-obligation advice and you won’t need to pay them a penny for their help.

Apply online for a loan – Direct using our simple application form

Don’t assume that your monthly salary is in your account and available for you to draw on untill you’ve seen it’s there. If your payment usually goes in on the 27th of the month and is unexpectedly a day late you may find that any payments you have scheduled for that day will take you overdrawn or subject to unpaid item charges. If the payment is to pay off your credit card you’ll be faced with a double-whammy – extra credit card charges as well!

If you find yourself in this position then the most important thing is to take action early. Burying your head in the sand or putting the bills in the dustbin are not options. You need to face your problems head on.

There are numerous schemes and websites offering help with debt. Some are free, backed by charities, others involve fees. Make sure whichever adviser you get that you do so with your eyes wide open – investigate the costs and what exactly it is that they have to offer.

Of course anyone can set up a website and say that they are offering “debt advice” – in reality they may be offering little more than advertisements for loan companies who “consolidate” all your loans into one. Make sure that anyone you sign up with for help is registered with the Office of Fair Trading.

There are two initial steps to take. Firstly assess all your incomings and outgoings and budget your expenditure. Cut out all the non-essentials that you can. Secondly, with the help of your debt advisor sort out all unpaid bills – the amounts and who you owe them to. Your advisor can then send a letter to all your creditors explaining clearly your financial position and seeking to come to an arrangement with them.

Payday loans without credit check work by allowing the customer to borrow money against their next pay cheque usually from a direct lender, loan provider or other financial institution. Most people are eligible to receive a payday loan — as long as they are at least 18 years of age, have a job, and receive regular pay.

If you need to cover unexpected expenses, such as an emergency household repair a payday loan may be exactly what you need. Payday loans are only intended to be relatively small amounts and are only intended to relieve short-term financial difficulties The amount that you will be approved for is dependent on the amount of your salary. The higher the amount of your take-home pay, the more that you are likely to be eligible to borrow.

Always ensure that you research for the best method of borrowing for your circumstances and never borrow more than you can afford to pay back.

So this looked like a great deal – but of course things don’t run smoothly!

- I got a mountain of mail from Santander, as many as 8 different items of post in one day with account details, pass codes and all sorts
- Buried in very small print was the fact that I’d been allocated an overdraft of £0
- When I phoned up to enquire about this they automatically reset my internet banking passcode (even though we hadn’t even mentioned internet banking) so I couldn’t access my account online
- They said I could reapply to their brokers to get the old overdraft matched, but I’m still waiting to hear from them
- and finally and most exasperating – my old bank had a standing order to pay a monthly amount to my Santander Credit Card. When the new Santander Account sent the payment it was returned. A nonpayment would then mean I’d missed making my minimum payment for the month and thus accrue interest. I phones both the bank account department and the credit card department and they both told me it was the other one I needed to speak to as there was nothing they could do! Allegedly it’s all ok now and they say I won’t be charged interest and it was down to a system failure – we’ll see what next month’s statement says!

So not a good experience with santander so far!

Standard Life Shares have pretty well followed the fortunes of the wider footsie index, since their launch.

The low point for the shares was in early 2009 when the shares bottomed out at around 130p a share. The shares ended 2010 at around 216p, underperforming the wider index for the year. These figures are well off the highs that the shares earlier enjoyed in the mid-300′s.

If you own shares from the original flotation, you may be able to take advantage of Standard Life’s own share dealing scheme. Alternatively cheap share dealing is available from Halifax, Barclays and TD Waterhouse on an execution-only basis.
Sell Standard Life Shares

There a ppears to be the beginnings of a price war between some of the biggest lenders.

In the last two weeks, six major lenders have cut the rates on their unsecured personal loans, according to research from Moneynet. However, the reductions are only targeted at borrowers requiring larger loans. For smaller amounts a )% credit card may be abetter bet. Amongst those who have cut their rates recently are Barclays, Sainsburys and M&S.