Secured Loans

A secured loan is a great way of raising money, whatever it is you want to do - pay off credit cards and other high rate personal loans and HP; go on much deserved holiday or make home improvements. After talking through your requirements, your personal adviser will evaluate a wide range of products from a number of secured loan lenders before recommending the best secured loan for you. A credit search will usually be carried out at this stage.

We can help with a secured loan whether you’re employed, self-employed, have no proof of income or a poor credit history.   Take a look at some of the secured loan features.

Borrow up to 95% of the value of your house
Loans available from £5000 up to £100,000
Repayment periods from 3 years to 30 years – so you can spread your repayments over a longer period, making it more affordable each month (Although this may increase the total amount you repay)
Spend the money as you wish; you may be looking for a loan to consolidate debts, a secured car loan,  or a secured loan for home improvements - the choice is yours!
Take advantage of the increase in your home's value, and take out a loan to release equity
Decide how much you need with our secured loan repayment calculator
Competitive rates – we search the market to find the best secured loan rate for you
No upfront fees and no obligation advice
A home visit to run through the paperwork and ensure your secured loan application proceeds quickly and smoothly
Secured loans are attractive in that that they can be used for a variety of purposes, just like personal loans - from business loans to debt consolidation and from home improvements to car loans. 

Compare unsecured and secured loans

Interest rates: secured loans are often at lower interest rates than unsecured loans, and lower payments help make repayments easier to afford.

Loan size: unsecured loans are only available up to a maximum amount of £25000 whereas secured loans are available up to a maximum of £100,000,

Term: unsecured loans usually have to be repaid within a short time, the maximum is usually 7 years. Secured loans allow you to spread the payments over 25 years or 30 years. This means secured loans can be easier to pay off as they offer lower monthly payments over a longer period.

Credit History: unsecured loans are usually not available to people with a bad or poor credit history, such as county court judgements (CCJs), defaults or mortgage arrears. Secured loans are available to people with an adverse credit history and so can help people with bad or adverse credit record.

Security: One downside of secured loans is that because a house is used as security, secured loans are only available to homeowners. Also, the  borrower risks losing their home if they fail to make timely repayments to the lender.  If all payments are made on time however, this is probably the best loan option available.

Secured loan application process
Usually, a customer service representative will come to see you to help you complete the forms. Details will be taken of your property, income and existing mortgage and loans. Once the pack is received there will normally be a valuation of the security property and existing mortgage and loan balances will be verified; within a few days we will arrange a property valuation and get existing lender references, etc. You will have a mandatory 7 day consideration period and at the end of that a credit agreement will be sent to you to sign and return.

Mortgages

Looking for Mortgage or Remortgage? There are times when everyone needs a little help to get their finances back on track. We can help you do this. Regardless of your financial circumstances we have a wide range of remortgage products from a number of mortgage lenders that can help repair your credit. There’s no need to think that your poor credit history means that there is no way out of any situation. Give us a call today and your personal adviser will help work out a tailored mortgage solution for you. Apply now, and get your finances back on track even if you have a poor or adverse credit history, such as-

You have County Court Judgements (CCJ's) or a Decree (Scotland only)
You have a poor credit rating
You have mortgage arrears
You are a discharged bankrupt
You have payment defaults
You have an IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement)
You’ve been turned down by other lenders in the past

Benefits of a remortgage for people with a poor, adverse or bad credit history

There are various benefits of a remortgage; for instance a remortgage could offer you a way to reduce your interest rate, consolidate your debts into one manageable monthly payment by spreading the cost over a longer term, or raise additional finance for home improvements such as a conservatory or a new kitchen. You could remortgage to:-

Take advantage of the increase in the value of your home by releasing the equity, and spend the additional amount as you wish
Save money by moving your mortgage to one with a lower rate - ideal if your existing mortgage is coming to the end of a special rate period
Pay off store or credit cards and spread the costs over a longer period, by consolidating them into one easy to manage monthly payment (although this may increase the total amount you repay)
Gain greater flexibility to buy out an ex-partner from your mortgage

Whatever your reasons for a remortgage, you’ll enjoy these great benefits with us -

Borrow up to 95% of the value of your home
Repayment terms from 1-30 years
Mortgages are available for people in any situation, whether you are employed, self employed, have no proof of income or a less than perfect credit history
A quick, hassle-free application process
Your own personal adviser
No upfront fees and no obligation advice
Competitive rates

Debt Management

Use our debt management service for confidential and free advice on finding a solution to your financial difficulties. We specialise in clearing our customers’ unsecured debts through affordable monthly payments.

We will allocate you a fully trained personal adviser. Their job is to talk through your current situation and devise a Debt Management Plan to help get you back on your feet.

We can help customers -

Who have overstretched themselves with credit cards, loans or overdrafts.
Whose monthly expenditure now exceeds their monthly income
Who are using credit cards to pay off other debts or to pay for items they previously bought with cash
Who have had a consolidation loan refused
Whose circumstances have changed due to a divorce, separation, bereavement, loss of job or overtime
Who feel like no one is listening

What is a Debt Management Plan?

A debt management plan is an informal arrangement between you and your creditors, where you make an affordable monthly payment to repay your unsecured debts. The first thing your Debt Management Plan will do is take the pressure off you. That’s because we will:

Distribute your single, affordable monthly repayment to your creditors on your behalf
Speak to your creditors for you - once you are on a Debt Management Plan, any calls or letters demanding payments should cease
Help with any queries about your plan and provide ongoing support through your dedicated personal adviser
Negotiate with your creditors to, where possible, freeze interest levels and stop any further charges being applied
Carry out regular reviews to ensure that your plan is the best solution for you, right until your debts are completely paid off. This may include consolidating your debts or remortgaging your home

How the Debt Management process works

We will take your call, explain Debt Management, and if relevant complete an income & expenditure review.

If we can assist you by reducing your monthly outgoings, we will send out an information pack, which will contain documentation for you to sign and return, including the authority forms allowing us to speak to your creditors.

Once you have received the pack, a dedicated Adviser will contact you to talk through the documentation, and answer any further questions you may have. From this point, you can then start referring any creditor calls or correspondence directly to us.

As soon as we receive your documentation we can start contacting your creditors to advise them that we are acting on you behalf.

Once we have obtained up to date balances for each item of credit, we shall be able to complete an accurate Income & Expenditure review, which will be issued to your creditors, along with a proposal for a ‘pro-rata’ payment, in line with what you can comfortably afford.

We shall liaise with your creditors to ensure that the proposal is accepted, and further interest and charges are frozen where possible.

Your creditors will receive the agreed monthly amount within 5 days of Compass Debt Management receiving it from you. You may occasionally still receive creditor statements, but these will be for your information purposes only.

At anytime, you can contact us if you find that your circumstances have changed, and we will conduct an up to date review, and agree a different payment if necessary. Alternatively, a review will be completed automatically every six months, to ensure that we are still providing you with the very best advice.

Individual Voluntary Arrangement

An IVA is an Individual Voluntary Arrangement which is designed to free you of all your debt after five years. It is a formal agreement where you agree to make a reduced payment to your creditors over a set period of time.

An IVA is an alternative to bankruptcy, it is set up by an Insolvency Practitioner who is responsible for liaising with your creditors and ensuring that you make all of the agreed payments.

How an IVA works

By entering into an IVA, you will benefit from the following:

Be debt free after five years * The interest and charges on your debts will have been frozen
Your creditors now contact your Insolvency Practitioner so you no longer receive calls and letters directly from your creditors
Your credit rating is not as seriously affected as in bankruptcy
You will not have the same restrictions on you as you would if you were declared bankrupt, e.g. continued use of your bank account, without the need for declaring your IVA.
You can continue to trade
Your employment would not have been affected, unless you chose to make your employer aware of your IVA

However, you may experience the following disadvantages:

If you do not keep to the terms of your IVA then the Insolvency Practitioner or your creditors can make you bankrupt
Your circumstances may have changed during the course of your IVA and it may be a struggle for you to afford the monthly payments
There is a clause in the majority of IVA agreements which states that you will get your house valued after a set number of years with a view to passing the equity contained in your home to your creditors. This is called the Equity Release clause, and it prevents you from selling your home.