What can I do? I'm 23 years old and need to start saving for a house deposit and instead I'm always low on money and paying loans.
You don't need to start saving for a house deposit, you need to get rid of the bullshit debt you have before you get into far, far more debt.
The guy I spoke to recommended that I try to get it done through someone more lenient like Commonwealth and they might do like 15%
15% on a personal loan is 'fuck me in the ass' territory. It's still worth exploring, because the difference is far more than the 2x it seems.
I was under the impression that GE Money were at like 16-17% on the loan, but they are at 30.7%!!!!! No wonder it's going nowhere...
The thing is, they are insidious motherfuckers. They know most people taking their usurious loans are people who can't access conventional credit lines, and they know you will only make the minimum repayments.
When you rolled your card into a loan, they would have given you a term - 5 years, I'm guessing. Your payments are calculated so that they will take exactly that long, unless you pay extra (which pays off the balance of the loan, rather than just the regular scheduled interest).
Take 5 years, $8000, 30.7%, weekly payments: after 4 years, if you make the minimum payments (ie, the ones they told you to make!), you have still only paid off $5300. Which sounds suspiciously like where you're at.
They did mention in the phone call earlier today that I can get an obligation free inquiry for adding a minimum of $1,000 onto the loan which will in turn lower the interest rate from 30.7% but that the quote/inquiry will go onto my credit history. I asked what the rate would be lowered to (if it would be something really low and 'normal') and I was told that they can't disclose the newer rate, even just a rough estimate, or if it would be substantial and help my situation, til I've done the inquiry.
Real talk: they want to fuck you. They want you to take that 3700, and instead of paying it off in a year, they will offer to be nice guys and give you five years. They might even knock off 3% to 'help you out'.
So, instead of paying the $5200 you would pay (3700 loan, 1500 interest), you will end up paying closer to $7000 (same 3700 loan, but now 3300 in interest).
All the talk of 'credit files' is a distraction for them trying to fuck you.
I have screwed up majorly and I need some guidance or even people to tell me I'm an idiot just to motivate me even more to really get something done about it.
Here is a plan. It's not a fun plan, but still.
1. Pay off your 30.7% loan. Fuck those guys and their bullshit.
If you can borrow money elsewhere with no/low establishment fees, then do that - but, before you do, call those sneaky fucks and ask them for a break cost (they might call it a payout figure, termination figure or similar) to immediately repay your loan. If it's a fixed term loan, they have probably added some kind of fee to do it early. They have to give you this information if you ask. So figure out what that is, and if the cost of borrowing the money plus the cost of the break cost is less than a thousand bucks, do that.
If you can't borrow to do that, or if the costs are more than the interest you would pay anyways, then that's fine. The plan is to pay that shit down as quickly as possible, so you minimise your interest cost - because interest is charged on the amount of the loan (the principal outstanding), if you pay that down early without incurring fees, you minimise your interest costs. Which makes your effective return on the money 30%, which is a fuckload better than a savings account.
So take every extra cent and shovel it into the loan like cake into a fat girl.