Legal Advice - effing loan
Discussion
right before i get slated for taking a loan out, i was young and foolish !!
I bought a TV on interest free from an internet company about 3/4 years ago. Interest free period ends so pay off the full outstanding amount.
Skip forward to today and checking my credit rating online i see an outstanding loan amount, rather odd so give them a call to find out why it has not been updated. They say that i did not pay off the full amount, so the settlement figure was not give the full amount and it was about £100 short of the total... so they think i owe them £2100 in interest on the full amount that i borrowed which was about £2500, even though i paid off what i thought was the full amount.. I have had not contact from them, no letters or phone calls
Obviously i am not going to stand for that, but what is the best way to approach this, who is the best people to contact... any lawyers got any idea where to go from here ?
Thanks for any help
I bought a TV on interest free from an internet company about 3/4 years ago. Interest free period ends so pay off the full outstanding amount.
Skip forward to today and checking my credit rating online i see an outstanding loan amount, rather odd so give them a call to find out why it has not been updated. They say that i did not pay off the full amount, so the settlement figure was not give the full amount and it was about £100 short of the total... so they think i owe them £2100 in interest on the full amount that i borrowed which was about £2500, even though i paid off what i thought was the full amount.. I have had not contact from them, no letters or phone calls
Obviously i am not going to stand for that, but what is the best way to approach this, who is the best people to contact... any lawyers got any idea where to go from here ?
Thanks for any help
I used to work at a shop that sold these. There were two big money spinners there. One was extended warranties. The other was finance agreements. The choices used to be back in the day that you could either go on 15% ish APR standard loan or 0% finance for 3 years. If you didn't repay the 0% loan before the 3 years were up then you got hit with a 30% ish rate on the whole amount until it was paid off. An absolute rip off, as you have noticed, but our salesmen were very good at explaining which was best for each customer because the manager had drilled it into them.
I think unfortunately if you did underpay then I think that you're buggered. As you can see from the above, it's not in their interests to tell you when the 0% time limit is up. Whether there is are obligation due to regulation I don't know. All of the finance was handled by a bank so we never got to find out. I do wish you good luck in getting it sorted though.
I think unfortunately if you did underpay then I think that you're buggered. As you can see from the above, it's not in their interests to tell you when the 0% time limit is up. Whether there is are obligation due to regulation I don't know. All of the finance was handled by a bank so we never got to find out. I do wish you good luck in getting it sorted though.
tricky69 said:
Really..... they can't do that surely ! With no correspondance at all... are they mean't to send statements at the very least every year ? in which case i should have had 2 !!!
I can't believe that they can do this... totally unfair !
Completely agree. But still... the situation you are in. You have got to get some proper legal advice.I can't believe that they can do this... totally unfair !
Way it up... you owe £2k or whatever. That is as it is. Spend a £100 on Legal Advice and you could save literally thousands.
I really feel for you... proper moody but now you are in this position you have got to work your way out
It sounds as though their working practices may have been slightly dubious and added to your inattention has culminated in this situation. There is some light but you will have to play hard to see it through. Perhaps if it is a big company they may rather square you clean than have a visit from the Watchdogs
I don't know about the legal situation regarding the sending of paperwork I'm afraid. What I do know is that it's likely to be all there in the fine print. Back when I was there I think there were about 3 pages of A4 of fine print relating to the loan so you should be able to skim through it and find the section I'm talking about. I'm pretty certain that if you have agreed to a 0% APR loan from one of these shops they'll be of the type that chrages interest on the whole amount, irrespective of repayments. They need the odd person to miss paying their loan off to pay for all the people who do pay them off in time.
What you need to do is find a way of proving that you thought you had paid the whole amount off, and have appropriate evidence to back this up. It's definitely going to be an up hill struggle though I think.
What you need to do is find a way of proving that you thought you had paid the whole amount off, and have appropriate evidence to back this up. It's definitely going to be an up hill struggle though I think.
Colleague of mine has just been hit with this on a sofa.
3 years 0% interest - meant to ring up the day before the 3 years was up but got the dates wrong and rang up the day AFTER the 3 years 0% interest was up.
The sofa that was £900 is has now cost him £1900.
The worst thing is, he had the money all along but thought it would be better in his account collecting interest...
It all sounds a bit dubious though - surprised this sort of thing hasn't been on Watchdog etc
Seb
3 years 0% interest - meant to ring up the day before the 3 years was up but got the dates wrong and rang up the day AFTER the 3 years 0% interest was up.
The sofa that was £900 is has now cost him £1900.
The worst thing is, he had the money all along but thought it would be better in his account collecting interest...
It all sounds a bit dubious though - surprised this sort of thing hasn't been on Watchdog etc
Seb
We bought a sofa some years ago on 0% finance. The onus was then definitely on you, to pay it up on time, if you did'nt then what has been said before happens. I think this is what the rely on. No reminders were sent.
OK if you are good at managing your affairs. If not be bloody aware.
OK if you are good at managing your affairs. If not be bloody aware.
tricky69 said:
Really..... they can't do that surely ! With no correspondance at all... are they mean't to send statements at the very least every year ? in which case i should have had 2 !!!
I can't believe that they can do this... totally unfair !
They can and still do. I used this sort of offer to buy a TV a few years ago. I knew I was due a retention bonus from my firm and bought the TV for a great price 8 months ahead of the payment on a 2 year interest free credit option. I paid a 20% deposit on purchase date and about 10-11 months later called the finance firm (Clydesdale Bank) to get a settlement figure. This was the 80% balance and I paid over the phone using my Switch card. The guy on the other end of the phone was OK so I asked what would happen if I did not settle the balance on the agreed date. He told me that I would be charged the 80% balance plus an annual interest rate of something like 38.5%. He also told me that there would be no reminder to settle the finance and this was clearly stated in the original paperwork. Now, I was in the fortunate position that I knew the money to buy the TV was guaranteed but it was at such a good price I decided to use the 0% offer to my advantage. I did get 3 or 4 pages of paperwork when I signed the credit agreement but never bothered reading it as it would not be relevant to me. The guy also stated (although not directly I can't believe that they can do this... totally unfair !
) that the bank made significant money on this sort of deal as many people forgot the final payment or paid it a few days late and were then charged to full balance including the interest at the monster rate.This was a few years ago so perhaps finance rules have changed but I would speak to Citizens Advice ASAP to see where you stand.
Grey Ghost said:
tricky69 said:
Really..... they can't do that surely ! With no correspondance at all... are they mean't to send statements at the very least every year ? in which case i should have had 2 !!!
I can't believe that they can do this... totally unfair !
They can and still do. I used this sort of offer to buy a TV a few years ago. I knew I was due a retention bonus from my firm and bought the TV for a great price 8 months ahead of the payment on a 2 year interest free credit option. I paid a 20% deposit on purchase date and about 10-11 months later called the finance firm (Clydesdale Bank) to get a settlement figure. This was the 80% balance and I paid over the phone using my Switch card. The guy on the other end of the phone was OK so I asked what would happen if I did not settle the balance on the agreed date. He told me that I would be charged the 80% balance plus an annual interest rate of something like 38.5%. He also told me that there would be no reminder to settle the finance and this was clearly stated in the original paperwork. Now, I was in the fortunate position that I knew the money to buy the TV was guaranteed but it was at such a good price I decided to use the 0% offer to my advantage. I did get 3 or 4 pages of paperwork when I signed the credit agreement but never bothered reading it as it would not be relevant to me. The guy also stated (although not directly I can't believe that they can do this... totally unfair !
) that the bank made significant money on this sort of deal as many people forgot the final payment or paid it a few days late and were then charged to full balance including the interest at the monster rate.This was a few years ago so perhaps finance rules have changed but I would speak to Citizens Advice ASAP to see where you stand.
ed and will have to pay it
Grey Ghost said:
I did get 3 or 4 pages of paperwork when I signed the credit agreement but never bothered reading it as it would not be relevant to me.
I'm not having a go at you or the OP specifically, but if you didn't read it how would you know whether or not it applied to you? They could have put any clause in they liked and you wouldn't have the foggiest idea. It just doesn't make sense. 
In fact, I can guarantee it was relevant to you because your signature would have been at the bottom of it, therefore binding you to anything it said (subject to it's legality of course).I suspect this rationale will be used by a lot of people will lose out in the coming months from this credit widget that's been on the news a bit.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
whoaa whoaa whoaaaaa this is not a case of not reading the documents... even though i didn't... but they gave me a settlement figure 2 months before the interest period ended and i paid that, they told me on the phone today there was a further settlement figure (that they never told me about) that was outstanding and so charged me interest on the total amount... thats what i am angry about !!!anonymous said:
[redacted]
whoaa whoaa whoaaaaa this is not a case of not reading the documents... even though i didn't... but they gave me a settlement figure 2 months before the interest period ended and i paid that, they told me on the phone today there was a further settlement figure (that they never told me about) that was outstanding and so charged me interest on the total amount... thats what i am angry about !!!anonymous said:
[redacted]
Surely a settlement figure should have been forwarded in writing?I settled car finance a couple of years ago and called get a figure, a letter followed 3 days later and stated that the figure was valid for 30 days from the date of my phone call.
Sounds very dodgy to me or you have been tripped up by their use of language.
tricky69 said:
whoaa whoaa whoaaaaa this is not a case of not reading the documents... even though i didn't... but they gave me a settlement figure 2 months before the interest period ended and i paid that, they told me on the phone today there was a further settlement figure (that they never told me about) that was outstanding and so charged me interest on the total amount... thats what i am angry about !!!
If they are regulated then IIRC they "should" have the phonecall of the settlement figure on tape.(albeit they will doubtless claim it is missing/broken)
Edited by M@H on Monday 17th November 12:40
M@H said:
tricky69 said:
whoaa whoaa whoaaaaa this is not a case of not reading the documents... even though i didn't... but they gave me a settlement figure 2 months before the interest period ended and i paid that, they told me on the phone today there was a further settlement figure (that they never told me about) that was outstanding and so charged me interest on the total amount... thats what i am angry about !!!
If they are regulated then IIRC they "should" have the phonecall on tape.(albeit they will doubtless claim it is missing/broken)
i have no proof that i paid the full amount, just the phonecall i had with them which like i said will not appear !
Just can't beleive they are going to get away with it but nothing else i can do... my word verses theirs ! scumbags....
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Agree the writing is / was on the wall - it's all there in black and white for these policies (although the OP may have a case as slightly different) however surely there are parallels to the mis-selling of Endowment policies?The sales people could tell customers that there is a large interest penalty, should they not clear the balance prior to the 0% interest period ending.
Instead - they happily sell to people with often little financial knowledge (walk round DFS / Comet on a saturday and spot Wayne and Waynetta) knowing full well what will happen.
And as far as getting someone to explain it to them - isn't that why they go to shops and speak to specialists?
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