Six years ago I took out a secured loan with "AVCO Trust". A year later I had to retire due to ill health, and they agreed to move my payment due date from the 1st of the month to the 15th, when my pension went into the bank. I was paying the same, just two weeks later. Over the years my loan was moved to "Associates", and then to "CitiFinancial". I never missed a payment, and the loan should have been paid off last July (2004). When I phoned to see where the completion certificate was, however, I discovered that I still 'owed' £1,200. When Shittyfinancial took over the loan, they had gone back to the date on the original contract, and applied £50.00 "collection charges" every month since then because my payment was "late". I complained, and that's when the calls started from shittyfinancials 'collections' call centre. Aggressive, intimidatory, foulmouthed, they just wouldn't listen to reason. The final straw came on the morning of my mother's funeral. Told that the hearse was waiting for us "Emma" said to me: "I don't care. nothing to do with me, pay £400 now or we'll take your house off you" This drove me to seek advice from the OFT, Trading Standards, and finally the Financial Ombudsman. I discovered that, because my original contract only allowed for interest charges on overdue payments, not 'collection charges', the whole £1200 was improper and unfair. The Ombudsman took up my case, and I've just received a cheque from ShittyFinancial refunding every penny of their collection charges!
Trading Standards say that such unfair charges affect the company's suitability to hold a consumer credit licence, and if enough people complain they could act to revoke it. I'm more than a little tempted to contact BBC's Watchdog, not that I'm bitter, of course :-)
Meanwhile, I feel a holiday coming on.
Yes!
ps, CitiFinancial's phone is now answered by "Future Mortgages", you have been warned.