Huge early repayment charge

anuvidy

My parents have a loan for 150k over 15 years, and their repayments are 1500 a month. Wasn't an ideal choice of loan but they were heavily ripped off by conment in France. We're now in a position to pay the loan off in full, but the princple sum appears to have barely changed after 3 years of payments and there's a £ 10,000 early repayment charge. Anyone got any ideas of whether this can be challenged ? It's secured against their property so it's a secured loan but not necessarily regulated.

_Andy_

Is this a mortgage on a French property or in the UK?
Surely if the documentation states there is a £10k ERC then there is no rip off.

anuvidy

No it's against a Uk property, but in the same way that the banks levy heavy charges which then get tempered, surely the same could apply here. My parents are in their 70s. The company took advantage.

jonesMUFCforever

How did they take advantage?

_Andy_

There is nothing illegal or immoral about early repayment charges. There is nothing that can be challenged.
If your parents wanted a product with no early repayment charges then they shouldn't have signed the agreeements for this one.

Extant

Nothing wrong happened here, and nobody was taken advantage of. Your parents signed a loan agreement for a certain amount of money, stating they would pay it over a certain amount of time - they're seeking to effectively break this agreement. If the charge was in their paperwork, it's tough luck and whether they're in their 70s or not is irrelevant.

_Andy_

I would also add that someone in their 70s will surely have had more experience in making decisions about their finances than, say, someone in their 20s, therefore I really don't see why their ages means they were taken advantage of.