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Firstplus nightmare

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  • System
    System Posts: 178,339 Community Admin
    10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    I had first plus loan in 2000-2001 for approx £30000 and to settle early I got charged approx £10000!!!!!!!
    This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com
  • lynzpower
    lynzpower Posts: 25,311 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    LENNY
    I knew Id heard that somewhere!!

    PLease there has to be another way, isnt there?
    :beer: Well aint funny how its the little things in life that mean the most? Not where you live, the car you drive or the price tag on your clothes.
    Theres no dollar sign on piece of mind
    This Ive come to know...
    So if you agree have a drink with me, raise your glasses for a toast :beer:
  • System
    System Posts: 178,339 Community Admin
    10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Who knows, I was desperate though. Would love to be able to claim some of that back though eh!
    This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com
  • lynzpower
    lynzpower Posts: 25,311 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Cor, wouldnt you.

    Belive me lenny my ears to the ground on that one for you.

    incidentally, is there anything that trading standards could do ? just a thought.
    :beer: Well aint funny how its the little things in life that mean the most? Not where you live, the car you drive or the price tag on your clothes.
    Theres no dollar sign on piece of mind
    This Ive come to know...
    So if you agree have a drink with me, raise your glasses for a toast :beer:
  • pjala
    pjala Posts: 420 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Firstplus will budge on the interest figure if you push them.
    I did this. If you hint that you will take your loan elsewhere, they will give you a better figure thant the 15% apr you currently have.
    Secondly check every figure from them thoroughly, they get it WRONG. That means understanding the detail of everything they tell you, writing it down, and working it out with their calculations for yourself.

    The person who is on the other end of the line, will only have a computer which they input figures into, that comes out with what they tell you. You must get the calculation details off them, and then work it out for yourself.

    I did this and it made a difference (in my favour) of £500 is on the final settlement figure, as they had calculated on the wrong APR.

    I believe if you settle, you have a penalty, but if you pay off big chunks you don't. So it is better to pay off big chunks at a time - check out the time scale for when the big chunks can be payed.

    Finally I was SO glad to out of a loan with First Plus, they seem like an outfit that make errors, but only in their favour. This saps your confidence in them, and made me constantly believe they were only working for their own benefit - never mind all that crap from Carol Vorderman.
  • pjala
    pjala Posts: 420 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Sorry, need to add something else too.

    If you reduce the length of your First Plus loan, this also reduces the settlement figure....
    So reduce the length of the loan to something ridiculous like 5 years or so, and then after one month get a settlement figure. They will not charge you to reduce the length of the loan, but the penalty on interest should go down dramatically, so this will reduce the settlement figure accordingly.

    All the best.
  • Xbigman
    Xbigman Posts: 3,915 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    bullspeaking

    My only concern is that you realise that you face the same nightmare as with a consolidation loan, which is a much longer loan period. You are swapping a loan with 16 years to pay for one with (I presume) 25 years to pay. Although you payments are much lower it is because of the extended term.

    So the figures would be;

    First plus £517 times approx 184 months = 95k
    New mort £330 times 300 months = 99k

    Or have I read something incorrectly?

    The other issue. Doesn't your IVA have a yearly revue? When it comes around after first plus is gone you will have much more free income. I don't know much about IVA's so maybe someone else can confirm this.
    Regards



    X
    Xbigman's guide to a happy life.

    Eat properly
    Sleep properly
    Save some money
  • Madstuthe1st
    Madstuthe1st Posts: 40 Forumite
    i also have a first plus loan, wish I had found this site before taking the loan out. If your t&c are the same as mine then you can pay up to 10% off without any penalties in any month. So you could pay 10% off each month without penalty.

    As mention before in the first few years all your paying is interest, my 1st payment was about £550 and only £50 went off the balance and yes that was £50!!!!!!!
  • Cantdance_2
    Cantdance_2 Posts: 200 Forumite
    My loan is with First National (not First Plus) but it's pretty much the same thing - there's a big section on the contract about penalties for paying it off early, where £900 is written in big letters...

    And then in small letters it says that that's the amount of penalty you have to pay PER £1000 that you borrow if you settle within the first 5 years...

    So I took out a loan for £17,000 which means that if I'd taken it out and then had a windfall and tried to pay it back the very next day, I would have had to give them £32,300.:eek:

    Flaming crooks... can't be arsed to worry about it now when I have so many unsecured debts to think about but I will be giving it my full attention in a couple of years time.

    Come to think of it, isn't that a penalty charge and therefore unenforceable under UK law, like the bank charges?

    James
    Total Debt: Owe about £19,000 on credit cards plus £24,000 which is my half of joint loans.
  • lynzpower
    lynzpower Posts: 25,311 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    James, that was my thinking as well, and I believe that Lenny asked about it on consumeractiongroup.com and got no joy ( not sure what was said)

    However, I still believe that it does defy contract law as of course the applicant has no way of being able to alter the contract. My knowledge of contract law is pretty shaky though, dont quote me etc
    :beer: Well aint funny how its the little things in life that mean the most? Not where you live, the car you drive or the price tag on your clothes.
    Theres no dollar sign on piece of mind
    This Ive come to know...
    So if you agree have a drink with me, raise your glasses for a toast :beer:
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