Can they do this?

Dean1985

Hi all this is my first post and hope someone can help me out,

I have 2 accounts with a finance company and apparantly i missed a payment back in November 2010. Late payment fees owed are £42.57 due to a couple of letters they've sent. on my other account I missed Febs payment yet the fees are at £148.66 because of the few letters they have sent. the monthly direct debits are differant by £1.50. So to my question how are they allowed to do that and have my older missed payment just over 3 times less than the more recent missed payment?

Thanks for reading

Dean

lvm

The amounts seem quite strange to be late payment fees...they're usually round numbers like £12 or £15. Do you actually have statements where these are itemised as late payment fees? Is the second account a higher balance than the first one? Could they be calculating the late payment fee as a % to overall balance (although haven't heard anyone do this).

Can you give the name of the company (you're allowed to do this!)

Only other suggestion is to dig out the terms and conditions and it should be quite clear what they charge and when.

Dean1985

The company is CREATION CONSUMER FINANCE LTD i rang them last night and they took the last additional fees added to both accounts of. Here is the info i have for the account where i missed the payment back in november.Transaction TypeTransaction DateAmount DD01 Nov 201015.13 DDR04 Nov 2010-15.13 DD11 Nov 201015.13 DDR16 Nov 2010-15.13 LEPDD1 118 Nov 2010-30.00 LEPARR01 125 Nov 2010-25.00 DD01 Dec 201015.13LEPARR4 102 Dec 2010-25.00 RCARD02 Dec 201047.56 DD04 Jan 201115.13 DD01 Feb 201115.13 DD01 Mar 201115.13 LEPA0004 108 Mar 20110.00 LEPA0005 115 Mar 2011-25.00LEPH0001 122 Mar 20110.00 DD01 Apr 201115.13 not sure what the payment is on 2nd dec but it may have been my wife who paid it in which case why would they now be asking for the arreas in march. have i been lucky here?

ok and here's the info i have for the account where i missed a payment in feb.sorry the bottom part is above the rest phone being stupid.Late payment fee's are as follows: DIRECT DEBIT FAILURE £30 / RETURNED CHEQUE £50 / LETTERS SENT REGARDING ACCOUNT ARREAS £25 / TELEPHONE CALL REGARDING ARREAS £15 / ADDRESS TRACE £75 / TELEPHONE NUMBER TRACE £30 / PRE-TRANSFER LETTER £100 / SOLICITOR LETTER £100 / DUPLICATE CREDIT AGREEMENT £1.00 / AMENDMENT TO PAYMENT METHOD £30 / STATEMENT REQUEST £1.00 / AMENDMENT TO PAYMENT DATE £10. hope someone can help
LEPDD1 124 Feb 2011-30.00 LEPARR01 103 Mar 2011-25.00 DD07 Mar 201113.66 LEPARR4 110 Mar 2011-25.00 LEPARR02 117 Mar 2011-25.00 LEPDDSTP 124 Mar 2011-30.00 LEPPTRNS 131 Mar 2011-100.00
Transaction TypeTransaction DateAmount DD09 Aug 201013.66 DDR12 Aug 2010-13.66 DD19 Aug 201013.66 DD07 Sep 201013.66 DDR10 Sep 2010-13.66 DD17 Sep 201013.66 DD07 Oct 201013.66DD
08 Nov 201013.66 DD07 Dec 201013.66 DD07 Jan 201113.66 DD07 Feb 201113.66 DDR10 Feb 2011-13.66 DD17 Feb 201113.66 DDR22 Feb 2011-13.66



ok didnt know it would display like this when writing the post it was all neat in a table. sorry!

Culex

Dean1985 wrote: »

Late payment fees are as follows:

• DIRECT DEBIT FAILURE £30
• RETURNED CHEQUE £50
• LETTERS SENT REGARDING ACCOUNT ARREARS £25
• TELEPHONE CALL REGARDING ARREARS £15
• ADDRESS TRACE £75
• TELEPHONE NUMBER TRACE £30
• PRE-TRANSFER LETTER £100
• SOLICITOR LETTER £100
• DUPLICATE CREDIT AGREEMENT £1.00
• AMENDMENT TO PAYMENT METHOD £30
• STATEMENT REQUEST £1.00 /
• AMENDMENT TO PAYMENT DATE £10.

Look at the OFT Debt Collection Guidance, as those charges seem to be excessive and hence could be considered unfair.

The "address trace" - 2 or 3 minutes on 192.com - is charged at £75 which works out to £1500 per hour!

Dean1985

Thans for the replies so far. i couldn't see it anywhere on the OFT website but is there any time scale in which they have to leave between sending letters? Because on the higher arreas account they've stated them weekly appart but by the time i recieve it they've already issued the next fee, also im sure i havent recieved the number of letters they've stated. how can they prove they've sent them when they say they have and how can they prove i've even recieved them. not trying to make excuses now but our postman is pretty poor and regulary revieve other ppls post on our road.

Also the time scale apart on the older arreas account are more realistic but still dont get how they've recently just decided i still have arreas even though there was an extra payment made on 2/12/10 which I would have asked how much it was and paid it.

I cant remember if it was with this company but sometime just before x-mas i had a phone call from someone about arreas and that there was some added the day he rung me and told me that i would recieve a letter through the post and that i should just ignore it. so i paid what he asked for and waited for this letter and .... i never recieved it.

can anyone help here. I accept i will have to pay something but think there playing bully tactics to scare me into paying. I had a similar experience with a parking ticket a couple of years ago which i paid for and it fell on the floor but they were saying it wasnt displayed. They were threatening all sorts and eventually gave up bearing in mind i had sent them a copy of the ticket.

Please help! thanks Dean