Cahoot Rip Off (merged)

v0n

I suggested Abbey might be in dire financial situation when we discussed Cahoot's previous dirty trick - the summer "review of loans" that left most Cahoot accounts with funds of 10% above what they owe. It looks like it's a sinking ship - the loans section is relatively small when you compare them to things like Abbey's 5x salary mortgages for 30 years. If they try to release frozen funds from ventures like Cahoot by almost trippling APR in 2 years it only means they are clutching at straws.

bazzab

I got same message about 14.9%.

Tried Abbey and they offered me a loan at something like 6.9%. Great I thought, until she started listing the monthly payments WITH PPI included which made the payments go up something like £35 a month. Hang on a minute I said, at no point did i agree to having PPI. Oh she said, I'll have to resubmit the figures without PPI. Back she came, oh, the APR has now gone upto 11.1%, and the monthly payments are now £10 less than having PPI. Oh I said, I might as well have the lower interest rate with protection at just £10 per month extra. No she said, i've submitted this and we can't get down to the 6.9% APR rate again!

How crap is the finance industry?!

Anyway, had to finally settle for 8.9% (haggled from 9.9%) fixed term/rate loan from alliance & leicester.

ScoobyZ

bazzab wrote:

I got same message about 14.9%.

Tried Abbey and they offered me a loan at something like 6.9%. Great I thought, until she started listing the monthly payments WITH PPI included which made the payments go up something like £35 a month. Hang on a minute I said, at no point did i agree to having PPI. Oh she said, I'll have to resubmit the figures without PPI. Back she came, oh, the APR has now gone upto 11.1%, and the monthly payments are now £10 less than having PPI. Oh I said, I might as well have the lower interest rate with protection at just £10 per month extra. No she said, i've submitted this and we can't get down to the 6.9% APR rate again!

How crap is the finance industry?!

Anyway, had to finally settle for 8.9% (haggled from 9.9%) fixed term/rate loan from alliance & leicester.

I dont think they can legally do that. It comes under some kind of financial incentive to buy the insurance policy, ie discounting the loan apr. But stand to be corrected.

lynzpower

Becles wrote:

I'm furious with Cahoot :mad:

I only opened the loan account in October and borrow some money for home improvements. I've only made one monthly payment and they've told me the rate is going up from 9.1% to 14.9%.

I'm voting with my feet and will be closing the account and moving my borrowing elsewhere.

becles
Speak to the FSA

I dont think they are allowed tpo put the rate up while you are in an advertised discounted time frame. FSA will know more.

h4nym

OK - so where else can I get a fully flexible unsecured facility at a sensible price? Any thoughts on where to move our business to?

H

Phoenix79_2

Both Natwest and HSBC do flexible loans. Natwest's are between £5k-£15k but HSBC's are only up to £5k

roswell

h4nym wrote:

OK - so where else can I get a fully flexible unsecured facility at a sensible price? Any thoughts on where to move our business to?

H

Credit Card.

Becles

I phoned Smile as I have my current account there. They've offered me a loan at 6.7%.

It's not fully flexible as I can't draw more out, but I'm happy with that as I'd rather not have any debt! I can settle early and will be charged a months interest as a penalty. I'm going for that as I think that suits my needs best at the moment.

h4nym

roswell wrote:

Credit Card.

OK - and what credit card doesn't charge for cash withdrawals? will allow you to fire a transfer directly into a bank account? and charges a sensible rate of interest to boot?

Not that I'm sceptical or anything!

H

aubrey_a

Cahoot's new rates for it's Flexible Loan are now appalling. They have raised them from 9.4% to 14.9% with just a few days' notice. Do they just want all their customers to leave!? Anyone know who offers a better flexible loan rate?