Cahoot Rip Off (merged)

john348809

I am in the same position - cos of the rate used the loan to fund home improvements. Now forced to look around to change it.
I am complaining to the FSA - all other customers should to.

happy_chick_3

I have been trying to close my account since I started this post and have had nothing but trouble with cahoot. They wouldn't give me a settlement figure over the phone, I to request it online which I did and it should have been posted to me. Nothing has come through and if they keep delaying then the account will move into the higher interest level before any payments I make will clear the balance.

I have written them a very stern email tonight and will call them tomorrow and if I get no joy will just have to pay off the loan amount and estimate the interest accrued between now and the last payment I made.

This is appaling behaviour as they only gave 2 weeks notification of the increase and now cannot be bothered to be as prompt in their customer service. Are they deliberately trying to push their customers into the higher interest bracket to make more money for themselves....?

grecian9

I have a Cahoot flexible loan but haven't received any email(s) about interest rate hikes. Have checked my spam folder and not there either. I'm guessing that the changes will still affect me though:mad:

I'm trying to borrow a big chunk of money (10k) from Leeds BS to finance me through a 6 month post grad course but now I think I'll pay off my Cahoot loan (4k) and try and get new credit in 4 or 5 months time. Will it be impossible to get credit when I'm a mature student? This Cahoot thing may well result in forcing me to sell my car in order to pay the mortgage and buy food!

As I'm about to apply for credit from the Leeds BS I think it would be unwise to do another credit check within the next month. As of the end of January I will be a student. Is the answer to increase my borrowing from the Leeds BS while I'm still employed full time? This will be a homeowner loan borrowed over the life of my mortgage (29yrs), so not the cheapest long term way of borrowing but perhaps the cheapest short term as the value of my property has increased 15% in 12 months.

mrcow

grecian9 wrote:

I have a Cahoot flexible loan but haven't received any email(s) about interest rate hikes. Have checked my spam folder and not there either. I'm guessing that the changes will still affect me though:mad:

If you log in to your account, you may see a message sitting there for you? (It's how I found out).

grecian9

No messages and it still says my apr is 6.9%. I haven't deleted any old messages so this confirms I've had no contact from Cahoot at all. Maybe they are not applying this rate hike to everyone? I took my loan out in 2005. Perhaps it only applies to 2006 loans?

mrcow

I've been with Cahoot for about 4 years and have used the account on and off since then. I got the message on 6th December. The rate hike is happening on 22nd December (I think from memory).

I hope you are lucky then

grecian9

happy xmas from Cahoot - ps...we're doubling your interest rate.

angeldiva

enjoyincubus wrote:

My guess is Cahoot have taken the decision to get rid of their loans business and most of the existing customer base by virtually doubling the APR's for all customers. Those who are not happy will move elsewhere. However there are groups of customers who do not have as easy access to other sources of credit so will be forced to pay the higher rates and stay with Cahoot. I believe marketeers call this "milking a cash cow". My guess is in a year or so the customers who are still left will be sold on to a different lender to deal with as the ongoing costs will be too large for Cahoot to justify. Also all of the easy profits will have already been "milked dry" and Cahoot will just be left with a back book of bad performing debt.

Im in that group and do not have easy access to other sources of credit, im stuck with Cahoot and im really really upset and disgusted with what has happened.

h4nym

happy_chick wrote:

They wouldn't give me a settlement figure over the phone...if they keep delaying then the account will move into the higher interest level before any payments I make will clear the balance...
estimate the interest accrued between now and the last payment I made.

That's the best thing to do - looking at your loan balance on your signature, £3413 - if this is all Cahoot, then your interest will not be more than £40 for the month. So pay them, say, £3455 now. That will put your account in credit. Once they apply the interest, that will bring the credit balance down to a few quid. Withdraw that money to bring the balance to exactly zero. I've done this several times as the balance has fluctuated. It's what I'll be doing very soon again.

Then you can close the account at your leisure. Make sure you do do that, though, if not it will reflect badly on your credit score, because a zero balance will mean that you have access to your full credit limit and your credit file will reflect that.

H

Giddytimes

grecian9 wrote:

No messages and it still says my apr is 6.9%. I haven't deleted any old messages so this confirms I've had no contact from Cahoot at all. Maybe they are not applying this rate hike to everyone? I took my loan out in 2005. Perhaps it only applies to 2006 loans?

My account is exactly the same, my interest rate still says 6.9% and I took the loan in 2005 aswell. I think if I remember rightly that the interest rate was fixed for a year from opening the account so I expect the interest rate will spiral to 14.9% as soon as my anniversary comes round.