Dreams/Creation finance problem!

James001982

Shortly after my wife and I moved in together, we decided to buy a new bed from dreams. As we weren't that flush at the time we opted for the pay nothing for 12 months interest free option and then it was up to us to pay the full amount by the set date - this was our biggest mistake!

After realising that the 12 months had almost passed, we checked what was left to pay and decided to call Dreams directly and make the payment. Twice, my wife had phoned Dreams to pay the outstanding balance of £700 which she was then told had gone through fine. Realising she still had money in the bank the next few days, my wife had phoned Dreams again to confirm that the payment had gone through - of which she was told by Dreams that it had.

My wife even went to her bank where she had a printout of her account saying - transaction processing.

Assuming everything was sorted, we duely put all our efforts into our fast approaching wedding and so forgot all about this. Only recently had I looked at my bank statement to see a figure going out every month to a company called creation - which I had to google and saw that this is the finance company for dreams. In my disgust I realised that the amount of £700 had never actually been processed, despite the numerous calls to Dreams assuring us that it had been paid for, and therefore pushing us pass the date of no return (for interest free payment) and thus making us pay an additional £600 or so in interest alone!!

I'm thinking of writing to dreams explaining all and also summarising the amount that I have paid to date - and will explain that I will not pay over the original amount for the bed.

Please can someone suggest what to do and whether we have a strong case to win when arguing against paying the surplus amount they will pursuing.

Many thanks

James

chalkie99

James001982 wrote: »

My wife even went to her bank where she had a printout of her account saying - transaction processing.

Have you approached the bank to ask why the transaction did not complete?

James001982

Nope, not yet as I would like to know where we stand with it all. The Bank staff at the time said that it was processing and would take up to 3 days to clear, then the Dreams customer support said that it had gone through! Why would they have said that if it wasn't the case??!! so no worries, or so we thought! Call me sceptical but I believe that Dreams have done this on purpose to make us late with the payment date and therefore enforce us to pay the interest. Do you think I'm right?!?

skintandscared_2

How close to the last date for payment were you when you attempted to pay? I would contact my bank first. You clearly tried to SEND the payment. If you can find a paper trail that shows Dreams' collections refused the payment then you can ask them why.

James001982

I think it was with a week to run until the due date. Thanks, will check with bank. I do have paper to show that we attempted payment, and not once were we told by Dreams that there were problems processing it. With the paper proof do you think I will win my argument against them? Thanks for your help though, is much appreciated!

Apples2

James001982 wrote: »

Call me sceptical but I believe that Dreams have done this on purpose to make us late with the payment date and therefore enforce us to pay the interest. Do you think I'm right?!?

I'm right with you.

It seems that bank statement is your only hope. Not only will you have to show the transaction as processing, you will have to demonstrate there was enough money in the account for it to succeed.

We've seen posts like this before and it normally pans out that the poster didn't have enough funds to cover the payment so it couldn't succeed.

If you can show both, you should be on a good footing to fight them.

Silly question but I assume you do have the funds available right now to pay the £700? (again, history on here shows people have spent it so they couldn't repay even if they agreed, which causes more forum mayhem).

James001982

As long as my wife didn't do any early shoe shopping with my bed money, I think we can prove that there were sufficient funds available!! Thanks for that! Yeah, should be able to scrape it together if they demand the balance on the spot, will just have to do some overtime!!

chalkie99

Yes, they do make their money from the deals that run over and incur interest but my question was really to see, as you have worked out, to see where the discrepancy was.

If your bank stopped the transaction you need to know why -- was it a bank error or did you not have cleared funds to satisfy the payment?

If Dreams/Creation stopped it then it seems you can pursue them.

Be interesting to see what the bank say.

James001982

Indeed it will!! I will get onto them when I get time and update the progress of this soon to be lengthy saga!!! Cheers!

chanz4

logon online to creations website, you will be able to see your account and contact them. Ignore dreams its the finance company you need to deal with

skintandscared_2

Of course, as Apples2 says, you need a statement showing you had sufficient funds to process the payment.

So, the initial payment was attempted over the phone? By giving debit card details I presume? Having a bank statement showing the payment as "processing" is definitely a good thing! But the bank should also have a record of why the payment didn't go through. If you have it on paper that the payment was refused by the finance company then I'd say you have a pretty good case and they were just bouncing it back so you went over the time limit. HOWEVER, if the payment didn't "go through" until AFTER the year had elapsed, they may well have refused it on the basis that it then didn't satisfy the entire debt after adding the interest. Keeping everything crossed that you had:

1. Sufficient funds to honour the payment; and
2. The payment was refused or returned before the due date.

Let us know what the bank comes up with! Good luck!