Right to refund of interest - please help

grastaff

Sorry all it is 156 weeks. slip of the typing fingers.

It means that for a £425 item I am paying back over £850. I would accept this more if not for the fact that in Sept they did send me a letter offering a good chunk of the interest refunded if I paid by the end of September. I couldn't pay then (due to the great LTSB rip off with them not paying out refunds of PPI once agreed for more than 12 weeks) but hopefully will be able to pay it over the next couple of weeks and so have asked for a recalculation of an interest rebate for early settlement. They now seem to be denying that they ever offer early settlement refund of interest.

I am therefore very confused.:(

Elle7

They do sometimes offer better deals if you settle the payment within a timeframe, usually 7 days after you got the letter. They are under no obligation to do this - its just an added bonus if you can pay it off during that period.

The interest is shocking...I suppose the way it works is that everyone takes interest-free credit within this time, and as long as it is paid off in this, Littlewoods make no money. So the people who don't pay it off within this period then have 12 months interest + a high rate of monthly interest, so like you said, they get back around double what the item is worth.

There isn't much you can do...you could phone up and offer to settle the amount in full and final settlement, but this could affect your credit rating, and they are unlikely to accept if you have been making payments. After all, it isn't in their interests for you to pay it off, because they can continue to charge you interest.

Your problem with requesting an early settlement figure is that you are not settling early...you had 12 months free, and then agreed to pay so much extra interest in order to pay it over a longer period. If you settle early, Littlewoods are still entitled to this - the same as some car finance deals and bank loans.

Is it worth you paying off the whole amount that they are asking for in one go? You might find you are in the same position financially if you just let them collect the monthly DD.