What should I do? I made a mistake and I am paying the price for it!

telboyo

You have not grasped this yet when you originally bought the computer the deal was that if you do not pay it all off within the 12 month period rhen the interest will be added and then you pay monthly until the balance is cleared. In this case you FAILED to pay the total amount so they added all the back interest on to the account. Then the finance provider followed your original agreement and tried to take a DD from your acc. You reneged on this deal by recalling the DD twice. All of this time the interest is piling up on the account. e.g £200 for the first 12 months- £100 that you did not pay them. Plus 2 months interest on the £300 that you were refusing to repay. I would not be surprised if they chucked in a few late fees as well.

Bravehearted_2

tomlancaster wrote: »

Yes I admit it's my fault I didn't pay of the full balance before the interest free period had ended. But I do not see how I should have been made to pay an extra month interest because they failed to respond to my original email outlining my actions and the reason for them. Should they have replied last month, instead of ignoring me, I would likely have more money in my account. I will only involve fos if they decide not to admit liability of failing to alert me last month my account was in arrears.

Err, this is your job not theirs. They have no obligation to remind you to pay your bills.

You're at fault simple. How about be more accountable to yourself.

Catslovelycats

OP, you might have some case to argue if you can prove they didn't reply to any emails, but ultimately the company aren't 'in the wrong' in charging you. I took out HP for a computer years ago and the lad that served me said even if you have just 1p left to pay, you get whacked for interest. I know this doesn't help you on this occasion. It may be that you just have to bite the bullet. These kinds of things are alwasy worth paying off after 11 months I think , to allow time for you to check it's all gone through correctly - and if it hasn't, to make the necessary amendments.
Hope you get some joy from them, but I would be surprised if you did. These companies T&Cs are very clear.

skintandscared_2

OP, you do realise that these companies only make money from the people who DO go over the interest-free period, don't you? They probably have programmed sirens that go off every time someone happens to go a minute over their interest-free period that scream "PAY DAY, PAY DAY".... Why would they pro-actively TELL you that you are about to make them some money?!

MonkeyMad

To buck the popular trend of trying to claim any fee at all as 'unfair', what you do next time is understand all the terms of a credit agreement that you are entering into and stick to them. If this is too difficult, use cash.

Apples2

tomlancaster wrote: »

I bought a Laptop on 0% finance for 12 months and I made a payment to settle the account early December.

The finance company charge a £10 admin fee to close the account (which I knew about) but also charge a % fee to settle by Debit/Credit Card. It's free to pay by bank transfer.

Anyway, I paid by Bank Transfer

I have made a silly mistake of typing in the wrong amount by £100 less than I should have. I believe they purposely charge for card payments to deter people away so they pay by transfer instead, creating this opportunity to make an error.

I don't follow that all all, Why is it more likely an error will be made if paying by Bank Transfer?

Paul_the_Painter

Simply really Apples,

If you make a payment by Bank Transfer - YOU have to input the banks account number and reference number/name absolutly correctly, YOU then have to input the amount CORRECTLY to the PENNY, in order to avoid the problem the OP has had above.

On the other hand if you pay by card, you phone them up and read the card number over the phone, and they put it through there and then, if you make a mistake THEY will notice immediately whilst you are on the phone, as the card number will not authorise. The responsibility for getting the amount right is also theirs, and is likely to be through an automated system anyway, so a mistake on the amount is unlikely.

In response to Silo24, the reason DFS would not be able to offer a discount for cash is quite simple, if they did their financing option could no longer really be described as interest free.

LovelyLeeds

somethingcorporate wrote: »

I cannot see this getting anywhere with the FOS. The original mistake was yours.

Sadly this is correct. I doubt the OP will get anywhere.

chesky369

If you contact the FOS, they will tell you that you have to formallly go through the finance company's complaints procedures before they get involved. Once you have done this, when they come to investigate the matter, they will ask for the company's report which will show that they have behaved completely within the law. You made an error and the company has no case to answer. You will just be wasting the FOS's time.

CHR15

Paul_the_Painter wrote: »

The responsibility for getting the amount right is also theirs,

Heaven forbid they might leave it to the Customer to enter the digits correctly.
In either case there is a human pushing buttons so the mistake is the same in either case.
Even if "They" got it wrong, I don't think it would be as simple as you imagine, it is, after all, your account to manage.

The Bank Transfer is a fantastic option for these things as it is so easy and quick. Quick to do, and quick to remedy if you discover you have inadvertantly underpaid. All done within seconds (as long as you can type the right digits of course).

The message is to ring the Finance Company to check all is in order aftermaking the payment...just to be sure.