Please Help FLM Nightmare

jaclyn1christin1

Hi

I am having a nightmare with FLM a loan company that i'm with. I'm looking for some help please.
FLM are a loan company that offer unsecured loans to people with bad credit as long as they can provide a guarantor who is a home owner. Last year I applied for a £3000 loan direct from FLM's website. The reason I applied to FLM was that they were a loan company and not a broker.
recently while checking my documents I noticed that they have charged me a £300 brokers fee. I know for a fact I apllied direct to FLM. Im a bit confused so i've provided some quotes from FLM's website;

FLM do!not!charge an upfront fee, we're!a lender, not a broker. Any upfront fees will!of been charged by your broker, not by FLM. !
When applying directly through FLM, set-up fees will apply to all loans under £3000 and for top-up loans. This will be added to your repayments and paid back in your monthly instalments. The monthly instalments on your paperwork will already include the fe(my loan is for £3000 so where do I stand).
FLM do!not!charge an upfront fee, we're!a lender, not a broker. Any upfront fees will!of been charged by your broker, not by FLM. !
!You are correct in that we are a lender and not a broker. However at some point during you going through the process of trying to get a!loanyou would have gone through a broker. This could have been over the phone or through an internet site. We would have then sent out forms to you. Your agreement number will have a couple of letters at the beginning, this is reference to what broker you came through.!
FLM do not charge a fee upfront and any set-up fees will already be included in your monthly payments.
As Jon mentioned to Kez above. If you use a search engine to look for loans, you could click through a broker's website and found us. They have then pointed you in our direction. This is how you would have got a broker. Them putting you in touch is why there is a brokers fee.
carz!(1 year ago)
im just applying for a loan through yourself and it said the is a fee of £200 I have already paid £50 through the broker i went through to get to you do i still pay £200
FLM Loans!(1 year ago)
The £200 is a commision that has to be paid to your broker who put you in contact with us. The fee that you have already paid to them is for them to find a loan for yourself. They are providing a service to you.!Don't worry, you dont have to pay this upfront as its already included in your monthly payments.
Are they implying that a search engine could not be your broker, surely not??
I can no longer speak to theese guys on the phone. They are the most antagonising bunch. My guarantor is my girlfriend and in the summer of last year we were both made redundant. We managed to meet all our finanacial commitments until Novemeber last year when all savings were depleted.
We advised FLM of our troubles, explained we were experiencing financial hardship, offered a token payment and requested they freeze ineterest and stop charges. On their request we provided income and expenditure forms. Their response was that although it was clear we had no disposable income FLM could not stop applying interest and charges but they will accept our token payment. This meant that we would pay £20 per month but they would still be applying £90 in interest and charges each month???
I have received 29 letters, 119 text messages, 59 voicemails and 61 emails from them since December all demanding payment.
I live in Scotland but they threaten me with court action in Carlise, advise that although its not a secured loan me and my partner will loose our home, they threaten us with bailiiffs adding that I wont like it when bailiffs come to our home and take our posessions.
I dont know what to do next.

Apples2

Not sure what the relevance with all that broker talk was, just made it difficult to read.

The token payments are only supposed to be a short term arrangement, have neither of you managed to get a job since last summer (genuine question)?

The court would have to come first, then the bailiffs. They could go for a charging order on the house but for a paltry £3k is hardly worth it.

I'm not familiar with Scottish law though so I may be quite wrong.

Tixy

Looks like a cut & paste from another forum, with some replies mixed in the text?

Anyway, basically if you can't afford to pay then they expect your guarantor to. If she can't afford to pay then they register a default on her credit file and then either they accept her token payments (which it sounds like they have done) or they decide to commence legal proceedings against her. They are entitled to continue to charge interest & interest on the arrears that are building up.

Does your girlfriend live in Scotland and did she when you took out the loan? If so then they would have to take legal action in Scotland not England.

To stop the phonecalls and voicemails/texts you can send a letter to state that you require all future communication to be in writing, and that you require them to remove your phone numbers from their systems under the data protection act.
You can't stop them sending letters demanding payment, and they could take court action. I'd suggest it might be worth getting in touch with a debt charity in Scotland to give your guarantor some advice on her options.
IMPORTANT - Where to seek professional impartial advice about your debts.
maybe have a read of this link - http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/scotland/factsheet.php?page=04_enforcing_a_debt_against_you_by_diligence

jaclyn1christin1

Sorry with regards to previous garbled message.
The point about the brokers fee, is that they are charging me a broker fee of £300 but I applied directly to them via their website. On their website they clearly advise that they are not a broker therefore charge no upfront fees. When I questioned them about this £300 they replied that the search engine I used meant I could have perhaps clicked on a broker by mistake????? I used FLM specifically because they were not a broker as I was previously stung by Wentworth

Thanks