Blu financial services

Iwanttokeepmyhouse

djh77 wrote: »

Hi all, I am needing some advice if possible. I will give you an outline of my circumstances, both past, present and future, and the companies that I am looking at dealing with.

Okay, well in 2007 I declared myself bankrupt. I had a lot of debts that I had taken out for various things like store cards, credit cards, car loans etc, and these debts amounted to approx £32k. I saw an accountant and CAB (and spoke to the government moneyline I think it was called), and decided my only option was bankrupcy. I was only on a low wage at the time so felt this was my only viable option. I also have 2 CCJ's on my credit file, one was a month before the bankrupcy and one was about 6 months after the bankrupcy. I am unhappy about the last one as it was from a company called Welcome, who were down on the bankrupcy petition. After I informed the court that I had already been declared bankrupt and that the official reciever was dealing with my matters the court agreed to adjourn the bankrupcy order, but told me it would still stay on my file. I obviously have quite a lot of defaults from before the bankrupcy.

Now to the present. I took a small loan out with a company called FLM about 3 years ago. This was for £2000 over 2 years. I didn't really need the money for anything, but felt it worth the interest just to get my credit rating kick-started again. This was paid back in full with no missed payments. I have had a basic bank account from Natwest for 4 years now with no issues at all. I took out a credit card with Vanquis about a year ago, and again put little bits on it each month, but pay the card off as the statement comes in, in full, each time. Again, no missed payments or problems. I have the usual other stuff like virgin broadband and car insurance etc all no problems. Am registered on the electrol roll where I live. The wife and I earn a fair salary, total of about £50k per year (my job is £32k and hers is £18k). We currently rent from a housing association.

The future - well we would like to own, or at least part buy, our own house. We have started saving towards the cost of this, but to be realistic, it is going to take us about 5 years. We are currently saving £325 p/m. Here is where the loan part comes in.....

We are thinking of taking out a loan to purchase a new car. The logistics of this is that currently my car (which is a 3.2 v6) costs a heck of a lot to run. I do a 70 mile round trip to work each day so petrol costs me about £80 per week. If I can change my car to a diesel I think I can do the same journey for about half of that - £40 per week. And, when I factor in lower tax, (hopefully) less expenditure on general running costs, slightly lower insurance, I think I will save £203 p/m. The loan I am looking to take out is for £12k. This will buy us a year old Ford Galaxy/SMax.

The company I am dealing with for the loan is called Blu Financial Services Limited. They are based in Fearnhead,Warrington. For a loan of 12k they will charge me £330 p/m over 4 years. The costs to us a couple are fine. The loan has all been apporved etc, but I am having niggling doubts. The reason for this is because I am not able to find out much about them as a company. If I google them it does not come up with many results and although I can see them on companies house using their registered number (05912973) I don't really understand what I am looking at. But, the biggest crux of this for me, is that they want me to transfer my pension. Now, I have read other posts on here about trading in your pension for a loan and how that is a big no-no. But this is not drawing your pension, but rather just transfering it. The company Blu use to deal with the pension is called Fast Pensions. They sent me an email today to say the paperwork for transfering my pension to a SIPP is on the way out, and that I have to choose what to put my investment in. At the end of the day I have no issue with transfering my pension, however I have no desire to do something illegal or risk my wife and I's retirement by losing my pension. The pension value currently stands at a little over £30k.

I guess what I am asking is does anyone have any knowledge of these two companies, Blu and Fast Pensions? Can anyone point me in the right direction of where I can find anything out?

I have been trying to release funds with this company since Nov 2012. The reason for their existence in my opinion, is to lend you a portion of your pension which you will have transferred to Fast Pensions, at a rate varying between 10% and 30%. During the transition period Blu funding will try to sell you their insurance products far above market rate. Blu Funding also have an alarming facility not to have received important documents (once you have declined their products) even if you have used Royal Mail tracking.
My advice? Run, run now, like water through a first time Mexico tourist and don't look back!