house reposessed--GE money

andromeda411

hi all,
just looking to see if anyone can give me any advice on if we can claim any money back from them.
we had our home reposessed by ge money last year for a default on a secured loan of £25,000 over 25 years. the house was sold by them and our mortgage(northern rock) paid off and then GE took £38669.11p in respect of our £25,000 secured loan.
does anyone know if this souns correct or far to excessive.
we had been paying for 2 years but then life fell to bits and eventually led to reposession.
thanks
andromeda411

frugalpam

andromeda411 wrote: »

hi all,
just looking to see if anyone can give me any advice on if we can claim any money back from them.
we had our home reposessed by ge money last year for a default on a secured loan of £25,000 over 25 years. the house was sold by them and our mortgage(northern rock) paid off and then GE took £38669.11p in respect of our £25,000 secured loan.
does anyone know if this souns correct or far to excessive.
we had been paying for 2 years but then life fell to bits and eventually led to reposession.
thanks
andromeda411

What a dreadful thing to have happened. Did you take any legal advice at the time or talk to someone like Citizens Advice? If not, then that's what I'd do now.
I've heard a lot of negative reports about GE Money. I used to have a mortgage with them, and had no end of trouble with them.

Pam

Zeusie

The position seems to be that companies like GE Money, front load all of the interest so that regardless of whether you had been paying for two years before the repossession all you would have been paying off was part of the hefty interest on the loan, and not any of the capital.

When the house was repossessed, in terms with the contract, more than likely all of the capital would have been outsatanding and penalty interest and other early redemption penalties would have been applied on top of that. The amount you quoted that they took is, unfortunately, the type of figure i would expect to see of a loan of this kind that was only two years old.

However, some of the penalties which they applied might have been unlawful (a bit like the unlawful bak charges that people are reclaiming) and you might be able to claim them back.

Get you hands on a full and detailed statement of the account and then check out the threads regarding reclaiming unlawful charges from GE Money (and other similar lenders) on these two forums:

http://www.penaltycharges.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=222

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/other-institutions/

You might have to register on both forums to read the posts, but it's quick and free to do so and there are lots of other people in the same boat who can give some help and advice.

petermb_2

Invariably lenders get agreements and arrangements wrong. There are a number of issues where lenders leave themselves wide open for redress claims. There is help out there if you look.

TMF

What I would ask GE Money, would be if that £38669.11p was the settlement figure or the balance? because technically by the repossesion of the house you are settling the finance with GE Money and should be paying the full interest of the other 23 years left on that loan.

Hope this helps, although I dont know much about Secured Loans.