Avoiding early settlement charge with Sainsbury's fiasco

tonkinator

What a fiasco.

Called sainsbury's, wanted early settlement figure.

Lady gave me the figure, then I asked if I could avoid the early settlement fee by just overpaying, and allowing the balance to clear with my last monthly payment.

She got a little funny and said "I know what you're trying to do".

I explained that I knew that, as I had just explained what I was trying to do and had in fact asked for her help in doing it.

She told me that partial overpayment would still incur 58 days interest.

Called back the next day to check this. Next guy said partial overpayments don't incur 58days interest, but they technically are allowed to. I asked to speak to a manager, who then told me that I wouldn't incur the charge for partial overpayment.

So weird.

Then I asked them to tell me the amount of rebate (reduction in interest) and they had no idea at all but said a letter would go out in the post.

Surely someone there should be able to tell me how much I need to over pay to leave me a remaining balance that would be cleared by my next direct debit?

Really annoying. They literally make it as hard as possible to pay it off early and seem like they're trying to get me to clear it there and then as it would be "easier" but cost me (and make them) more money.

Anyway, rant over.

Anyone else dealt with a company that handles this better?

DCFC79

Wouldnt this be detailed in the credit agreement ?

tonkinator

Have seen a few other people ask about early settlement fees, everyone always comes out to say "Have you checked your credit agreement".

You do know there's no requirement to have the 58 days interest point anywhere on credit agreements, don't you? Either for part or full early settlement.

There's no requirement for it to be there. It's in the consumer credit act that they can.

I believe they may have to mention it in the pre contract info sheet, but I can't find mine.

For some reason it wasn't with my credit agreement.

I asked a friend that had a loan with Sainsbury's, they showed me their's and it said they they will charge it for early settlement, but didn't mention anything for part, at all.

tonkinator

Anyway, my point was more about how they aren't physically able to give me any idea what amount I'd need to clear to leave £X available.

There must me some automated process that sends me the letter to tell me.

I found it frustratin they couldn't give me any idea and couldn't put me through to anyone that could.

+ 2 different members of staff answered a fairly basic question with totally different answers.

Pretty unprofessional tbh

forgotmyname

I presume they only have access to the black and white figures.

Your monthly payments are £ for X time. Charges are ££.

Early termination requires the use of a calculator or access to figures they dont have or not trained for.
So you need the department who have a printer but not trained to use phones.

Possible the departments are in different countries.

opinions4u

forgotmyname wrote: »

Possible the departments are in different countries.

Most likely the land of ginger beards and kilts.

tonkinator

opinions4u wrote: »

Most likely the land of ginger beards and kilts.

Correct.

Thing is, they half resolved my problem by eventually giving me a figure to over pay, that would leave me a balance of just under my next monthly payment amount, which would clear my balance and then I wouldn't have to pay 58 days interest on the whole balance, just on the £100 (give or take) that would be taken to clear.

Then I called back y'day to find out why they hadn't taken my Direct Debit to clear the balace (on my normal date) and they told me that the amount I'd paid as partial overpayment was actually enough to clear my balance. Luckily I paid a large chunk one day, then called back to pay £300 the next (the total of both payments = what the manager told me to pay) as I didn't believe she was right.

Thing is, i genuinely don't think it's acceptable that there isn't someone that can give you the correct answer. If departments are in different countries, don't guess. Tell me it might take 5-10 days to get me an answer. At least I'd end up with the right info.

somethingcorporate

You can understand they invest cash in getting people to take them out, not to pay them back early! Unfortunately there is little benefit to them of you not paying them interest so by nature they are going to give you the runaround (I am not giving them an excuse for poor service, just a reason as to why it could be so).

tonkinator

They didn't just give me poor service.

Someone gave me a number that if I paid, would result in me having a balance remaining that would be cleared with my next payment, stopping me paying 58 days interest on a big amount of money.

I did what I was told to do and what happened next was totally different to what I was told would happen.

I called yesterday to ask if they would be trying to charge me 58 days interest on the £X amount that actually cleared my balance and they couldn't answer.

The operator couldn't even tell me when i'd be seeing the extra I'd paid (my account is now in credit), he couldn't even tell me how much in credit it was (the payment was made nearly 2 weeks ago), the only thing he could say was that they definitely wouldn't be paying me interest on the money at the daily rate that Iwas being charged (I obviously didn't expect this, just was getting frustrated and wanted to point out how annoyed I was).

tonkinator

Have you called back to complain since it happened?

Worth a moan to a manager, see if you can get some money off/vouchers etc

Probably not, but can't hurt

lau28

Hi Tonkinator, I paid the settlement figure my loan with Sainsbury's last week, however I didn't think to look into paying off a large amount first and just a small final payment. Anyway that is my fault for not looking into it before, however I seem to have almost all of the interest from a 3 year loan which I paid off in just 17 months, I know the interest is more at the beginning of the loan but seems I paid a lot. I have been told not to cancel my direct debit as if there is an overpayment it will will be refunded to me in this way, but I don't want to wait long if I am going to get a refund, did you have to wait long?