Double Glazing Nightmare for Elderly Parents

changkra

little_miss_thrifty wrote: »

Good for you being of such an age and never falling foul to such deeds!:T
Have you spent the day telling people who are overweight that it is all their own silly fault too?

This website is here for people who unfortunately have got themselves into some big or small trouble and all they ask for is some POSITIVE advice, not to be lectured on 'you should have read the small print'

If you have nothing constructive to say, please don't say it

I have never read a nasty or useless post yet from Margaret Clare, your comments are out of order as she was trying to be helpful. You owe the poster an apology.:rolleyes:

changkra

ejones999 wrote: »

Sorry I disagree.

If people did take a few minutes to actually read what they are signing then a lot of the problems on these boards would not exist.

I think a lot of people are afraid to say to the lenders 'sorry I don't understand this can you please explain' for the fear of looking stupid.

I absolutely agree with this and i used to be one of these people, these days i take my time reading the T&C of everything, no matter how long it takes me.

nearlyrich

changkra wrote: »

I have never read a nasty or useless post yet from Margaret Clare, your comments are out of order as she was trying to be helpful. You owe the poster an apology.:rolleyes:

My thought exactly

little_miss_thrifty

ejones999 wrote: »

If people did take a few minutes to actually read what they are signing then a lot of the problems on these boards would not exist.

I think a lot of people are afraid to say to the lenders 'sorry I don't understand this can you please explain' for the fear of looking stupid.

I agree with this, even thought this myself when my parents explained everything - why did you not ask! BUT, where is the help in stating what they should have done, its happened, i just wanted advice for where to go now...best not bother again

olly300

ejones999 wrote: »

Sorry I disagree.

If people did take a few minutes to actually read what they are signing then a lot of the problems on these boards would not exist.

I think a lot of people are afraid to say to the lenders 'sorry I don't understand this can you please explain' for the fear of looking stupid.

Unfortunately when you do ask you can get a mixture of reactions varying from a detailed proper explanation to a person who cannot explain to you at all and tries to bully you into taking out the product.

The key is to learn- and this is a skill that should be taught to teenage children- if someone wants your money and refuses to explain properly then politely say "No thanks" and walk away.

Good luck little miss thrifty in sorting out your problem. Your parents where taught that financial institutions could be trusted but are learning the hard way not anymore.

jonesMUFCforever

little_miss_thrifty wrote: »

I agree with this, even thought this myself when my parents explained everything - why did you not ask! BUT, where is the help in stating what they should have done, its happened, i just wanted advice for where to go now...best not bother again

You were given perfectly good advice from posts 2 to 9 then you kicked off by slating Margaret Clare in post 10.
My reply was a response to that post.

margaretclare

In response to all of this:

I never at any stage said 'It was your own silly fault'. Much of what I know now has been learned over years, the hard way, through bitter experience. I wish I had a fraction of the interest I've paid over the years, in car loans, in household equipment, you name it. Nowadays the comments I make tend to be based on lessons learned from that experience. Years ago there weren't such sites as this one, the Fool, others, and when we borrowed to buy things we were like babes in the wood, fair game for any 'wolf' that wandered through!

I repeat what I wrote earlier, that because your parents are now 'elderly' it doesn't absolve them of the need to read everything carefully and to look at the figure they will be paying in total, not whether the payment is 'manageable'. It may be manageable, but because it is over a longer period of time the interest will be more. Nowadays, to be fair to the banks and lenders, this information is usually given in the accompanying literature, because the banks etc are now very sensitive to accusations of 'mis-selling' and of not giving enough information. Even your monthly credit card statement has a sentence which reads 'If you make only the minimum monthly payment it will take you much longer to pay off the balance'. And yet people fail to read those words, and end up with huge credit card balances. I don't know how much more clearly it could be said, in words of one syllable, in the plainest of plain English! It's like those words on cigarette packets in big black type 'Smoking kills', and yet people do it. Human beings are not logical creatures, your parents wanted the new windows, they didn't want/couldn't afford to pay when the job was done, and they entered into this type of transaction. I don't know what the answer is, just pay up gracefully, move on and learn from the experience. There are lenders out there who know that retired people have limited income but still want the consumer goods that the rest of the population want, that although their income is limited it is stable and regular, arrives every 4 weeks like clockwork, no risk of redundancy etc. So this type of lender will be on to a winner! Whether one approves or disapproves of the morality of this, whether one feels that older people should somehow be sheltered from harsh commercial reality, there's no getting away from it.

Just going back to your original post, you said that the monthly payment was to be £160.79 over 120 months (although the length of time was 'not fixed' - I don't understand that bit). However, £160.79 x 120 is £192,94.80 for an original cost of £6848 + £102.20 = £6950.20. All I can say is, very expensive windows, but most of this cost will be the interest charges. £192,94.80 - £6950.20 = £12,344.60. Twelve thousand quid in just interest!!!

I would just point out that some of us, although older, are fiercely independent and I would feel 'gutted' and ashamed if I thought that any offspring of ours was posting our problems on a site like this and describing us as 'elderly parents'.

I am sorry for your parents, and I hope they do learn from this hard experience. Slagging me off achieves nothing - it's all water off a duck's back. I've been called worse things than you could ever imagine. So don't bother.

Margaret

djohn2002uk

I think a few of you are losing track here. The OP whilst obviously worried to death about the situation as it exists now was merely asking for some advice on trying to resolve it. All the whys and wherefores of how it happened and what they should or shouldn't have done does nothing to help that.
Although Margarets advice and one or two others may well have been well meaning it did nothing to help the present situation and I am afraid that given that I had received similar replies, sugesting my parents had made mistakes when I already knew that, I would, in the state she's probably in, have reacted a lot stronger and probably had my post removed.
Just reflect for a minute or two and I hope you think a little more compassion might be called for.
I hope so anyway.

margaretclare

You're mistaken, djohn. I have the greatest compassion for the people concerned. I have already said I sympathise with them. 10 years ago it could easily have been I who walked innocently into a similar trap. I have certainly made very bad mistakes in earlier years. As I've said, what I've learned has been through bitter experience.

What to do about the present situation? Well, one way would be to go to the FSA. I would have a look at this site: http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/guides/making_a_complaint.html

On the paperwork that the parents have about that loan it should state whether the lender is regulated by the FSA (Financial Services Authority). And take the matter from there. There's a lot of reading to do, several steps that can be taken.

I would attempt that route first. If it turns out that the lender is regulated by the FSA, that the type of loan is all hunky-dory, that there has been no bad practice of any kind, on to step no. 2. But this is what I would do, and please note, I do NOT advise anyone else to do it. I would simply stop paying. When the lender got in touch, I would say 'sue me'. When the inevitable court summons arrived I would go along to the county court armed with all the relevant paperwork (which I would have kept, from the moment the loan was issued, together with all the bank statements proving what had been paid) and I would argue my case. I might lean heavily on the argument that I was now retired and therefore on a fixed income etc etc. And we would see.

It's a bit like the challenge that Martin issued some while ago about excessive bank charges for going overdrawn etc. Keep all letters, copies, statements, everything relating to that loan. It might even be a good idea to get an up-to-date credit report from Experian which would show what has been paid and how much remains, the fact that there have been no defaults etc. To do all this would need strong nerves, and IMHO, would be best done by the people concerned.

Well, there are a couple of practical suggestions.

Margaret

djohn2002uk

That's better Margaret, that's just what the OP was asking for, no more, no less. And may I say I agree with it to the letter.