First Plus Update

SIMOED

Hanky_Panky wrote: »

Taken from your first post, "We may from time to time vary our interest rate. We may increase or decrease our interest rate to reflect a change which has occurred, or which we reasonably expect to occur in interest rates generally or to ensure that our business is carried on prudently, efficiently and competitively"

If the lending that is left is of questionable quality then expect to pay more via the interest rate as it costs a hell of a lot more to run. It's a simple business model, lenders are a business that needs to make money.

You just don't like it because you've been caught out and frankly I don't blame you but it doesn't change the reality. You always have the option to move elsewhere and that's what they really want you to do as they want to close the book down. If you can't because of a poor credit rating then apportion blame accordingly.

You write as though the system is perfect & always the morality lies with a decision taken on a specific time.

The "reality" as you put it lies on the longevity of the contract & the changes that occur in law & regulation.

Firstpluschamp

Thanks Sim, surely people here will see now what happened, the OFT knew that first plus were wrong, colluded with them to keep it quiet and even argued with each other over what to do, with the director caving in to the deputy director. The whole thing stinks!!

I know a lot of people here think that we are stupid and did not understand the contract, but this is not the case, we understood what we were led to believe, example being old pages of their website which they have since amended showing that they advertised increases and decreases in interest would depend on the BOE rate, we also got a letter when the rate went up confirming that it did for that reason, yet FP continue to deny that their rate is linked in any way.

We borrowed 100,000 and have paid around 70,000 back over the last 9 years but they still seem to think that we owe them 100,000, how can this be??

We have not had a statement in 9 years! And when we ask for one we are told that they are not obliged to send one! No if you owed money to anyone wouldn't you want to have someone that tells you how much you've paid back over the last year? I don't think that's a lot to ask?

They need to be exposed but we have had to do all this by ourselves, I had to risk my home! I was lucky not to lose it but some have not been so lucky. Sim has done a lot of work as has Halifax, but we are still being swept under the carpet by people who were supposed to be there to help us namely the OFT as you will see from Sim link.

All we want is to be treated fairly, nm but no one will listen.

bradders280612

Just started the ball rolling with Elderbridge now they have taken over the FP Portfolio.


My loan has 41 months left meaning I still have to pay over £19,000 on a capitol balance that stands at £9,800 today.


I have asked for a settlement figure which they will post out. they can not give it over the phone. for what reason I don't know.


I will as soon as it arrives be speaking to my bank to swap to one of their loans!


On another note. a few years ago we wanted to move house, we got right down the route of packing our house up only for FP to tell us that we couldn't move home as the home we wanted to move the loan to was not worth enough! we argued that no where was it in their T & C's but they wouldn't listen. We either stayed put or paid the loan off which we couldn't afford to do.

Brianjames

In 2003 I took out a loan from FP for £ 75,000 as I was going through a divorce and this would form part of the settlement. In 2006 I lost my job and stopped paying for a few months. FP (at that time) stopped showing interest on statements (which were few and very irregular) and in 2013 I have reduced (what I thought to be) the balance to £ 2200. After many many letters, FP told me they did not need to notify me of them not showing the interest amount on the balance and, if I wanted to pay of the loan I would need to stump up another £42000 in un-shown interest charges. Since 2013 I have been trying to get them with little success, to demonstrate how they came up with this figure. A helpful reply from them was to get a financial advisor to calculate this for me, but since I had no documentation to say what interest rate they were and still charge this was not possible. Elderbridge however, did manage to send me the breakdown. I immediately wrote to Elderbridge complaining about the interest rates they have been charging to my loan since 2008. I compared them to both the BoE and FHBR rates as follows:

In 2003 I paid BoE + 4.842% or FHBR + 4.592%
Since 2008 I have been paying BoE + 9.818% or FHBR + 9.0680%


Today I have received a reply which basically says if you don't like it...... and added - since FP sent me a letter in 2013 stating that was their final response to my queries, it is now too late to contact the Financial Ombudsman.


I still have around 9 years of my loan period to run, so here is my question:


If I pay off the capital portion of my loan (£2200) today can they force me to make monthly payments towards the interest portion of my loan or, since they are not allowed to add interest to interest, can I simply pay this on the last day of my loan?