GE Money Loan for Anglian Windows - Advice

uncle_pablo

Hi We have just had about £2k worth of new windows installed. We actually had the money ready to pay it off. However, the salesperson knocked about £400 off the cash price if we took out a finance deal. If we pay the full term of the loan £33.51 for 120 months we and up paying back £4k.He explained that we should bay off 33.51 for 4 months. Then at month 5 pay 50% of the balance, then at month 6 pay 50% of the balance and month 7 another 50% of the balance. Then upto month 13 spread out the remaning balance? He said that this way you pay very little interest. Has anyone ever done it this way??? Also, would I be stung with an early repayment charge?ThanksPablo

silvercar

We took a GE money loan for a Sharps bedroom. Exactly the same idea: take the loan and get 15% off. I think GE Money pay Sharps for each loan and hope to make more profit out of you on the interest.

We paid 75% off after month 2 and 20% after month 4. All the time also keeping the direct debit monthly payments going.

The only interest they said they would charge is an extra 1 months interest on the outstanding balance when you pay your loan off. So we left a small amount outstanding that was cleared by a monthly payment.

It certainly worked for us and the call centre were very helpful and friendly when we made the extra payments.

cazziebo

You would have to check terms and conditions but I'd say be very careful!

I had a loan for double glazing through GE Money and they were a nightmare to deal with - an absolute nightmare! Getting to speak to the right person/department was so difficult. £400 is a huge discount for taking out a finance deal - so it must be lucrative, either for the salesman or the company.

also - GE put a default on my file by mistake. The account was settled and they have marked the final payment as defaulted and the reason as being "gone away" Arrggh. It is a mistake, I can prove it, but it's now been six weeks and they are still "investigating". Meanwhile my credit report is crap!

mrcow

Then at month 5 pay 50% of the balance, then at month 6 pay 50% of the balance and month 7 another 50% of the balance. Then upto month 13 spread out the remaning balance? He said that this way you pay very little interest.

Good grief!

From the wording of your post it sounds as if you've already signed up for this?

uncle_pablo

mrcow wrote: »

Good grief!

From the wording of your post it sounds as if you've already signed up for this?

Yep - second 33.51 is due on the 11 July. I Suppose it makes send to pay the bulk off early to lessen the interest? Would this be a correct assumption.Also, I suppose calling GE Money as often as possible might help.Thanks for the advice - much appreciated.Pablo

gravitytolls

I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. They are difficult to reach, and you receive conflicting information.

PaulA

I had Anglian windows installed last year, price was £6300 for cash or £5100 for finance. I took the loan (from GE Money) and got the discount and then paid off the complete balance less £10 the day after the loan account was opened. Then as soon as this cleared (about 2 days later) I cleared the loan and incurred the one month interest penalty on the £10 only. Even better I paid off the loan with an Egg Money card and got 1% cashback as they process card payments as purchases rather that cash transactions. (I didn’t quite have the nerve to use my GE cashback card which was giving 3% on everything at the time). Now the outstanding amount is on a 0% balance transfer card.

This is all fine to do under the terms of you loan, If you do what the salesman says you will pay a lot more interest than you need to. If you loan is the same as mine (the standard Anglian loan provided by GE) there is no problem overpaying as much as you want as soon as you can, the only penalty is a 1 month interest charge of the outstanding balance when you clear the loan.

uncle_pablo

Hi PaulA,Thanks for that advice. We have an M & S credit card which gives us points for using it and we pay off the balance each month and NEVER pay interest on it. So, if I do as you did and pay off enough to leave £20 in and then next month pay off £20 the penalty would be the interest for £20.
And if I used the M & S card we would get load of vouchers in the process too???ThanksPablo

PaulA

Exactly, the only penalty would be the interest on the £20. However there is no need to wait until the next month to clear it, you can do this as soon as the first payment has cleared. My loan with Anglian was reduced to £10 then cleared within days of my windows being installed.

You should get your M&S points unless they have changed the way they put the payment through, I got £50 cashback, but even if you don't you will have saved yourself loads of interest.

Steel_2

We took out a 5K loan with GE Money to finance our windows with Anglian Windows and we are due to pay it off in September 10 months into a 10 year plan.

Doing the finance got us 3.5K knocked off the price of 16 massive windows and I questioned some lovely GE Money people over the phone on three occasions to check out how we pay it off. On the last occasion a helpful chap even sent us a settlement form outlining all the costs for paying off early, which were in essence 28 days interest (you give 28 days notice you see) and one month's notice as a penalty fee. Worked out at about £90 all told.

We found the finance invaluable at the time, as there was a hefty breeze drifted through the house from ill fitting 20 year old glazing and winter was fast approaching. BUT the interest is a big part of your payment to start off with on a 10 years loan and if you are any less than great at making overpayments on things you might end up letting it drift for years.