Have Halifax duped me or have I duped myself?

andyfromotley

SeanyP321 wrote: »

Thanks guys - front loaded interest seems a bit of a misnomer; as I understand it (and you have confirmed), all loans are front loaded to the extent that you owe more interest at the start of the loan than you do at the end.

Thank you Steve. That's what I thought. I get that I don't have a legal leg to stand on, but does nobody think it is worth sending a strongly worded letter to a customer care manager for a bank that I have been with for 17 years (never missed a payment and a bloody lucrative customer) and say:

"Look, I don't like talking on the phone, and I can't get into branch. I assumed that the website would be smart enough to figure out what I was trying to do, I made a mistake and it has cost me. Can you do a brother a favour and apply those payments to my new loan?"

You had me up till that point Sean. I don't believe you thought for one second that the website would treat it any other way than it did!!
Now you have had a time to think about it you have worked out that your laziness may have cost you you are trying to work out if it can be undone. No problem with that, i don't blame you, but i definitely don't buy the line you are now taking.

SeanyP321

And the grand that I have paid them towards a debt that I still owe them? That just gets swallowed up? Doesn't seem right.

SeanyP321

@andyfromotley You are entirely right. 100%. I ballsed up and now I'm trying to undo it. And so if I send a letter, surely I should take whichever line will give me the best odds of undoing my **ck up is? But yes, it is a line.

What I should have done, is take out a new loan for the additional amount needed, leaving the original loan intact. Problem sorted. But because I was consolidating debt, I had it in my head, that it needed to be.... you know... consolidated. My mistake indeed.

SeanyP321

And while we are bashing me for being lazy, by using a service which is being force fed to every citizen with a current account on the planet and consequently shutting branches down across the nation, surely there IS an argument to be made for building a degree of intelligence into these systems, by where if you click debt consolidation as the reason, and enter 'existing halifax loan' into the 'debt' field, the application would say 'whoa there, why the hell would you do that, you idiot?' just as a bank manager might, had I been so inclined to spend a day going into the city for a chat.

girlatplay

Hi Sean

I have a 5 year loan with Bank of Scotland (which Halifax is a division of) and one of the conditions of loan is that I have to keep it for a year before I can settle it early. I obviously don't know the conditions of your loan but I wonder if it might be something like that which has caused the settlement amount to be so much.

I don't have any advice that I can give you, sorry.

tyllwyd

If you borrowed a large amount like 10,000, I guess the loan would have been set up over a reasonably long period of time, say 10 years? So your payments in the first five months would have been almost all interest and a very small amount of capital. They will have given you credit for the capital paid off, so you will have gained in that sense. If you think about it, if you had an interest only loan for five months (which is very close to what you did have) and then decided to pay it off, you wouldn't expect the bank to give you back the interest that you had paid on the money.

If you have a look at an amortisation calendar for your loan, you can see how the balance between interest and capital repaid changes over the term of the loan.

SeanyP321

Thanks tyllwyd. I see what you're saying to a degree. I just went and got the figures from the bank. Loan £7200, paid back £138 per month for 5 months (£690 total). I settled at 7105, so I paid £595 interest. Had I taken out a 5 month loan at same APR, it would have cost me around £290 in interest. I don't care what the rules are, it's messed up!

tomtontom

You appear to have been going round in a spiral of debt for many years. Rather than trying to blame someone else I suggest you a) take responsibility for your actions and then b) post a statement of affairs on the DFW board and get some advice on better managing your finances.

tyllwyd

SeanyP321 wrote: »

Thanks tyllwyd. I see what you're saying to a degree. I just went and got the figures from the bank. Loan £7200, paid back £138 per month for 5 months (£690 total). I settled at 7105, so I paid £595 interest. Had I taken out a 5 month loan at same APR, it would have cost me around £290 in interest. I don't care what the rules are, it's messed up!

But if you had taken out a five month loan your repayments would have been much higher - well over £1000 per month, so your outstanding capital would have been coming down much quicker. It's always going to be cheaper to borrow over a shorter period at the same APR.

SeanyP321

I have been going round in a spiral of debt for many years, and with all due respect, that is entirely my own affair. I spent more than I made for many years, some of it for good reason. I came frightfully close to bankruptcy on several occasions, and have turned here for help when I felt I needed it. Thankfully, that trend has now reversed and I make enough money to service my debts, live and look after my loved ones.

But, - again- with all due respect, I didn't come here asking for advice on how to get out of debt, I came because I felt as though I had been stung disproportionately by my lender, and wanted to see if anyone with knowledge on the situation thought it might be possible to do anything about it. I now know that the general consensus - is no, I can't.

The title of the thread is what I am asking advice on. Why, on forums, where people turn for advice on specific topics, are there those that feel as though they have the right to rain down sanctimonious drivel like 'take responsibility for your actions'? I am fully responsible for my actions, thank you. I simply wanted to know if it was possible to get a few quid back off a bank which has done its fair share of screwing people over in the past.

I have my answer. Thanks to all those who offered genuine help.