Blemain charges - are they unlawful?

stringer_bell

Posting this for my father,

Blemain say I owe them £2946. I have had the loan secured against my house since 2007. They keep sending me letters requesting payment. I'm unable to pay the full amount so I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to setup a payment plan or to even get some of the charges removed

They used to charge you when there was no money in the bank. My money used to go in Friday afternoon, and they always tried to take it in the morning. They also used to take it out before bank holiday etc

they charged me for that, and they also charged me for every letter they have sent. Any idea what the next step is?

Been paying them £ 10 a month for a while, and I'm on a minimum wage. I have worked out I have made a total payment of £11,027 for a loan that should of cost me £8,809. They have charged me £3k + in charges, £ 30 for a letter etc

I have already SAR them and received everything..

DevCoder

stringer_bell wrote: »

Posting this for my father,

Blemain say I owe them £2946. I have had the loan secured against my house since 2007. They keep sending me letters requesting payment. I'm unable to pay the full amount so I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to setup a payment plan or to even get some of the charges removed

Ask them

They used to charge you when there was no money in the bank. My money used to go in Friday afternoon, and they always tried to take it in the morning. They also used to take it out before bank holiday etc

This is normal, your payment is due at 00:01 on the day, you should have set your payment date to your payday + 1 day.

they charged me for that, and they also charged me for every letter they have sent. Any idea what the next step is?

As long as the charges are not excessive (which going by your £30, they aren't) then the charges are fair and legal

Been paying them £ 10 a month for a while, and I'm on a minimum wage. I have worked out I have made a total payment of £11,027 for a loan that should of cost me £8,809. They have charged me £3k + in charges, £ 30 for a letter etc

I have already SAR them and received everything..

If you are paying less than the agreed amount then you will be in arrears, attracting interest on those arrears and also charges for missing payments.

Your next step is to ask Blemain to consider a repayment plan, it would appear they have done nothing wrong with their side of the contract.

xHannahx

So you (your father) breached contract, and now trying to scrape at any way of getting out of it.

The fees mentioned are not excessive and reflect the cost to the business.

They don't charge per letter, they charge a once a month admin fee whilst an account is in arrears.

A tariff of their fees can be found online, which is effective from 2010. Compare fees charged since effect date to the tariff. Only if charged out of line do you have grounds to deem unlawful

http://www.blemainfinance.co.uk/customerservice/Blemain%20Finance%20Tariff%20May'10%20-%20BLF0403.pdf

Pixie5740

Banks advise you to have the money for direct debits in your account 2 working days before a direct debit is due. It's your responsibility to ensure you have cleared funds in your account in time for the payment to be taken.

If you haven't stuck to the original terms of the loan agreement and are paying less than the contractual minimum repayments then you will end up paying additional interest and charges.

You can try setting up a repayment plan but this debt is secured (against your property presumably) so Blemain could repossess the property if they really wanted to. Secured debts are priority debts. Are there any non-priority debts or bills you could cut down on to ensure the payments to Blemain are paid in full and on time? Could you sell the property and downsize to clear the secured loan?

stringer_bell

just updating for my father,

Been paying them £ 10 a month for a while, and I'm on a minimum wage. I have worked out I have made a total payment of £11,027 for a loan that should of cost me £8,809. They have charged me £3k + in charges, £ 30 for a letter etc

They asked for another 3k, mostly in charges, 30 pounds for a phone call. We went to court and blemain never even turned up. I'm not sure who said 30 pounds for a letter was fair, but it wasn't in my eyes, and I'm glad we won as we had loan terminated

National_Debtline

Hi Stringer-bell,


As far as the interest and charges are concerned your father should check the T & C's of the original agreement and if you believe they are unfair then make a formal complaint to Blemain and ask the charges/ interest to be written off. if you cannot resolve the matter with Blemain then you can escalate the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.


As an additional note, if the loan is secured (as you say it is) and only £10per month is being paid this is going to cause late payment fees, plus interest on top of more fees and more interest, so you may also need a breakdown of the account before complaining. Unfortunately, they may not be wrong.


And, finally, if a loan is 'terminated' that means it is written off. It can't be written off as you are paying £10per month so, what I think you mean is that when Blemain didn't turn up to the hearing the case was adjourned or thrown out. It is very likely they still hold some kind of security against the property when there is an outstanding balance so you may want to try and get some free advice from a debt charity about the risk of repossession. Good luck,


Laura
@natdebtline