GE Money arrears not being communicated

Surfless

Hi All,
occasional poster here, so not a guru by any stretch, and a reformed character money management wise - I used to be very slapdash, and now I'm excessively cautious the other way. This is a little long so apologies for the context.

In 2006, I bought a house, and then in 2008 I took out a "second mortgage" or secured loan on the property, which was initially with Ocean Finance, then moved to GE Money in 2011, until they recently sold it to Elderbridge, in June this year.

Elderbridge wrote to me today, and when I opened the letter, it started with "your account is in arrears".

I know its not, so I read on. The letter contained a statement update from the beginning of 2015, and at the end said "missed payments - 0", and under that - "arrears and interest £2185.00".

I rang them at this point, and queried what the letter meant. The lovely Sandra on the phone was slow, but steady, and explained to me that I have not missed any payments recently, did not owe them anything and that I didn't have to do anything. I asked why the letter, and was told that they have to tell me about historic arrears owing on the account. I queried this as I didn't believe I had any arrears at all, and she explained it was relating to late payments.

There was a spell where I was paid by an employer on the last day of the month, by BACS, even when it fell on weekend, meaning I sometimes paid my loan a day late, and into the next month.

GE were loading my account with a late fee, in the form of a default charge of around £15 per month, plus an interest charge of £1.50, each time this happened, but didn't tell me. This is where the "arrears" have come from.

My first question therefore is surely a finance company has to legally tell me when they add charges to a loan? Sandra told me that GE "used to hide it" in a non descript column on statements.
I've noted the time and date of the conversation with her so I can reference her comment on the recorded call if I need to.

The second thing is that I looked more closely today at the statement, and it became apparent that GE not only loaded me with charges, but also neutralised the loan - by which I mean, the interest plus the charges mean I am not actually paying ANYTHING off each month. By that rationale when the loan reaches its conclusion in 2033, it will owe what it does now.

Now I was a naive person, finance wise, when I took my loan out, but surely the point of a loan is that it is paid off by the time it reaches the last payment, and the loan company should inform you of any charges they have added to the account which would extend that? The default charge being charged each month now by Elderbridge means that almost to the penny what I pay in, is being swallowed by interest and this default charge, which I don't accept in the first place?

What recourse do I have to challenge what GE have done, especially since they no longer have anything to do with me, having sold the loan on?

BrassicWoman

what is the description on that non descript column?

what does your loan agreement say about late fees?

Surfless

BrassicWoman wrote: »

what is the description on that non descript column?

what does your loan agreement say about late fees?

I've looked to find the paperwork this morning since I got the letter and haven't found it yet.

It was the part where the person on the phone told me they are getting lots of these complaints about GE money customers having the same issue - namely that they don't seem to have notified people about charges. I'm bemused that if I was running arrears, they didn't notify me in 5 years I was paying them?

ALIBOBSY

We have an old GE loan and about 8 yrs ago had a problem (think it was a lack of cash when changing jobs, but can't recall exactly), ended up with a charge for them to arrange spreading the arrears over 3 months and the extra interest, I was warned this would happen over the phone and our yearly statements always showed this listed, however you actually needed to read the statement to see these charges/interest as they weren't explicitly put in a separate section as such.

The total was show at the bottom but was just one item listed in a list of payments in and out and again didn't stand out. If you read the statement carefully like I do you would spot it, BUT I can see easily how someone would skim through, look at the final figure of whats left owing and not spot the rest. We never had any separate notice of the charges/interest although as I say were notified verbally when we rang up.

Not sure if this is any use to you, but we were told we could make extra payments against this "extra" figure without penalty which we did to clear it and put us back where we were.

Not sure where you stand with GE it maybe like our PPI complaint where the FOS (as it was) couldn't look at it because of the date we took it out, but may be worth a complaint direct to them. I guess they would say you should have checked the statements, but the charges weren't notified on their own as far as I know which seems a bit underhand.

Ali x

BrassicWoman

I don't think we can help properly without you finding the settlement decriptor and the T&Cs.

sourcrates

Hi,

If you believe the charges were added unfairly, then by all means send a written complaint to the lender, detailing why you think they were unfair, and proposing a satisfactory resolution.

There is a section on this website about reclaiming fees from lenders, you dont need your original agreement, these type of complaints are decided on balance of fairness, not policy.

If you dont get anywhere with them, or 8 weeks have passed, or there response is less than satisfactory, then you have the option of taking your complaint to the FOS for resolution within 6 months of there final response.

PeacefulWaters

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,

If you believe the charges were added unfairly, then by all means send a written complaint to the original lender, detailing why you think they were unfair, and proposing a satisfactory resolution.

There is a section on this website about reclaiming fees from lenders, you dont need your original agreement, these type of complaints are decided on balance of fairness, not policy.

Although they may of sold on the debt, they were the ones who added the charges, so they are the ones who would be responsible for dealing with your complaint, and processing any refund, not the present owner of the account.

If you dont get anywhere with them, or 8 weeks have passed, or there response is less than satisfactory, then you have the option of taking your complaint to the FOS for resolution within 6 months of there final response.

The current lender owns the loan, including all historic liabilities.

sourcrates

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

The current lender owns the loan, including all historic liabilities.

Your quite correct of course, I swear my eyes see things that arnt there lol !!!!

Surfless

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

The current lender owns the loan, including all historic liabilities.

that is really interesting because I was told by Elderbridge yesterday that I would need to contact GE for clarification of what happened.

So what you are saying is that they own everything now, even historic issues if there were any?

PeacefulWaters

Surfless wrote: »

that is really interesting because I was told by Elderbridge yesterday that I would need to contact GE for clarification of what happened.

So what you are saying is that they own everything now, even historic issues if there were any?

I can't think of an example where this hasn't been the case.

jonesMUFCforever

They owe the debt as at now yes - but if there has been an error or miscalculation before Elderbridge took the debt over then yes you will need to contact GE to get their calculation as when they sold the debt on.