Elderbridge secured loan huge admin fees

beelzebomb

Hi,
My monthly payment to this company (that appear to have 'bought' my loan from GE Money) is just under £100.
The company say I am a month in arrears yet cannot seemingly provide the actual month missed (I often pay slightly over the required amount each month in any case.)
While this goes on, they 'charge additional fees to cover our admin costs & the costs of any work carried out by solicitors and agents working on our behalf' - this amounts to around £75 per month - almost the entire amount of my monthly payment!
I am self employed, and actually, it is unclear whether late payments (by only a few days - due to clients paying me late etc) are what they are deeming 'arrears' or it is a 'missed month'.
Arrears are now - apparently - nearly £2,000. I can't help but feel that I (& others) should have some sort of protection against such rogue behaviour, am I right? Do I? Are they breaking any financial regulatory guidelines?

StopIt

You have the right for a full statement of your accounts at least annually.


Also, you are entitled to ask for a full statement of account at any time https://www.wonder.legal/uk/modele/consumer-credit-statement-account-request-letter


If that doesn't produce the details, you can send an SAR request for all of the details the company hold on file about you. https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/personal-information/ It costs £10 to do this so start with the first request.

Pixie5740

What did your original loan agreement say with regards to late payments fees? It is possible that your multiple late payments have resulted in enough fees that you are now in arrears. What do your statements say?

beelzebomb

I wil have to dig out the information I have - but surely monthly interest being charged at almost the amount of the loan payment each month is not right?

StopIt

beelzebomb wrote: »

I wil have to dig out the information I have - but surely monthly interest being charged at almost the amount of the loan payment each month is not right?

It can be.


What are the terms of the loan.


If you've borrowed a significant sum, the interest charged every month will be high, especially if you're only paying £100 a month.


So in order to answer we need to know amount borrowed, amount outstanding, monthly payment and APR %


Edit: That's separate from the issue of late payment charges and admin fees being added on and that bit can be tackled once you have a full Statement of Account.

D_M_E

You need to read the original T&C and see what's in there about late payment - does it say that a payment is classed as late if it's not paid, for example in the same month as when due, or late if not paid on the due date, or late if not paid within X number of days of the due date?

If there's anything in there along those lines then you are in a strong position to get all or some charges removed as they cannot arbitrarily change any T&C which was present in the original loan contract which you signed.

StopIt

D_M_E wrote: »

You need to read the original T&C and see what's in there about late payment - does it say that a payment is classed as late if it's not paid, for example in the same month as when due, or late if not paid on the due date, or late if not paid within X number of days of the due date?

If there's anything in there along those lines then you are in a strong position to get all or some charges removed as they cannot arbitrarily change any T&C which was present in the original loan contract which you signed.

This is also correct.


When loans that are not defaulted are sold, the terms must not be changed. They can only do so with your agreement, and non agreement basically keeps the terms the same but would effectively close off the account. Not really a problem for loans but for new terms of a Credit Card non acceptance closes it.


It's why you need to get all of the details of the account you can, and make sure they haven't breached the original T&Cs themselves.