Jacamo perpetual debt

Altior

It's logical really, interest rates are proportional to risk. The higher the rate, the higher the risk of default as the lender sees it. In practice of course, the higher the rate for the borrower, the higher the risk of never being able to clear the balance.

It's not that pertinent now, but hard times don't really correlate with buying brand new branded clothes on credit. Discretional spending should be put on ice until the situation improves.

Renfrewman

Jacamo do not have responsibility for the OP's personal finances or have insight into them. The OP has been lax. OP knew they were struggling yet didn't contact Jacamo for help. There's a large chunk of having to take personal responsibility here.

Brie

There are lots of reasons that individuals who are struggling financially don't contact their creditors. Shame, lack of knowledge, depression, and like most of us, very busy lives. Of course the OP should have been more vigilant but that's in the past so the issue is what to do now.

My thought is to submit a subject access request (SAR) to find out when and how they informed of the rate increase. I lodged a complaint against a credit card because they said my current rates were listed on my monthly statements. But as I wasn't using the card at that point and it had a zero balance there were no statements being produced and therefore they weren't keeping me informed. Likewise if the only way to check a statement is online then if an individual no longer has access to the online account the creditor needs to have a different way to inform them of any changes to any T&Cs.

I understood that all banks and card companies needed to send a printed annual statement/summary. I don't know that that is the case with catalog accounts - I do have one of those but I'm emailed monthly to advise my statement is available online. The fact that I frequently cannot access it as their system is garbage is an ongoing irritation and at no point have they actually posted anything to me.

Altior

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82076900#Comment_82076900

I feel like there are two perspectives here. This discovery from the OP might well have been very distressing. I can't imagine how I would feel if I was making regular significant payments to a debt, only to discover the balance had hardly shifted. I can totally empathise with the likely frustration.

The issue here is that the blame is being apportioned in the wrong direction. Once the OP is able to think about it rationally, in my view they need to accept their mistakes and mitigate any damage.

And yes, if there was a change in interest rate being charged then they should ensure that it was correctly communicated. If not, there are grounds for a legitimate complaint. Quite often though, messages of this nature are missed, skipped or forgotten. Or contact details are not kept up to date. Possibly, email(s) went to spam, which wouldn't be under Jacamo's control.

mr_stripey

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82076537#Comment_82076537

Well done for making that payment and getting your head out of the sand - I've been there and I know how hard it is. The shock of realising your payments have been making hardly any difference is like a hammer blow.

So hopefully your outstanding balance is down to £600 ish now? Which in the overall scheme of things is not a huge amount of money and all being well you should be able to make a good dent in that - and being able to see how much of your payment is bringing down the debt will give you clarity and control.

When similar happened to me years ago I can remember the shock and the shame and embaresment - take that as a lesson and avoid any of these kinds of credit streams in future.

Good luck and best wishes!

gnightly

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82077230#Comment_82077230

Many thanks and no it's only £393 now. Will get it cleared next month, and then delete my account with them.

The shock was pretty horrible but it was the unfairness of it that made me so angry. They obviously operate their credit system to trap people into perpetual debt. I was just lucky enough that I could get myself out of it as soon as I realised. Others might not be in a position to do so. That's why I raised the complaint with the FO.

I know there are people in this thread defending Jacamo, saying that they've done nothing wrong, and legally that may very well be the case, but morally they are bankrupt. Worse still - the idea that this kind of business practice is perfectly legal in the UK says a lot about how rigged against the consumer our financial system is. We have loan sharking laws in place, yet a company can legally charge an API of 74.9%. This is just astounding to me, no wonder so many people end up in trouble with loans from companies like this.

Two valuable lessons learned for me here :

1) Don't have any credit with anybody (I haven't had a credit card by choice since the 90s, my mortgage is the only other loan I have).

2) Stay on top of my finances. I should have checked this balance ages ago, that is totally on me.

It goes without saying that I will never shop at Jacamo (or any of their sister companies) ever again, and make sure I advise anybody else thinking of using their services to steer well clear.

gnightly

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82076624#Comment_82076624

Very interesting information, thank you, I wasn't aware of this at all. As I mentioned above in another reply, aside from my mortgage, this is the only credit / loan I have had for the last 30 years (by choice).

I guess I am completely naive to how things work in the debt system.

Back to no loans for me once this is paid off.

Altior

For my part, 'defending' would be the incorrect description.

My argument would be that they offered you a service, you used it, the service played out as expected, and now you are vociferously complaining and throwing around accusations.

It's a bit old school now it appears, but people used to be accountable for the own choices, be they good or bad.

I don't 'defend' any organisation charging an APR of near 50% or near 75% for credit, but there are still people willing to use the service offered, which is their lookout.

Brie

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82077555#Comment_82077555

unfortunately many of the people who use this sort of service have no or little access to more conventional types of credit. Yes they should save up and pay in full or buy from some place with lower prices. Companies charging such high interest have a business model based on greed.

Thankfully some things are improving - such as no more pay day loans at 3000%APR and BNPL are finally more regulated as well. Greedy companies should be made to be more proactive in helping their customers (I almost said victims) not fall in to such traps as happened to the OP.

Altior

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82077682#Comment_82077682

They don't, but as I touched on, branded clothing from Jacamo isn't an essential living purchase.