Thread: Home Credit Companies

Hey everyone,

I'm just here to try offer my help or advise anyone who is having difficulties with home credit companies.

These are companies which offer loans which are collected weekly from your house (mainly over a 57 week loan agreement) with a interest rate of 150 - 200%.

a few names you might have heard of are Shoppacheck (who are part of welcome finance), Provident (who also own vanquis credit card & Real Finance), Greenwoods. These are some of the bigger national companies however there are several hundreds of smaller ones.

what people dont realise is there has recently been a change in the law, and where once upon a time if you didnt pay these people it didnt matter, has all changed. Now everytime you miss a weeks payment it effects your credit rating.

I'm not proud but i work for one of these little companies (sorry but i have to support my family) but the silver lining here is that i understand how some of it works and i can help advise you with a little of my insider knowledge as some of these companys can become nasty.

A few things to remember before taking such a loan..
1. These are expensive. make sure there is no other credit around which would be better or cheaper for you! (consider joining a credit union where you save for a number of weeks and then you can have a loan where they will charge you approx £16 interest per £500 over a year)

2. If you have an appsolute emergency and say you take out a £500 loan. You will repay approx £800+ back (£300 interest! yes it is scary so look for credit else such as a credit union!!) with a payment of around £14 or £15 a week. what some dont tell you is that you are entittled to an early settlement (the early settlement balance is condierably less than the actual balance which you pay if you just pay £14 a month) Consider trying to pay a little more each week (maybe just a pound more?) to help you pay less interest in total!

What to do if you are it debt and cant pay?
Dont hide! If you cant afford to pay ask the collections agent for the number of their manager. These companies will agree reduced payments with you, however if you stick your head in the sand they will come down on you like a ton of bricks!

If the company will not agree a repayment, consider contacting citizens advice or the finacial opbusman (excuse the spelling!) who will assist you in dealing with the comapny (just please becareful as some debt advisors just advise everyone to go bankrupt. It is not worth ruining your credit file if your just dealing with these types of companies!)

I've only touch on a few subjects rather than boring you with information but if anyone has a problem with these companies or any questions please just let me know and i'll try help where ever i can!

Ps. Sorry to keep going on about it but credit unions really do kick ass. They are none profit organisations therefore do not charge stupid charges etc! They are well worth a look!!
ABCUL

Welcome to the site.
Naturally,the more seasoned CAG members are more than aware of Provident and Vanquis etc.
But yes Credit Unions are ideal and growing.
The one in my area charges 2% and offers various loans after 12 weeks membership providing the account is in order.
The problem is that as the credit crunch bites,they have been a little restricted.

Strange that the so called "credit crunch" should affect a credit union. A "credit crunch" is that financial insitutions such as banks are finding it hard to borrow money on the wholesale market (intrabank lending) and therefore are relunctant to lend what money they have. Credit unions should not be affected at all by this as the money they have comes from their members and they do not have to borrow money from outside their membership, and this shoul dnot have changed. Of course credit unions can arrange an overdraft with their bank, just as any other bank customer but this may be expensive.
It maybe, like many others, they are simply using the term "credit crunch" for their own purposes (whatever they may be). So firms are lying people off, cutting back on expenditure and so on which may or may not actually be due to the difficulty of raising finance but it is convienient to be able to say it the "credit crunch".