Good Morning

I have a problem with Blemain and wondered if anyone had come up against it before.

For various reasosn I was stupid enough to go for a loan with these people through Ocean Finance.

I ran into trouble a year agon and clocked up £800 in arrears.

I had an email exchange to try and sort it out but they refused and went to court for possession.

They told me via email that thay would settle for a suspended order and as I didn't have funds to clear it I went to court.

On arrival their solicitor advised that they wanted the full order granted.

Luckily I took copies of the mail trail with me and the judge granted a suspended order.

I agreed to pay £200 per month via an increased direct debit.

The debit duly kicked in and I forgot all about it until I checked my online account and found that they had continued to take the extra £200 for an extra 2 months.

I contacted them but had to resort to cancelling the DD before they would do anything. I

t has taken another month to get them to send me a fresh DD mandate but on checking I have found that they had added another £19 per month to my normal repayment. On calling them I was told that the additonal charge was for legal fees dating back to last year.

I don't recall an order for costs being made.

I have never seen a bill and there has never been a mention of these charges in telephone conversations.

Can they apply these charges ?

I have told them that I want a fresh DD with the original rate reinstated and that I want a separate statement to cover these fees and I will pay them separately if I have to. Surely they cannot just tack these charges to the loan repayment?

Any help much appreciated

Hi

You have my sympathy as I know full well what these sharks are like.

Use the search facility at the top of the forumn and you will find many threads about them, none of them good!

Firstly you need to do a SAR and state very clearly what you require. Ask them to include the underwriting sheet and ask for a full statement of account and a full statement of charges. This will give you a clear picture of how your account stands (hopefully as they are not known for complying with these requests!).

I had them take money without consent and it took 6 months to get it back off them. I now pay by standing order and refuse to give them access to my account. If I were you I would do the same.

Once you get statements from them you can work out what to challenge them on.

Good luck

Thanks for the reply. I have faxed their "compliance office" this afternoon along those lines. I will do a SAR to back it up

You have to be VERY persistent. They will keep stalling in the hope you will give up.

Well said Midge. I have had no problems with them since I cancelled the Direct Debit and set up a standing order.

Change of tactics on their part though, adding legal charges to the DD rather than adding it to the loan and putting interest on that.... I wonder why?

There must be so many of us suffering thanks to Blemain, is there nothing we can do?

I am aware that people have problems with this company who now call themselves "together Money".

Mine is a sorry tale,

back in 2006 I ran into problems with my main mortgage lender as I was out of work.

I started to get eviction letters so panicked and went to Ocean Finance for assistance, they pointed me at Blemain.

I borrowed 13k, this was to clear any arrears and hopefully leave me a few pounds.

I barely received a penny,

the arrears were cleared but I was charged an arrangement fee and a brokerage fee which amounted to nearly £1000.

On reflection I should have also been concerned when Ocean told me to change the reason why I wanted a loan to "home improvements".

That said I was in a panic and just wanted some peace.

Some hope of that with these people, we have had constant disagreements over additional charges.

On one occasion I found that they had amended a direct debit without warning to include charges for buildings insurance.

They were sent my policy documents on three occasions and have never refunded the money.

Right now they have an eviction order against me for £800, they resort to this every time there is an issue.

I have tried to get help but as the loan is over 6 years old the FCA wont get involved.

My problem is that a loan of 13k repayable over 15 years with no change in monthly payments is extortion,

I have repaid the loan with interest but they still want £180 each month until 2021.

Is there anywhere I can go to fight this please.

firstly have you got all the statements

and have you put in a reclaim for everything you should not have paid?

I cant believe for one minute that once all the evidence was infront of the judge at the case for eviction he didn't make them take the lot off.

how did you defend yourself?

can I suggest

you don't mean eviction but a suspended possession order.

how many times have theyhad you in court

or have they simply used that as a weapon to make you pay

yes my thoughts too SPO

what seems like unnecessary building ins

and prob £1000's in arrears fees and god knows what else.?

please expand on the story

Thanks for the replies,

they applied for and got an eviction date of September 26th.

I am going to have to pay the arrears and get it dropped.

My main reason for posting was the hope that I could find someone who would know if I could challenge the validity of the loan in some way.

I have sent a copy of the loan agreement that shows the brokerage and arrangement fees etc

but I don't hold out much help.

In the meantime I am saddled with another 5 years at £180 per month which totals another £10k.

Bearing in mind the original loan was only 13k and I have paid since 2006 this has to be legalised extortion

we need a time line of events and some history and uploads please

...get it all in place then those in the know will be able to help properly.

it is difficult, with only scant info to advise on such an important issue.

I found all if the names of the current directors and finally got someone to take me seriously.

Strangely enough I emailed their collections team last week to ask why the length of the loan had not reduced when I have been paying £20 over the correct sum each month.

I received a letter on Saturday informing me that they had made an error and they have credited me £890.

I have passed the letter to the director who has responded.

I have also asked to go over every penny of every charge and overpayment dating back to 2006 when the loan started.

This is not the first time they have admitted errors I just didn't keep a record.

I have sent the letter to the ombudsman as well. Is there anything else I can do please

What a surprise there!!!!

They don't make mistakes!!!

So eviction is off and have they now cancelled the spo too

As you owe nowt so the order is null and void?

Hi

I can see by the the listings that I am not alone in having difficulties with Blemain.

I took out a loan with them via Ocean Finance in October 2006.

The loan was 13K with a credit charge of 18K.

The term was 180 months at £176.37

. I know the terms were bad but I was self employed and had run into difficulties with my main lender so my home was at risk.

I have asked them repeatedly for some sample figures but they persist in sending out a 20 + page statement.

The latest figures that I asked for are as follows

As at March 2019 I had paid them £24,076.82 they stated that a balance of £18,893.39 with two years left there is no way it would be anywhere near complete by the end of the original term.

Looking back at records they have applied charges nearly £8.5K

I have had constant battles with these people around charges.

For instance I have always overpaid each month but the loan duration has never reduced and the over payment is always swallowed up with charges. They have levied £726 in solicitors charges, I have asked for a detailed breakdown but they refuse, they actually charge for emails from their solicitor. 

With the arrival of IR35 It contracts are hard to come by and I have been out of work for a couple of months and couldn't pay them. I have explained the position but I now fully expect them to try to repossess my home.

Is there anything at all that I can do please         

4 threads merged for history

send them an sar get all the statement and the comms log

I bet there are £10'000's of insurances fees and today its raining charges to reclaim.

p'haps don't forget to comeback this time and update us?

dx

Hi  can you please send me the link to the correct template to use, can you also confirm if it can be sent via email

Thanks for the prompt reply

click sar

not by email no.

dx

Also

if anyone is interested,

I originally applied for the loan via Ocean Finance,

I chased them today for a copy of my original application form as I believe there may be discrepancies that I want to check.

Please see the reply from Ocean Finance below.

It seems that my documents and data are lost, the name Ocean Finance still exists so I have asked for details of their compliance officer   

"Thank you for your email. You have requested information relating to a loan that we believe you had previously taken through Ocean Finance and Mortgages Limited.

Unfortunately we are unable to assist you further with your request as Intelligent Lending Limited (company number 04291279) which trades under the name Ocean and Ocean Finance, is a separate company to Ocean Finance and Mortgages Limited (company number 04892540). 

Please be advised that in August 2012 Intelligent Lending Limited purchased the Ocean Finance brand from Ocean Finance and Mortgages Limited.  If you therefore took out your loan before this date it would have been through Ocean Finance and Mortgages Limited (company number 04892540) and not Intelligent Lending Limited. 

Ocean Finance and Mortgages Limited has however ceased trading on 16th August 2016.

who are you paying?

The loan was arranged by Ocean Finance with Blemain (now Together money) . I want to see the original application documents but it seems that records have been lost due to the changes of ownership of Ocean Finance. I am checking out the viability of reporting them under data protection and FDR. 

who do you pay now?

I pay Blemain (Together Money) 

then that's who should of gotten your SAR.

I am sending them the SAR, that isn't the issue. I want to see what the application looked like to Blemain from Ocean Finance

should be in the sar.