Hello,

I was hoping for an outside opinion of the situation I have got myself into-

I've been a customer of Bright house since Early 2015 and have had multiple agreements since then.

I currently have 7 agreements, all but two with over 50% paid off, a few only have a couple of weeks to a couple if months left.

My weekly payments are £80 per week right now. Some of my items are essential items some non - essential.

I have found myself in a bit of financial difficulty of late, behind with rent, c-tax, electric... all of which I have been able to come to an affordable payment arrangement.

My problem is with Bright house,

I am at the moment 3 weeks in arrears as in order to make arrangements with all of my above debts I had to offer extra to them for the past few weeks, putting Bright house at the bottom of the list,

I've asked for a couple of months reduced payments, they said no, and asked if I can just pay a small amount on top on the weekly amount I am paying to which they also said no, in all honestly I cannot afford the £80pw anyway so reduced payment is what I was hoping for.

I am not willing to hand the goods back as I have paid so much for them, I know that is not how Bright house works but I've literally paid for these goods three times over, My fault I know, I went in with my eyes open. I still want to pay just at a reduced rate for a period of time, Do you think there is a way I can make this possible, they wont take part payment from me in store and are refusing to give me details to make BACS payments....

It all stared with just the one item, and I said to myself after this is paid I wont get any more, but it seemed so easy at the time each time I have made a new agreement with Brighthouse it has been after going into to store to make an enquiry or make a payment and at that point new products have been upsold to me.

Each time I have made the staff aware of changes to my income and expenditure but have always been told ‘it’s best to leave it the way it is so we can add-on’.

I have not been asked to provide proof on income since my sign up in 2015.

It says on their website "The likelihood of adding further items on to your account are improved by ensuring your account is kept up-to-date.

For each further application we will assess your income and expenditure and perform a credit check to determine your level of affordability."

But that cannot be true as my credit file has 10 defaults and 2 CCJ's registered against me, my credit is truly appalling and any potential creditor should have some kind of obligation to lending responsibly.

When I went in store and advised them of my financial hardship they told me I should take out a payday loan to pay off the arrears - surely this isn't right?!

I am not looking for a way to not pay this, I intend to honour my obligations, I just need a little break that's all.

I have had their advisers knocking on my door everyday for the past week, luckily they don't have my phone number anymore as I changed it a few months ago.

Does any one have any advice about how I should handle this moving forward.

Oooo this makes me angry...

When I went in store and advised them of my financial hardship they told me I should take out a payday loanicon to pay off the arrears - surely this isn't right?!

I will have more advice later for you... Please hold tight - I am at work and will draft something later

Thank you

sound like gross irresponsible lending to me.

Im ever so sorry that i didnt come back to you last night.

Long day at work

Anyway lets have a look for you. BH allowing you to pay £80 a week is extremely excessive.

If this is across 7 plans - Are you able to get a full breakdown of the items and the weekly costs + Insurances?

Id be interested to know when these items were taken and what they fall under for insurance and if it is optional.

The team asking you to take a PDL to get back up to date. Do you have proof of that? The FCA CONC Sourcebook explicitly states they are not allowed to suggest you taking more credit to pay off other arrears or force you to borrow from others.

Basically in a nutshell there is Sweet FA they can do - Court order is required for most of the items - Never heard of BH going for a court order.

Time to also have a look at https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=71215

Same rules apply here. The lender must show they have complied with Responsible Lending. Excessive agreements on high APRs (69 - 99%!!) is not responsible. IMHO If BH brought their APRs / Prices down then i could see them being a very good option for many - However its cases like this that prove otherwise.

Thank you for getting back to me, I really do appreciate it.

I do still have all of my agreement paperwork so I can look into that, from memory 4 of the items were with the 5 star service, the rest I was given the option of taking bright care, which I didn't. I also don't have their product insurance as I have my own contents insurance... well I did but that has been cancelled due to missing some payments.

I don't have any proof about the payday loan comment as it was said verbally in-store and didn't think about recording anything at that point, i have been in a payday loan trap before in the past but they won't touch me now.

I've so far had 6 visits from them since the 11/04 from a man in a little transit, I haven't answered the door, reading all the horror stories about the way Brighthouse's door-steppers conduct them selves scares me

, I am on my own with my little girl, suffer with quite severe PTSD and find it difficult to communicate with men after a seriously abusive relationship - hence why we live over 500 miles away from all family and friends - I have verbalised all of this to customer relations and asked them to communicate in writing only but they have just ignored me on that.

Christmas time over the last few years are when the majority of my agreements have been taken out, when I've been stood in the pound shop with my head in my hands wondering how I can give my daughter whats on her list and then seeing brighthouse over the road. I've just managed to get myself in to a bit of a mess and hold my hands up to my own irresponsible conduct with my finances.

I am going to have a read of that link you have included. Thank you again.

You dont have to answer them at all

They are nothing more than a Doorstopper - They have very little rights to be there giving you hassle.

TBH the CR team at BH are useless as they normally just hand it off to store to deal with and the vicious cycle just continues.

If you have PDLs too - we need to know and can help.

I also understand about moving away - I did that myself although unlike yourself - Im an hour away from my family

I had a PDL with the money shop in Dec 2016 for £100, paid that back and then got another for £350 in Sept 2016, paid that back and then another in Dec 2016 for £300 and then another in Feb 2017 for £300 - I think they were paid over 2 months. The last one I just couldn't pay back and have been making small token payments on, they have not defaulted me yet.

The other is a £250 loan from MyJar which I got in the same cycle with but this is from 2012 and I have defaulted on that one and have not made any payments on it for a long time

I owe Vanquis £600 and Cap one £400 and have various other catalogue debts.

My total Debt pre Brighthouse was around £4000 it's now around £11000.

It's a very interesting read, I have been trying to glance at bits of it while I'm at work, will give it a proper go over when I get home.