The sales assistant can see your full remaining balance along with any outstanding payments on screen as soon as you give them your name. Demand you see your account information on screen, if they wont let you behind the counter, they can bring these details up on one of the laptops they regularly process their sales on. The staff are advised to tell you to write a letter to head office purely for it to be awkward for you and to encourage you to forget about paying off your balance. They bank on customers not wanting to bother. Perfecthome and the like do not want to tell you your balance as it is not in those company's financial interest for you to finish your agreement early. More money is made on interest and any cover you may have on your items (coverplus, theft and accidental damage), therefor the longer you are paying for your items the more money they are making from you, plus there is allways the need for you to take out another agreement once you have finished with your present one. If you feel you are fairly close to the end of your agreement term, i would advise, finalizing all payments and never dealing with them again. All the best,i hope you get it sorted! Please let us know how you got on