this thread delivers!!

congratulations john ;D fantastic news , now wheres that link for site donations hehe !

Got a reply today 26/09/06 offering a refund of £1065 from the £1180 i had originally claimed for ! Just as i was penning out the LBA lol !! So now i accept it as partial and get the rest yeh ! wahoooo u guys rock !!

Hi guys , just a quick background.... just consolidate a few credit cards and loans with Firstplus, after speaking to them about early settlement charges ( as im currently being bit in the arse by citifinancial) i was told the charge was 2months interest and a £150 handling fee. The guy on the phone was very helpful and also told me that if i were to pay a lump sum in that ALMOST cleared the account with enough debt remaining that the subsequent direct debit cleared the total loan then no fees would be added. Is this a standard practise does anyone know ? Thanks for reading

Should i send the Request for the orignal Creidt agreement to their headoffice or the account holding branch ? And would that request affect any timescales? cheers guys !

Well it took me a little while to get off my lardy arse and write the letter but its done and delivered to the branch, i took great pleasure in getting the snotty assistant to photocopy and date stamp my copy after she was agruing the fact that the charges were legitimate....my reply.... "You have 14 days to reply to me, have a good day" I love this website, u guys are so good helping everyone and i assure u i will make a 10% contribution , because without you there wouldnt be the other 90% for me!

Thanks ever so much for all the information given here guys, i do really appreciate this alot. I got in contact with the OFT and they have referred the case onto the Trading Standards team in my area, who will be in contact with me shortly. Im also going to request a copy of the agreement under the Consumer Credit Agreement and enclose a £1fee for them, if they havent returned that within the time scale i will dispute the total loan. It seems that these guys are real cowboys and if i can take them to the cleaners i will . Will keep u all up to date on my progress and thanks again ! Good luck Pete

thanks mate, the break down is in the post apparently , so i should be in a better position to judge things then , i didnt take PPI because i knew i could re finance within a few months and that its mostly a rip off like you say it is, thanks again for helping mate

Hi mate, sorry to sound so new but whats PPI? I refered to the original agreement and it just says : Early Settlement Examples: if you repay the loan after 1/4 of the term you need to pay us £6607.27 if you repay the loan after 1/2 of the term you need to pay us £5162.66 if you repay the loan after 3/4 of the term you need to pay us £3060.45 In calculating the amounts shown no account has been taken of any variation which might occur under this agreement, the amounts therefore are only illustrative. This agreement is not cancellabe under the Consumer Credit Act, the Timeshare Act or the Finanical Services Regualtions 2004. Thanks alot for your reply and ur help so far.

Hi there i have just consolidated all my debt into a nice manageable payment , and im in the process of finding out the settlement amounts with my credit card companies and loan company. I was foolish enough to take a loan out with these cowboys on a deposit for a flat i was buying, it was a rush thing but i needed the money within the next few days or the sale would have fallen through. Anyway a few months later im back on my feet and trying to settle with them.... The amount borrowed was £7500 or 5years/60mths Total amount repayable = £14862 I know this is a horrific APR but like i say i needed the money , anyway heres my problem.... I was told the early settlement charge would be 2months interest if i settled, nothing more and nothing less. Now im told today over the phone that its gonna cost be a charge of 9months interest if i cancel within a year! Then they tell me that from my monthly payment only a small amount of the repayment goes to paying back the inital amount the majority is spent paying interest back. I was told the amounts were spilt evenly throughout the term ! In a bit of a muddle now , not sure where i stand or whats going on ! Any ideas please help !! thanks for reading

thanks for the advice ! i think ur right i will deduct the £185 ! will update as i hear more !

Well helllllo there !! This is just the forum i have been searching for ! Im really encouraged having read some of your posts and successes , so im going for HSBC I have received charges totalling £1222 since 12/01/2003 well it will be £1275 on the 18//08/06 so i will going for the lot ! I was just going to ask a quick question, I have had £185 of those charges refunded over the years , do you think I should leave them on in the hope that they dont look thoroughly at the account and notice that they have been refunded or just remove them? Whats the abbreviation LBA stand for please ? Many Thanks Primeh