GE MONEY Interest Rate - Warning!

[WeWantHaslamOut]

About 18 months ago we took out a secured loan with GE Money. Last week we received both a pleasant and an unpleasant surprise - in the same postal delivery we were told that our C&G mortgage repayment was reducing to the lowest ever, but that our GE Money loan was rising to the highest ever!

 

Perhaps I should have known that GE Money's rate is NOT linked to the Bank of England Base Rate, nor to any Base Rate. It is linked, apparently, to

 

"how much it costs us to borrow money, which we then lend to our customers..... We have seen significant instability in the financial markets, which has resulted in a considerable increase in the rates we are charged when raising money to lend to our customers. In addition our funding is raised via the wholsesale markets, which means that the recent BoE base rate cuts and LIBOR moves have no direct link to our cost of funds"

 

The interest rate that I am currently paying is 13.15%, an increase of 1.95% (there was also an earlier increase from the original rate when the loan was established). I cannot of course, validate GE Money's statement because there is nothing for me to check against!

 

There is nothing in the letter to indicate that I can close the loan without incurring early repayment charges as you can, I believe, with credit cards when the terms change, therefore unless I want to pay a hefty charge I assume that I am stuck with this for a while longer.

 

SO.... if you are considering GE Money I would seriously advise you to look elsewhere.... unless you are happy to give your business to a company that appear to be able to raise their rates unconditionally and without needing to justify or prove the increases to their customers.

[jacquilottin]

Hello, I am in the same disgusting situation with GE Money on a £45000 loan taken out last year in Feb. i pay £425, now gone up an extra £97 which i just cant afford at all now in this climate.

any advice on how to approach them to rearrange payments will be og great help if that is at all possible,

urgent help needed pleaseeeeeee.

JL

[Viscount Stair]

Paragraph 1(l) of Schedule 2 to UTCCR would appear to apply:

 

(l) providing for the price of goods to be determined at the time of delivery or allowing a seller of goods or supplier of services to increase their price without in both cases giving the consumer the corresponding right to cancel the contract if the final price is too high in relation to the price agreed when the contract was concluded;

 

There are two exceptions to that provision which are contained in paragraphs 2© and 2(d):

 

© Paragraphs 1(g), (j) and (l) do not apply to:

 

- transactions in transferable securities, financial instruments and other products or services where the price is linked to fluctuations in a stock exchange quotation or index or a financial market rate that the seller or supplier does not control; - contracts for the purchase or sale of foreign currency, traveller's cheques or international money orders denominated in foreign currency;

 

(d) Paragraph 1(l) is without hindrance to price indexation clauses, where lawful, provided that the method by which prices vary is explicitly described.

Sub-para (d) definitely does not apply and sub-para © probably does not apply unless an express link was made in the contract to a specific index (eg base rate or LIBOR).

 

I think that would be a basis for redeeming early without charge or penalty, for those able to do so.

 

For those not able to do so, then there are separate arguments that could be made.

[steevyp]

first of all, i am NOT a GE money employee.

 

at the moment, me and my girlfriend are paying 7.69% interest on a mortgage and the fixed rate is due to finish in july. after reading a lot of posts online about how they charge mad interest rates to people i decided to ring them and have just this minute got off the phone... our new rates will be around 4% after our fixed period expires.

 

i am very happy with this as i thought we would end up paying 12% or something like that. is there something i should be aware of about this? should i expect them to dramatically raise the rates after a few months on the new rates?

[poppy1111]

Hi, first of all apologies as I am new to all this forum stuff but after reading endless complaints about GE Money I just felt I had to register and add to it. Mine is a long story but the short version is that My ex husband and I took out a loan of 9k 10 yrs ago. We split 1 yr later and I have continued to pay this on my own. When we split I had 3 yr old twins and a 6 month old baby I also worked but now and again yes i did get behind but i always phoned them and explained the situation .I made a payment arrangement to make sure the arrears were paid off in the next consecutive months I have not been in arrears for ages and refused to pay or anything remotely like that. My loan expired last month and I have paid them nearly 23k. They wrote to me several times saying that I owe 12k in interest and charges!!! I am now going down the legal route as they have admitted to charging me 36 lots of £40 that they shouldnt and will refund it back and tried to pass it off as a good will gesture!! A stark warning to everyone please dont put yrself through this I am losing sleep and am paying a solicitor as the complaints procedure is internal and I wont get anywhere there. The financial ombudsman is now involved as well as a solicitor that I will have to pay for. Even the GEmoney emplyees that I speak to weekly to try and sort it out say that somethings not right and it seems excessivly high.They should not be adding interest when a payment arrangement has been put in place surely. I now owe them more than we borrowed in the first place. The left hand doesnt actually know what the right hand is doing as everytime contact is made I owe a totaly different amount. I have even had a phone call to say the loan has expired and then they charged me for an unpaid direct debit errr hello you called me to tell me the loan has ended!

Now Ive let off steam thank you x

[pocster]

Hey Poppy!

 

I have been dealing with GE for 5 years now. 170+ phone calls, and I've sent 30+ letters.

They lie, and you are quite right have no idea what anyone else is doing in the company.

Today I received a phone calls stating I owed 4k in FEE'S! from 2006!!!!!!

Even though I have a letter dated from them 18 months ago saying they would reverse these so called fee's (admin charges whatever).

They are grossly incompetent and breach their own code of practise.

GE are doing the same too me in that they will offer a 'good will gesture'(sic) and waive the 4k if I agree to their other terms.

Erm, no. I can't go to the Ombudman as it's outside their jurisdiction - hang in there!

 

Keep kicking them like I do!