GE Money - Unregulated Loan taken out July 2006

[ims21]

Hi

 

Dropping in as requested by Caro.

 

I have had dealings with GE and on that case even their solicitor said to get away from them as soon as humanly possible.

They are a nasty bunch and should stick to what they are good at which is light bulbs.

 

Trouble is, when you are in arrears it will be extremely difficult to get another lender with whom you can remortgage.

 

The FCA (formerly the FSA) published a paper which said it was unfair to charge arrears charges when a borrower is in an agreed payment arrangement.

As a result any such charges which were put on to the account under those circumstances should be refunded to the account plus any interest charged as a result.

 

That is not the only reason because those charges are unlawful anyway because they do not represent the true cost to the company

following the breach of contract (i.e. the failure to make payments).

 

You should be claiming back the £40 charges plus the interest charged as a result of them and that will bring the overall balance down.

 

Generally, GE do not add the charges to the arrears figure.

If you look at your statements carefully you will see that they pop your charges and legal fees into a distinct pot

and any payments you make over and above the CMI must come off the arrears first.

Again, if you examine your statements carefully you should see that this is the case.

 

However, your overall balance is increasing due to the charges and legal costs being added

and what they (and all lenders do) is add those charges and fees to the overall balance and charge interest on them.

That will be mentioned in your T&Cs somewhere.

 

This is why they increase the CMI because these additional costs add to the balance outstanding

and in order to clear the balance at the agreed time the CMI has to increase by a few pence or a few pounds to cover those.

 

If you find that the extra payments being made over and above your CMI are not going to the actual arrears balance

then GE are in trouble, especially if the court have order that to clear the arrears it will be at a rate of CMI plus £x.

That £x must be allocated to arrears, not anything else.

 

So, when you reclaim the unlawful charges, you would use the interest rate that you have been charged on the account.

This means that you get the charges back plus the interest they have charged you.

That reduces the overall balance and should reduce the CMI slightly.

 

In respect of charging a solicitor's fee when no one turned up at court,

I would challenge them on that as well since you would have been charged on a time basis (or an estimate thereof)

and if no-one pitched up then you should ask for a detailed breakdown of that charge.

 

Have you been charged for home visits/counsellor's where they didn't turn up or which you did not agree to?

That is another ploy for GE to make money out of you.

If you have been charged for these under these circumstances claim those back as well together with interest as discussed above.

 

Hope this helps.

[ims21]

Hi

 

Popping in as requested by Caro.

 

The spreadsheet you will need is the second one down in the first post here

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?330996-Latest-Spreadsheets-PPI-Claims-and-Charges-Claims-Dec-2011(1-Viewing)-nbsp

 

CISheet c101.

 

For the interest you should work out the average of the rate you have been charged since the first charge that you wish to reclaim and use that average rate.