HFC Bank/Extreme Interest Rates!!!!!

[Sarah Frost]

I bought a PC in January 2005 from PC World that cost £1,600! (must of been top of the range??!)

 

I couldnt afford to pay cash so i took out an agreement to pay monthly.

 

Ive been paying for this computer for 18 months (first year I didnt have to pay) at £83 per month and I requested a statement last week to see how much is left and it says £1650!! When i pay £83 they wack on £90 interest EVERY MONTH!!

 

Is this allowed?

 

Can i get this interest frozen?

 

I might aswell just stop paying it and wait for a debt recovery agency to let me pay £1 a week!

 

Please help!

[calm1]

This is disgusting. I am horrified at how these b******* carry on!

 

Are you sure this wasn't an interest up front loan? Basicially you pay all the interest off first, then the actual debt.

 

You have so far paid just under 1500 and still have 1650 to go..... unbelievable.

 

One thing I may suggest is that you request a copy of your signed CCA (Consumer Credit Agreement). This lays out the terms of what you borrowed and how much interest there is, etc. You may find they don't have one - if you are lucky - and then the debt is not enforceable AT ALL (quite a few people have found this, particularly with NEXT as I understand).

 

Make sure if you do CCA request that they do not fob you off with anything else - it must be a signed (by you) CONSUMER CREDIT AGREEMENT - nothing else will do...........

[Sarah Frost]

Ive got my agreement at home somewhere so ill dig it out tonight and read the small print. Ive heard Interest can be written off if you write to them (cant remember who told me that) but i thought it sounded too good to be true!!

 

Ok so ill write to them and ask for a copy of my Consumer Credit Agreement! Thanks for your halp calm1!!

[calm1]

VERY IMPORTANT - they need to supply you with a signed copy of the agreement........ they need the proof to pursue you.....

[RichardM]

I think you will find that the problem lies in the fact that you thought the "first year you didn't have to pay".

 

It's a common [problem] (sorry, martketing ploy) used by these firms. They advertise that you don't have to pay anything for the first year, so you an have it now and not worry about finding the money for it until next year.

 

What they don't make clear, is that while you aren't paying anything, you are still accruing interest on the amount owed. By the time you come to start paying, the £1700 that you owed has become more like £2300. The interest you are likely to be paying with HFC bank is somewhere in the region of 30%

 

You would be better of going to your bank, and saying to them that you want to take out a loan to pay of this, and get a far better rate of interest, if you can.

 

The sort of tactics that HFC bank use, is to offer to a direct loan to people who take out loans to pay for furniture etc after the first year. Theyc all it cutting out the middle man. They then ask if you want to take out a larger loan to pay off credit cards etc, making it easier to manage. They tried doing that to me several years ago, when I owed £5000 on credit cards paying about 17% interest. I had agreed to the base loan but not to any further consolidation funding, which was just as well. When I looked on page 3 of the credit agreement, the interest rate they were offering was 27%.

 

You should have seen their face when I tore the credit agreement up in front of them and walked out. Next day the original loan was paid off with a bank loan at 7%.

[therafalution]

I bought a laptop for £550 from currys through hfc and when i read the small print it said i would pay back £1600!!, am currently paying £2 a month until i get a job and the i will pay it off.