Cahoot (not so) Flexi loan...

[Dobby657]

Hi all, i've spent a few hours reading through various threads on here now, looking for similar situations to mine and not had much luck, hence starting a new thread...

 

 

Long story really, but short version....

 

Recently found out that my partner has had a cahoot flexi loan for the last 6 years nearly, £7k limit which she has never missed a payment on (occaisionally withdrawn to pay back though admittedly, 7 times maybe)

 

I found this out, because after clearing a £2.5k credit card for her, I discovered 3 weeks later that it was up to £800 again! As you can imagine, I wasn't best pleased about, asked questions and she finally came clean about everything

 

Like many I've read bout today, the loan was taken out at about 6% apr, and is now over 20% i think she said, not only that, it's not even flexible anymore because they withdrew that facility from the account! Because of the huge interest rises, and the fact she's lost her emergency payment option of withdraw / repay she's living off credit cards to survive.

 

In her defence, before this loan she always had a few thousand in savings and has always been very good with money, but the serious hikes in interest charges basically were / are too much for her to manage now

 

Now a lot of the posts on here seem to be about enforceable XYZ, get out clauses etc.... I'm just interested in how to get the best final settlement figure from them so I can clear this for her

 

The £7k loan she took out has been paid for 6 years almost, and has a balance of £5,800 still!! I think she said the minimum payment now was around £160, and £90 ish of that doesn't come off the balance each month, so for £160, the loan goes down £70 which is obscene in my eyes and needs sorting ASAP

 

I read a thread from a link to here where someone requested a spreadsheet from them, worked out what the balance should be at the orginal 6% rate and then claimed back the difference from what they'd paid with the interest charges. Cahoot failed to defend the claim so the money was awarded, effectively clearing the loan and leaving Cahoot owing the person money. That would nice, but probably unrealistic!

 

I'm just looking for advice on the best way to get a settlement figure of around £3k if possible out of them. I figure the amount my partner has paid in interest has more than paid what she borrowed originally. I'm aware that you pay more APR on a flexible loan due to the higher risk, but... this isn't even flexible anymore and hasn't been for quite some time as far as I am aware! A 50% settlement figure i'll be happy with paying, well as happy as you can be!

 

Any help or advice, or links i've missed to similar cases gratefully received

[king123]

I complained to the FSO and I was refunded the extra interest I'd paid above the original rate. This was several thousand pounds but as I still owe Cahoot money I didn't get a cheque, just a credit. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/cahoot/173744-cahoot-flexi-loan.html

 

It's worth pursuing for sure.

[boywithatoy]

I'm in exactly the same position. I've had a Cahoot flexible loan since 2005 with a £4000 limit. It started off at a reasonable APR but got hiked up to 21%. Since the account moved to santander at the end of January I haven't been able to access any details of my account.

 

The last time I checked the balance was back in January just before they withdrew online access and I had a remaining balance just under my limit (it was something like £3,990). When I phoned Santander at the end of May I was told my remaining balance was £3,910. My monthly payments were roughly £100 so in the space of four months I paid £400 to them but only £80 was taken off my remaining balance - surely something is wrong there?! When I was told over the phone what my balance was I asked them to send statements from the very start of my loan, including payments made, charges, interest rates etc - I was then told they couldn't do this as they had the wrong address for me on their system (it was an ONLINE loan so I never updated my address).

 

I then sent them a letter informing them of my change of address - with proof. In the same letter I also asked them to send me all my statements as requested before in my telephone call. This morning I received a letter from them confirming my change of address but no mention of my request for statements. I have tried to phone several times but every time I do, after going through their menu system, I just get an engaged tone - not even put in a queue or phone ringing, just an engaged tone.

 

So, I can't access my account online as they have taken that option away and now I can't even phone them as they are constantly engaged! I have no idea how much I owe, what the APR, what charges (if any) they have added to my account - they only thing I know about my account is the number!

 

I want to at least get the APR down to a reasonable rate but I also want to see if what they have been taking out of my account is unfair - paying £400 in 4 months but only having £80 count to balance seems highly unfair - but at the moment I can't do anything.

 

I know lots of other people are having similar problems so can anyone advise me on what to do next?

 

 

ps: sorry if this is hijacking your thread but we seem to be in a similar postion so hopefully we can all work together to sort out all the problems people are facing with cahoot/santander