Brighthouse Arrears and OSC

[spud4life]

Good afternoon all.

 

Just a quick run down of the problem I'm facing at the moment.

 

I have been going over various posts on the forum and just want a few things clarified before I go any further.

 

Firstly I will start by saying I am currently 2 weeks in arrears with Brighthouse.

At the moment, the total cost of my agreements (including OSC) comes to £31.45.

 

When I call up at the end of the month to make a payment, am I right to object to paying the OSC?

They will charge me a Late Payment charge of £4.50 per item (£18 per week).

 

As far as I am aware, the OSC renews each week a payment is made,

so being in arrears therefore means the OSC should NOT be included in the payment I make at the end of the month,

 

is that correct?

 

My next question is,

 

how do I go about cancelling OSC?

 

I do not have home insurance, Brighthouse have stated to me that unless I have home contents insurance to cover the items, I have no choice but to take the OSC. Is this correct?

 

Lastly, the late payment charges that are applicable to my 2 weeks arrears,

 

can they lawfully be justified by Brighthouse,

or can I contest this when I phone up?

 

Thank you for you help much in advance!

[renegadeimp]

Cancel the insurances and reclaim them. Ignore the Late payment charge. It is unenforceable and fully reclaimable.

 

Do not call them unless you can record the call in full. Put everything in writing, so they cant try and wriggle out of it.

[spud4life]

Thank you very much for your reply.

 

With writing to the store that will mean my account will fall further into arrears as they will obviously try and enforce the late charges and/or insurances. Is there a template of some sort I could use to send? What would happen with the arrears whilst I am objecting the late charges and insurance charges?

 

Thanks again

[citizenB]

I have asked one of the Site team to look in on you.

 

We do have Brighthouse Reps on the forum, I would hope that one of them will look in on you. It will very likely be tomorrow now.

[spud4life]

Thanks

 

I will prepare a rough template to send to them and copy and paste on here to get any recommendations.

 

One more question, am I still able to keep the items (paying for them as normal of course) without the DLC too? I do not have home insurance.

[citizenB]

It is my understanding that you don't have to have these insurances - although it would be in your interest to perhaps have some kind of Home Insurance which would cover all of your possessions and for a cost that is far cheaper than what you are paying.

 

As I am not absolutely certain, then wait until one of the other site team pops in later on today to confirm

[spud4life]

Thankyou again for your reply, as suggested I will wait until another member pops in with any further information.

[dx100uk]

there are two insurances with BH

 

DLC & OSC

 

by its name OSC is OPTIONALSERVICE COVER

 

if you've got it in writing that its compulsory go complain to the FOS

 

it can ALL be reclaimed and the interest it has cost you

 

DLC is Damage Liability Cover

its portrayed by BH managers/staff that you must have this if you've no home insurance yourself, that covers Hire Purchase Goods.

the truth of the matter here is there are NO RULES ANYWHERE

that state items on an HP agreement MUST be covered by ANY insurance products.

just because its in a retailers T&C's does NOT make it compulsory

if this were the case then the whole FCA PENALTY charges guidelines are wrong.

get them both back + the interest they have cost you month on month [compounded.]

.............

as for the late fees, these are UNLAWFUL and can reclaimed too.

regards

dx

 

[dx100uk]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?138012-BrightHouse-OSC-and-DLC-Terms-and-Conditions

[spud4life]

Hi everyone

 

Thank you so much for replying so quickly, been a fantastic help.

 

Hopefully someone posts that can provide a proper template for me to use when sending a letter to their head office,

in the meantime when Brighthouse expect me to pay at the end of the month,

I will make it noted to them that I am unwilling to pay for the OSC, DLC and late charges in my current arrears.

 

Would a letter to the retail store in my city suffice to cancel the insurance?

 

Or does it have to be the head office?

 

Thanks again.

[dx100uk]

you don't need a template

 

write to the head office

 

demanding they remove and refund ALL the OSC and DLC payments & the interest they have cost you

as you were told they were COMPULSORY more than once by local managers/staff.

 

as well as removing any late PENALTY fees

[Guest Ann-Marie at BrightHouse]

Good Morning Spud4life,

 

Thanks for making us aware of your concerns.

 

We advise all our customers that are experiencing financial difficulty and struggling to make payment, they should contact their store as soon as possible. There’s a lot we can do to help and we want to work with our customers to find a solution that fits with their circumstances.

 

Please email our Customer Relations mailbox (customer.relations@brighthouse.co.uk) with the main account holders details quoting reference F0673935 and i will be happy to look into this further for you.

 

Kind Regards

 

Ann-Marie

Web Relations Team

[spud4life]

Thank you all again for your replies, they have been very helpful.

 

Ann-marie, I have been in touch and they have been kind enough to allow me a "break" in order for me to get to the end of the month. However, when I phone up to make a payment to clear the arrears I fear they will try and get me to pay the OSC and DLC which as stated in Brighthouse's terms and conditions, they "lapse" when the account is not paid on the due date. If it's the case that they will not accept a payment WITHOUT the OSC and DLC attached, then I am afraid I will not be making a payment.

 

I don't see it necessary to email your team as I am writing a letter to head office with my demands anyway, but thank you nonetheless ann-marie.

[renegadeimp]

Dont phone them up to make a payment. Set up a standing order or make a payment through the site. With this companies reputation, you dont want to take ANY chances.

[spud4life]

I won't be speaking to them face to face or over the phone, everything from now on will be through EMAIL or LETTER.

 

One question about reclaiming OSC, about a year and a half ago - 2 years ago I had 3 agreements with them, 1 of which was paid off in full and the other 2 handed back into the store. Am I able to claim back OSC on previous agreements or just current agreements?

 

spud

[renegadeimp]

ALL agreements that had insurances.

[spud4life]

Fantastic, I will quickly type up a letter using references from one of the sticky's on this site and post it up here for checking over.

 

I don't think I have copies of the previous agreements I had with BH, including the one which was paid off. Is it possible to get copies of them from BH Head Office?

 

spud

[renegadeimp]

Only way to get the documents is to SAR them. It costs £10 and they have 40 days to provide all info they hold on you.

[spud4life]

Fantastic, I am so thankful for the advice on here.

 

I will prepare a sar but I won't be able to send that until late next week, I will however draw up the letter demanding the removal of OSC and DLC, and start the process for reclaiming the money back from them. At the time when I had taken these agreements out, even though I have no home insurance, they would not let me take the goods without OSC and DLC, and would not let me get quotes for myself to cover the items. I presume in this case its a variation of mis-selling.

 

spud

[renegadeimp]

It's blatant mis-selling.

[ims21]

It has been noticed that the BrightHouse reps have not been overly active despite the company's request to join CAGicon. The requirements were that they would be active in helping to resolve the issues raised by their customers and to provide updates on the threads to which they responded. To date I don't see much which would show that they are living up to expectations.

 

There is little point in having company reps on CAGicon if all they want to do is provide a customer service contact and hope that is the end of it. Reps on CAG should be actively posting to try and resolve issues and are given the chance to improve the reputation of their company.

 

As a result the account status of BrightHouse is being reviewed which may lead to their accounts being deactivated.

 

As a footnote, if anyone reading this thread has a copy of the new BrightHouse terms & conditions whereby the OSC and DLC is automatically included but with a huge rise in the APR, can you please PM me and I will give you an e-mail address to which you can send copies of the documents.