HFC - Settlement Figure

[laineynic]

My Husband rang HFC today to get a settlment figure. After an arguent with the operaor and being passed to a supervisor my husband was told that we could settle the account for £7880.00. But we have to send this by first class post today for them to bank tomorrow. Otherwise we will have to pay £8500.

 

In July we had a statement form them and it stated the balance was £7600. we have paid about £500 - 600 since then.

 

We thought that when a settlement figure was given it was mean't to be for 28 days not a day. We can't transfer the money until next week.

 

How do we stand as it is so unfair because we don't have the funds to hand today we are going to have to pay £8500.00. They say the amounts include charges and interest they will loose because we are settling early. What a rip of.

[LordPringle]

I remember about a year ago I requested a settlement figure from HFC and they sent it out to me in the post and that settlement figure was valid for 30 days.

 

I guess you could call them and ask them to send you a settlement figure in the post as that would have to take longer which gives you more time. On the same call I would ask if they would send you out a complete statement of your account, so you could find out how much you have paid them and subtract that from the total amount payable in the original contract agreement. Also, in your original loan agreement with HFC, there should be a section in that regarding settling your account early and what penalties you would be charged.

[laineynic]

We have had a loan with HFC since may 2004. This last 18 months have been eally difficult with me being ill and my husbands pay stuctue changing.

 

We have always maintained the payments but in October we fell behind. We woul get cught up then something else ould happen i.e bank charges of £700, counil tax and everyday bills.

 

In February we contacted HFC to mak a payment plan and hoefull re finance. We went though the income and expenditue and they agreed to help us. 10 days late out of the blue we go a lettefom a company called Wightmans, thy told us they now had th debt and we were not to deal with HFC anymore. On the lette was the amount we owed - it said that we owed £5733.51. Yet on all letters fom HFC we only owed £4495.11, his debt has risen by £1238.40 thats almost by 28%.

 

Can anyone give me any advice as to what to do next. HFC ae totally blanking us.

 

We were doing ok until LLoyds TSB took £700 of us in charges.

 

 

BOS - Won £865

gmac -Early Redemption fee charged when only 10 days left to go - won

£1250

Lloyds Tsb - my account charges won £875

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

Just A Reply To Bump Your Thread

[steven4064]

laineynic

 

I think the first thing to do is to send Wightmans a

 

"request under s77(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 for a copy of the executed agrement for the loan and a signed statement showing:

(a) the total sum paid under the agreement by me;

(b) the total sum which has become payable under the agreement by me but remains unpaid, and the various amounts comprised in that total sum, with the date when each became due; and

© the total sum which is to become payable under the agreement by me, and the various amounts comprised in that total sum, with the date, or mode of determining the date, when each becomes due."

 

Send the the statutory fee of £1 (postal order not cheque) and remind them that they have 12 days to comply and that the account is in dispute.

 

Secondly, did HFC send you a default notice under s87 of te CCA 1974?

[laineynic]

Thanks for your help. I have sent Weighmans a letter - with reference to the default notice. I have checked through everyhting we received from HFC and there is no default notice.

[steven4064]

In that case, they cannot take action against you. If they do, part of your defence will be that they never sent a default notice and put them to strict proof that they did. If they can't prove it then no case.

[laineynic]

Got a letter from Weightmans this morning. They say that as they are only acting on behalf of HFC they cannot provide me with the information I need and have given me an address at Hfc to send the letter to. They also say that despite me disputting the charges they will still expect our next payment on time other wise they will take further legal action. They also kept my £1 postal order.

 

I have sent the same letter to HFC plus the £1 postal order.

[steven4064]

If they actually knew what they were doing (which obviously they don't), they should have passed you request back to HFC and then, if HFC didn't comply, they should pass the whole file back to HFC.

[laineynic]

On Monday we received a letter from HFC - they apologised for us having to make a complaint. They also said that they would be dealing with the issues over the 14 days.

 

Today another letter arrived from Weighmans it goes onto say

"We understand you dispute the difference between our clients balance and the above outstanding (£5491.51). Please note this increase is due to the contractural agreement of our collection charge agreed between ourselves and out client HFC, applied to the account upon receipt.

 

We never agreed to these fees being applied, the first thing we knew about them was when we received the letter from Weightmans telling us we had to pay them. Great way to make money slap 27% onto a bill and your laughing to the bank. Surely these fees can't be legal?

 

They go onto say "In accordance with your letter, you accept there is an undiputed amount owed to our clients, if you default on the existing agreement, we will issue legal proceedings against you.

 

They still didn't return the £1 we sent. I shall knock it of the next cheque we send.

[steven4064]

The OFT guidelines on debt collection forbid charging for collection

[laineynic]

After a 3 week wait HFC contacted my husband today and in the explanation to the collection charges it says "The interest on your account was claculated and added to your account on a monthly basis, once your account was passed to Weightmans the interest that was due to be added on your account up to the maturity date of September 2009 was added to your total balance. In addition to this Weightmans have added their collection charges of 14% plus vat".

 

Steven 4064 - In the last post said "The OFT guidelines on debt collection forbid charging for collection ".

 

I checked the OFT website and found the full statement on this. I have printed this of and sent it to HFC. Thanks Steven for your advise.

 

Weightmans wrote to me again demanding payment before legal action. I have in fact paid HFC. I have also sent a copy to Weightmans of the letter from HFC.

[laineynic]

We have had a loan with HFC since may 2004. This last 18 months have been eally difficult with me being ill and my husbands pay stuctue changing.

 

We have always maintained the payments but in October we fell behind. We woul get cught up then something else ould happen i.e bank charges of £700, counil tax and everyday bills.

 

In February we contacted HFC to mak a payment plan and hoefull re finance. We went though the income and expenditue and they agreed to help us. 10 days late out of the blue we go a lettefom a company called Wightmans, thy told us they now had th debt and we were not to deal with HFC anymore. On the lette was the amount we owed - it said that we owed £5733.51. Yet on all letters fom HFC we only owed £4495.11, his debt has risen by £1238.40 thats almost by 28%.

 

Can anyone give me any advice as to what to do next. HFC ae totally blanking us.

 

We were doing ok until LLoyds TSB took £700 of us in charges.

 

We sent the £1 requesting that they prove what the charges are and why so much has been applied.

 

After a 3 week wait HFC contacted my husband today and in the explanation to the collection charges it says "The interest on your account was claculated and added to your account on a monthly basis, once your account was passed to Weightmans the interest that was due to be added on your account up to the maturity date of September 2009 was added to your total balance. In addition to this Weightmans have added their collection charges of 14% plus vat".

 

I checked the OFT website and found the full statement on charges and debt collection. I have printed this of and sent it to HFC. Thanks Steven 4064 for your advise.

 

Weightmans wrote to me again demanding payment before legal action. I have in fact paid HFC. I have also sent a copy to Weightmans of the letter from HFC.

[42man]

Have you sent them a CCA request Lainey ?

[Skell18]

Weightmans are a firm of solicitors, is their head office by any chance on Water St in Liverpool? If so then its the solicitors, if not then thats a s far as I can assits atm.

[BankFodder]

This kind of treatment from solicitors needs to be addressed.

 

It seems to me that they were not entitled to keep the £1 postal order as this was clearly provided for a specific purpose and it should have been returned. Also if they have tried to levy charges in breach of OFT rules, this also needs to be addressed.

 

Both of these practices are capable of being unfair.

I would suggest that you send a letter of complaint to the OFT under the new CPUT Regs http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/faqs-please-read-these/146460-consumer-protection-unfair-trading.html

 

I would also consider sending a letter of complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority Solicitors Regulation Authority - Home and they can decide if there has been some breach and they will let you know. You can post the responses here.

 

If there has been some breach of rules then these things should be addressed or else it never stops

[BankFodder]

I have now noticed that HFC have added all of the interest until September 2009 to your account. This suggests to me that even if they recoup all of the money now, they still expect to receive the interest for the full term.

 

This cannot be right. This would amount to an unenforceable penalty at common law. I would say that it is also an unfair practice under CPUT http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/faqs-please-read-these/146460-consumer-protection-unfair-trading.html

I suggest that you also complain about this to the OFT.

 

Even if the solicitors collection charge turns out to be enforceable, it seems to me that the percentage which has been charged upon the future interest cannot be.

 

Write your CPUT letters. It will stoke things up a bit, give you a little more control and also provide some clarification.

 

Make sure that your complaints are laid out systematically in the letter so that it is clear that there are several complaints each which need to be addressed separately

Edited June 21, 2008 by BankFodder

[laineynic]

Thank you Bankfodder, that is alot of very useful information. I will put together the letters this afternoon. When I receive the response I will pot it hear.

 

Cheers

Lainey

[laineynic]

Hi Skell18 yes it is the Weighmans solicitors of Liverpool. Do you have experience of these people?

[laineynic]

We got a phone call yesterday from HFC. They have advised us that they have taken th debt back from Weightmans. The old balance now stands again and they apologised for theway in which they had treated us.

 

I can't help feeling that they have only taken this dent back because I sent them a copy of the The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 - draft.

 

We also receied a letter from the Solicitors Regulation Authority telling us that they would be investigating our complaint and we hould be hearing from them in the next 4-6 weeks.

[Skell18]

Hi Skell18 yes it is the Weighmans solicitors of Liverpool. Do you have experience of these people?

 

Not experience i can go into on here but my contract law tutor from the CPE many years ago used to work for them.

[Rorschach]

I think the confusion is likely to be that the figure from Wightmans would have been a settlement figure, e.g. how much you would need to pay to close the account. The figure from HFC would have been the current balance. The difference is that the settlement figure would have included any early settlement charge, and interest calculated to the days date. The balance would be just the amount outstanding.

[tiglet]

I believe OP already knows what the breakdown is - HFC have clearly stated there was a 14% collection fee plus VAT.

[laineynic]

Received a letter this week from the Solicitors Regulation Authority, basically they do not feel that Weightmans have acted inapropriately, they also say that the charges levied are set by HFC and they are merely acting as their agents in the collection of this debt. They also go on to say that Weightmans is a recognised organisation and do abide by the rules as set. However they would contact them and send a copy of our complaint.

 

We have written back to them with a copy of the letter received from HFC which clearly states that the levied fees of 14% are applied by Weightmans. Seems that Weightmans in the eye of the Solicitors Regulation Authority are doing nothing wrong which to be honest I totally disagree with.

 

HFC have taken this debt back and we are more than happy to pay them what we owe. Up tp date though the OFT have not responded yet.

[laineynic]

After 2 1/2 years of wrangling and threats of further actio HFC have finally decided to pay back the PPI. We did have to go through the FOS to get anywhere but at least we finally got them to admit it was misold.

 

We don't know the figures yet so I won't organise the party. But we wouldn't have got through it if we hadn't have logged onto CAG.

 

We had paid of this loan, but were able to prove that the PPI was misold.

 

 

 

Cases Won

Capital One £550

GMAC Early Redemtion £1600

PPI Lloyds TSB £580

Lloyds Tsb Bank Charges £1400

Lloyds Tsb Bank Charges £3200 - Ongoing (Hubbys Account)

 

Complaint to Capital One for Harrassment still ongoing with FOS