The Consumer Forums

Hi there ---- I am new to the UK. I have a credit card, two mobile phone accounts and 3 bank accounts appearing on my credit reports. In trying to establish a new credit profile in the UK, I have racked up several (30 plus) searches on my files. I know there is a standard phrase on each CRA's website saying to avoid several searches and that it can impact my credit score, the keyword being 'can'.

Can anyone else share any instances of obtaining additional credit with high numbers of searches, and what the impact of these searches had on their credit profile. I have not missed a payment, and my credit scores appear to all be in the 'good' category despite the number of searches. The only exception being experian where I am shown as being poor.

Those of us who have accumulated many PEPs &/or ISAs over the years have the option of having these held in a single place, a so-called investment platform such as Cofunds.

These provide many convenient features eg the ability to switch funds easily and a great deal less paperwork. There is no ongoing financial impact on the investor as the supermarket gains its fee from the fund managers.

What seems unclear is the investor's position in the unfortunate event of the supermarket running into financial difficulties. I am making efforts to clarify this, so far without success.

Other people's views (or expert knowledge) on this point would be very welcome.

I am considering taking out a new secured loan through Promise Financial Service, The loan is through EPF, Has anyone heard of these? What is this company like to deal with?, Im considering a secured loan on my home for £29k, dont wanna make the wrong choice!!!

Any help greatly appreciated

I believed HSBC advertising and paid them £12.95 per month and was a member of their exclusive PLUS club. I was attracted by many, but one was HSBC's promises
“Fee free cash withdrawals around the world. When you are travelling overseas, Bank Account Plus enables you to use your HSBC Bank international Debit Card at any Cirrus/Maestro cash machines worldwide – with no charge from us”

Sadly as I discovered it is a sham, after they removed hidden charges from my account that were not shown as "charges".

The banking code states that; Cash Machine "Charges" are required to be shown on your bank statement.

HSBC circumnavigate this requirement by just secretly manipulating the exchange rate to take a fee or charge equal to an unknown percentage out of the customers account before showing a manipulated and of course, worsted exchange rate on my bank statement to get their hidden fee out of the customers account.
When caught, HSBC claim that they do remove from the PLUS customer's account a charge or fee equal to £2.75 in every £100.
As HSBC simply will not disclose the true amount charged to HSBC by the ATM machine operator abroad, (I know, I have asked head office, many times in writing ). HSBC could just as easily be charging PLUS Account customers £4 or £6 or £10 in every £100.
HSBC of course claim that their advertising is not misleading. Yet HSBC are fully aware that the Advertising Standards Authority made a ruling last year saying that their advertising was misleading on this very subject. Please read the headline advert and publish your candid opinion.

OK. Got divorced and subsequently had a few money issues which totally ruined my credit rating (brilliant rating before I met my ex-wife).
Anyhoo, I was looking for a company that could offer me such a loan even with my credit rating as bad as it was/is. (its actually not really that bad, but am still unregistered on the electoral role for some reason, and my ex-partner is still on my credit file for another 6 years by way of association which I feel is very wrong to be judged on the actions of others (joint loans taken out without my consent, which I was never able to prove)). Back to the point. I came across Fresh Finance Online and seemed to look as if they could offer me something. Applied, and pretty quickly received a reply which seemingly looked like an acceptance letter. 14.9% APR over the repayment term Id requested. All accepted 'in principle'. Now by the terms that I read, this meant that I would be accepted for the offer presented providing I returned the form signed within 28 days and that my circumstances had not changed in the period of time, from receving the letter to sending it back. OK, heres the other pre-requisite. A cheque made payable to Fresh Finance Online for £49.99 to process the application. Now these guys do use other lenders, (which Ill get to), but in no shape or form do they say Ive been rejected 'by them'. Everything looks okay. A day after sending the cheque I receive a phone call from no other than "Welcome Finance"!!! Offering me a loan for £4500 over 48 months. Not the loan Id asked for through FFO or the repayment period requested. I asked where they got my details from and was told that it was from an online referral. Id posed the question if they had been asked by FFO to process my application, but stated they were not involved with such a company. So loan offered. A nice APR of 45%!!! Yes 45%. At which point I flatly refused and said my thankyou's and goodbyes (which I believe anyone who ever speaks to these people should do).
Next port of call is to ring FFO to find out how my application is going on since sending in my 'administration fee'. At this point Im told that they couldnt offer the loan as stated in their letter and asked how things went with "Welcome Finance". Yes I d been referred by FFO to Welcome. So £50 of my money is spent on doing something I could have easily done myself by typing in a different web address or by dialling a different phone number. They claim that if your loan is unsuccesful that it will be refunded. However, this isnt the case if you are unsuccessful with them (do they actually offer loans or not?). It leads me to this conclusion.
Fresh Finance Online DO NOT offer loans (or at least ones which arent a figment of their imagination). I believe that they are brokers only subsequently obtain a £50 fee for every application that is made. All that was left for me was Welcome, or a debt managemt agency. (I must point out that I have very little personal debt now (around £6000 max), having paid off most of my creditors after my divorce to the tune of £65000!! You think you have it bad!!???). The money I was asking for was in fact to be used to pay off a niggling debt which was my ex-wifes in essence (Credit Card debt which has been Defaulted and in the hands of a debt recovery agency who want all the cash NOW). I dont have the cash to do it of course and my pleadings to pay monthly have gone ignored. A totally seperate issue I know. But back to FFO. Id urge nobody to even contemplate using this service. Use my mistake as a guide. Do the work yourself. If you get refused credit with a reasonable APR, Id seriously urge you to bite the bullet and do without it, if you can. High % loans will only make matter worse. Ive been in some awful financial mess and Im not prepared to get into a new one. Welcome...not so.

This is more than a book about debt. This book could be life-changing. It is written in a style a bit like “a Christmas Carol” with the ‘heroine’, Amy, being taken to see various people and situations in order to understand the financial backdrop to everything we do and why debt is big business.

If you follow the principles laid out in this book you could set yourself free from debt for ever.

As the book progresses Amy comes to understand how shopping centres and supermarkets are designed to part you from her hard-earned money for things you don’t need, don’t even want and certainly didn't plan to buy; why banks and credit card companies don’t mind if you are a bad customer – they even prefer it, as there is more money in it for them; why those with least money pay more for almost everything; why insurance and guarantees are often not worth the paper they are written on – except to the seller of course; and why you should never, never accept a free offer as it will always be far too expensive.

And the secret? Well, that would be telling...

I have a secured loan with Welcome Finance which commenced in October 2002 for £10,000. Since this time I have paid back, in total £13,054.92 (May 200 at regular payments of £274.36 per month. I have recently suffered some financial difficulties and as a result have had to sell my property to which the loan is secured upon.

I requested a redemption figure to settle the loan amount, to find that Welcome Finance wanted an additional £14,610.62 to remove the charge on the property and enable the sale to be completed. I find the amount of interest they have charged and the settlement figure issued, totally unfair and inappropriate from a consumer point of view. I have approached Welcome Finance with what equity I will have left after the sale of the property, to the sum of £4,300, which they have refused.
As you can understand, the property has been sold and time is of the essence, as I cannot afford to lose the sale of the property due to the current property climate. Welcome Finance is certainly not helping with this time frame.

After contacting Welcome Finance in regards to the shocking outstanding amount of £14,610.62, they have made me aware that I would be able to reschedule this outstanding amount into a Personal Loan. However, to add to salt to the wound, Welcome Finance have stated that rescheduling the outstanding amount of pure interest (£14,610.62) into a personal loan with them, which to my disgust, would charge further interest on this amount, at the rate of approximately 64.4% as advertised.

I borrowed £10,000 in 2002, and having already paid back the mentioned amount of £13,054.92, Welcome Finance are already profiting to the sum of £3,054.92. If I was to agree to pay the further outstanding amount of £14,610.62 would surely seem a ridiculously high, unfair amount of pure interest. Along with this, with the mentioned interest of 64.4% their looking to charge on the personal loan, I would in effect; be paying back approximately £80,000 for a £10,000 loan which was taken out six years ago.

How can Welcome Finance justify this ridiculous amount? Surely this cannot be allowed, along with charging interest on top of interest, which I find absolutely disgusting and unfair. I now understand why people are suffering at the hands of companies like Welcome Finance during this difficult time.

I have requested the terms and conditions of the loan on several occasions by telephone and by letter. However, it would appear that Welcome Finance only really want dialogue or responses if you don’t pay your monthly instalment with threats of Court proceeding etc.
In light of the current situation regarding companies like Welcome Finance profiting from people who can ill afford such large amounts of interest, I find it unacceptable that this can be allowed, and is being allowed. It would seem that Welcome Finance survive on people who are vulnerable and uneducated regarding finances, as I was when undertaking this loan. I can safely say that if I had known then, what I know now, this would never have been agreed.

My complaint and subsequent reporting of the unfair terms that this loan agreement is based upon, is for my benefit and for others who have loans with Welcome Finance. However, after repeated requests for copies of the terms that were in place when the loan commenced, it would appear that Welcome Finance do not wish to comment or supply these terms and conditions to the small customers like myself.

As you can understand this issue is very frustrating and extremely upsetting, not only to me, but to others who are suffering financially. I would appreciate any help in regards to this matter and hope that you may look into the terms that Welcome Finance issue to unsuspecting customers, current and future.

Cheers

I used a mortgage broker "Mortgage Saving Extra" recently as i have decided to consolidate much of my debt onto my mortgage. This broker was absolutely excellent - they ran thriugh all the pros and cons and despite us having 10 defaults between my wife and I, MSE sourced me a near prime 2 year deal at a competitive rate (at 90% LTV). Service was great with constant updates on progress and VERY quick response to queries. I'd highly recommend this Firm.

Does anyone heared of "yes loan"? my husband received an application from this company and he applied for the loan as it says after the application was sent he received calls everyday for the brokers fee finally he paid the said fee by direct debit after paying it he never heared of them again to know what happened with the application nor any lender had contacted him its been 3 months and he decided to asked for refund by sending them a letter and email as well but still we received no answer it is already 2 months. we want to report this but dont know where and how. can we still get our money back? it is clearly noted in the application that they will refund if they cannot give us services but they dont seem to bother to answer our claim.

I completed the Cooperative Bank's online application form for a current account. My partner has been one of the Bank's account holders for over 30 years. He also has a current account with Smile, part of the Cooperative Bank, who advised this course of action.

On 13 November 2007 I received a letter from Jon Bowen, who calls himself 'Head of Sales'. The letter began:

'I am delighted to tell you that subject to a few formalities, we have approved your application in principle.'

On 14 November 2007 the same Jon Bowen, who overnight had changed his job title to 'Head of Direct Sales', wrote:

'After careful consideration we are unable to open the account that you requested'.

Mr Bowen is clearly a very confused man.

I phoned the number the bank provided on its two letters to be informed by a very pleasant young woman who said her name was Natalie, that Mr Bowen doesn't have a telephone number and that if I wanted to contact him I would have to write a letter.

I will be writing to ask Mr Bowen for an explanation and will include the cut up Cooperative Bank credit card of my partner who has been one of it's customers for over thirty years.

Hi

I have £4,263 outstanding on my master cards (from 3diffrent banks(
Also have borrowed £5,000 as a loan,

Will I be paying less interest if I borrow some loan to pay off my master cards?

Currently my master card bills are like this
£818 estimated interest next statement £12.39
£1,847 estimated interest next statement £33.84
£1598 estimated interest next statement £30.42

sum £4263 £76.65
How can I compare those interests against my loan application? Loan application could be over X number of month,im a little confused on doing comparison And figuring out the differences.

Thank you

Well what I can I say.

My sister needed a loan for £2000 in order to clear some debt. She owns her house and did not want to secure anything to it. So she gave this company a call. She then paid £49.95 as a broker fee and was given a monthly repay,ment fee of £59.00 per month. When she received the paperwork for a loan it stated she needed a guarantor AND the repayment was £90 instead of £59. She queired this with Tenants and was told she would not have been told a repayment figure, even though she had the conversation recorded to prove otherwise. On telling the lady she was speaking to this, she told my sister she had no agreement from her to recorde the conversation. My sister told her she had no guarantor and was not patying £90 per month for 36 months for a loan of £2000. The customer service woman told her a new search would be done for her.
In the mean time my sister came to her senses and realised she was about to lose £49.95. I wrote her a letter to send to them, giving them 4 days to repay the money minus the £5 they are entitled to keep in accordance with OFT or she would make a formal complaint to OFT. She received a cheque for the correct amount 3 days after it was received by them.
Please please do not be taken in, I have since researched this company on other boards and this is a regular occurance and many people are losing their money. Dont let it be you!

If you are offered finance for products by these people, check your small print and buyer beware. These people will not enter into discussion with you if you have a problem, they just send bills....
We got our debt with them via a card terminal issued by Lloyds TSB.
We had a dispute with Cardnet. Their response was to cancel our service.
That left us with 2 terminals we couldn't use tied into a 4 year contract.
Forrester will not provide info as to any other banks we can use their equipment thus rendering it useless so we are refusing to pay.
Stalemate, they bill us, we ignore it but guess who will still be liable in the end....
Type in Forrester uk in Google - LOADS OF COMPLAINTS of similar Ilk.
Can we as a body tackle these companies? Any ideas?

My Mum had a call from Co-op bank today as they were concerned about an increase in card usage. Turns out someone else had been ordering goods online and had run up a bill of over £4000.
They accepted without question that Mum hadn't used the card and have put through a refund immediately. They've also reduced her credit limit, at her request, so that there's less chance of it happening again.
What a contrast with a certain other bank who took 8 months to refund the money in very similar circumstances.

Ok it is high, but if used carefully the card is as good as any other to help you to restore your credit score.
I have found the staff helpful and efficient and personally have no hesitation in reccomending this card if nothing else is available to you.

Mortgage fees soar 600% in two years

Sean Poulter and Ben Farmer, Daily Mail
17 July 2007

Homebuyers are being lured into taking up what appear to be good value mortgage deals only to be stung with huge fees.
Some leading lenders have increased their arrangement fees by more than 600% in the last two years. Banks and building societies can manipulate where they appear in best-buy tables by appearing to have low interest rates. In reality, they are simply switching their charge to the arrangement fee.
Intelligent Finance, a subsidiary of the biggest mortgage lender, the Halifax, charges as much as £2,999 as an arrangement fee. This is up by 601% on the maximum it charged two years ago.
The cost of arranging a mortgage cannot have risen by £2,500 in that time and may well have fallen because of computerisation - so it seems that a large portion of the fee goes into the bank's coffers.
Yesterday finance experts warned that the practice was conning the consumer, in a month which saw the fifth interest rate rise in less than a year. The Bank of England base rate stands at 5.75%, its highest since March 2001.
Lisa Taylor, of personal finance website moneyfacts.co.uk, said lenders are using smoke and mirrors to win customers. She said: 'Lenders know that people tend to judge mortgages based on the headline interest rate.
'Consequently, they can use this to offer what appears a good home loan only then to introduce the arrangement fee as a sting in the tail.
'The fees have soared in the last few years, but there has been no increase in the amount of work involved to arrange a mortgage. There is no way the fees can be justified in terms of the work involved.'
The maximum fee charged by the Scottish Widows bank, part of Lloyds TSB, has gone up some 678% in two years from £295 to £1,999. There have also been big increases at the likes of Abbey, Nationwide, Northern Rock and the Woolwich, which is part of Barclays.
Some lenders impose higher fees on home loans that are only available via brokers. Abbey mortgages sold direct to the public have a maximum fee of £995, but it can charge as much as £1,499 through a broker.
Others have begun charging an arrangement fee based on a percentage of the size of the loan, with someone borrowing £500,000 paying five times as much as a homebuyer borrowing £100,000.

CHARGES TO WATCH OUT FOR
Rate Max fee 2 years ago Max fee 1 year ago Max fee now Increase in 2 years Scottish Widows Bank 5.89% fixed £295 £395 £1,999 678% Intelligent Finance 5.39% var £499 £699 £2,999 601% Skipton BS 5.79% fixed £399 £499 £1,999 501% Woolwich 5.59% var £445 £595 £1,995 448% Dunfermline BS 5.75% var £499 £699 £1,999 401% Northern Rock 5.59% fixed £695 £695 £1,995 287% Nationwide 5.83% fixed £484 £598 £999 106% Abbey 6.39% fixed £499 £699 £995 99.4% stripe('MortFees2007'); Miss Taylor called that practice 'particularly objectionable' as the work involved is essentially the same.
Several other factors have increased the financial pressure on homebuyers. Around 75% opt for a fixed-rate mortgage, usually lasting two or three years. Up to 2.8m who took out such loans in 2005 and 2006 will see a sudden jump in payments when their fixed-rate period ends.
Being transferred to a variable rate mortgage, as many will be, would add almost £245 to the monthly bill on a loan of £125,000 switched from a fixedrate 4.75% to 8%.
The alternative of a new fixed-rate deal might carry a massive arrangement fee. And a new fixed rate would be at a much higher level than the previous one.
Mortgage brokers warned homeowners not to be blinded by low headline rates but to include fees when calculating the true cost of their loan. Experts have warned that overstretched first-time buyers now face the most unaffordable property prices since before the last market crash 16 years ago, coupled with punishing stamp duty bills and the prospect of more rate rises before the end of the year.

The average price paid by a first-time buyer, typically aged 29, stands at nearly £155,000. A record 60% of them paid stamp duty in May.
First-time buyers now have to save for four years and 11 months to cover the £9,844 needed for a 5% deposit, legal fees and stamp duty. That is 11 months longer than was needed to save the equivalent sum in 2005, according to the Stroud and Swindon building society.
Mortgage approvals have risen after a recent slump, confirming fears that interest rates will rise even further. The Bank of England said 114,000 loans were agreed for home purchase during May, up from 109,000 in April.
However, house price growth slowed during May, Government figures revealed yesterday.
The average cost of a home in the UK rose by 10.9% to £211,056 during the year to the end of May, according to the Department of Communities and Local Government. The rate of increase is down from 11.3% for the 12 months to the end of April.
Howard Archer, of analysts Global Insight, said the data added to the overall evidence that house prices are 'coming off the boil'.

Oh my GOD! I can't belive how bad Yes Loans are, I am in shock.

11am - Applied for a loan online
1130 - Got an email asking me to call them as they wanted more details to process my application
1145 - called Yes Loans and was told Great News! I had been successful in my loan application and was quoted monthly repayments of £209 on a 9K loan. I was delighted, and paid a 59 debit card administration charge for setting the loan up and was informed documents would be on their way.
12noon- Hmm... every get the feeling this is too good to be true? Well I did so I called them back to ask a few questions saying I couldn't wait until docs came through post, just wanted to check APR amount was it fixed? It was then I was told A) I had not been approved for a loan B) they were searching companies and what I had been quoted was a typical amount C) They were looking at WELCOME FINANCE (Like I want a loan with those crooks)
I felt utterly sick and asked to make a complaint, this is where the fun started. I was passed no less than 10 times around the call centre, all the staff refusing to cancel my application or to log my complaint, they all kept saying I was through to the wrong department. As I type this I am again sat in a queue for atleast 30 mins waiting to get through to someone. No one will log my complaint and no one will cancel my application. I ask to speak to a manager and they REFUSE to put me through to someone or even take a message for a manager to call me back!

Having just spoken to someone who was supposed to deal with my complaint I have now been told I cann't cancel my application over the phone, I can't log my complaint over the phone and I have to write in. They are not regulated and can do what they like! I also explained at no point have I agreed to credit searches from other lenders, he said well it's probably too late to stop that now they will have already taken place.

I asked what their complaints processes was, they said they didn't have set timescales and would reply shortly.

I am sooo angry and the lack of control I have of this situation and I soppose more angry at being duped! Any suggestions, can they do what they have done??

Lou

The Consumer Forums

Lots of Credit Searches on Credit File

Funds Supermarkets

EPF Finance Any Reviews On Them????

Hsbc Plus Account Customer

Fresh Finance Online

The Money Secret by Rob Parsons

Welcome Finance

Mortgage Saving Extra

heared of YES LOAN?

Cooperative Bank - We Don't Want Your Business

loan or master card?

Tenant Loans / Tenant Loans Online

Forrester UK Holdings

Co-op credit card

Vanquis Credit Card

Halifax Mortgage - and others no doubt

YES Loans - lies, lies, lies