Swift Finance Charges

[Borncrazy]

Got a secured loan with them in March 2006, no problem with repayments. But in 2009 had a huge change in personal life, I wont bore you with details, but had to become full time carer for my disabled son, this involved having to quit work.

Arrears started to build with Swift, did the "Bury head in sand and hope it went away", as we all know it doesn't. During this time I had suffered serious health issues..

Anyway, had to address the problem with arrears, and have kept up a repayment right to this day, never missed a single payment since 2012.

The loan term was 10 years, had letter off them, they want to know my proposals for settling outstanding sum, as loan term will be reached in March 2016. I only borrowed 12000, now they require 18,000 including 2000 of arrears.

So the fees must be in excess of 16000, I nearly passed out on the spot. Any advice will be gratefully received, as I'm sure you hear so much on here, i am at my wits end, and so very fearful of whats next, and where to turn too.

[dogtired]

Re: Swift Finance Charges

Hopefully one of the many members that know will be along soon

[Kafka]

Re: Swift Finance Charges



What is the precise wording on the statements for the charges and how much are they?

Do you have statements and details for all of the charges that make up this amount?

When we know exactly what the issues are we can advise on reclaiming.

[meellis]

Re: Swift Finance Charges

I would get as much info from them as possible there will be details on here on how to make a SAR request. Swift 1st have already been reprimanded for overcharging but you really could do with seeing how it as been made up before commencing anything else.

[Borncrazy]

Re: Swift Finance Charges

Hi
Thank you all for the prompt replies, I will endeavor to get a break down on charges and post them on here for any further advice. I'm a confused (happens at lot), it has been mentioned on "Reclaiming charges", how can I reclaim charges I haven't paid yet?

Maybe I wasn't clear in my original post, wasn't thinking clearly. I assumed if I had managed to clear the £2000 arrears by March 2106 (the end of term), that would be the end of it, but they want ANOTHER 16000, for charges, fees, etc etc. They gave me options of possibly extending term, re-mortgaging or selling up.

[meellis]

Re: Swift Finance Charges

Your 1st post was clear enough and you are not alone on this issue we all , including yourself, need to know how these have come about so they can be challenged if possible. They might be all legitimate if they follow the agreement terms and the tariff of charges but I doubt it. If you agree to do anything with them without investigation you could unwittingly be agreeing they are correct

[Kafka]

Re: Swift Finance Charges

When you took out the loan you agreed to a number of payments over the ten years to repay it. You obviously repaid some of it, but much remains to honour the debt in full.

When you get in difficulty paying, lenders often add on charges for late payment, non-DD payments, telephone calls, letters and so on. Some of these are bogus charges that you can reclaim from them that will reduce the amount they are claiming, but even if the account was paid off, you can still reclaim them for a certain period. Whether they are reclaimable depends on the precise wording of them and what the original contract said about costs and charges.

When I had an account with Welcome Finance, they also added on blocks of money as "charges" on the statements at several hundred pounds per time, which had nothing to do with the contract or any breach, it was just a scam to increase the debt so it was never paid off. From what you have said, you have repaid some of a 10k debt but they are still demanding 16k. This sounds as if they have added on a huge amount of charges and we need to know what they are.

The key questions are:
1) What was the total amount repayable by you under the terms?
2) How much have you already paid off?
3) How much is the difference, and how does it break down into categories?
4) which of the items that make up 3) are legitimate and which ones can be challenged, to bring the outstanding amount down?

You need to get all the data they hold on the account to work this out, which mean sending them a Subject Access Request with the £10 fee. It will also help if you provide a timeline of events and correspondence in date order as a simple list, so we can see what has happened over the years and where it has got to.

You must address this urgently as it is a secured alone, so they have leverage over your house and you need to get this sorted before next March. Do you still have a mortgage to pay on the house?

[Borncrazy]

Re: Swift Finance Charges

When you took out the loan you agreed to a number of payments over the ten years to repay it. You obviously repaid some of it, but much remains to honour the debt in full.

When you get in difficulty paying, lenders often add on charges for late payment, non-DD payments, telephone calls, letters and so on. Some of these are bogus charges that you can reclaim from them that will reduce the amount they are claiming, but even if the account was paid off, you can still reclaim them for a certain period. Whether they are reclaimable depends on the precise wording of them and what the original contract said about costs and charges.

When I had an account with Welcome Finance, they also added on blocks of money as "charges" on the statements at several hundred pounds per time, which had nothing to do with the contract or any breach, it was just a scam to increase the debt so it was never paid off. From what you have said, you have repaid some of a 10k debt but they are still demanding 16k. This sounds as if they have added on a huge amount of charges and we need to know what they are.

The key questions are:
1) What was the total amount repayable by you under the terms?
2) How much have you already paid off?
3) How much is the difference, and how does it break down into categories?
4) which of the items that make up 3) are legitimate and which ones can be challenged, to bring the outstanding amount down?

You need to get all the data they hold on the account to work this out, which mean sending them a Subject Access Request with the £10 fee. It will also help if you provide a timeline of events and correspondence in date order as a simple list, so we can see what has happened over the years and where it has got to.

You must address this urgently as it is a secured alone, so they have leverage over your house and you need to get this sorted before next March. Do you still have a mortgage to pay on the house?

Hi
Thank you, the amount of arrears is approx £2000, would it help if i managed to scrape the arrears amount and clear it before March?

The initial amount borrowed was 12000, with repayments of £174 per month for 120 months.
And as you advised I will send a SAR request as a matter of urgency, then when received I will post here to hopefully get advice