Our advisory Service has a client who has financial problems due to Christmas excesses. There is nothing new in that, if the truth be told, the majority of us are all slightly short at this time of year. . Christmas makes us all do silly financial things if we are honest.
Enter stage left, the Finance Houses and Banks , offering us deals left right and centre to help us smooth our way out of debt into even more debt (if the truth and the small print be known).
Our client had been having problems making mortgage payments and had been trying to get some sense out of the client’s services dept of his Mortgage Company when he reviewed his own monthly bank statement. His Monthly instalment on his Mortgage had defaulted and he had spoken to his Mortgage Company and explained that he would be forwarding this months instalment by way of cheque once the transfer of some other funds had been completed.
This was accepted and everything seemed fine until a few days later he received several letters reminding that the Finance House would be attempting to collect his mortgage payment ten days later. Could he also make sure that there were sufficient funds in his account to facilitate this (despite having been told several days previous to this of his proposed methods for clearing his arrears and having accepted these proposals) as if there weren’t The Mortgage Company would make him pay an additional late payment fee and also charges from his own bank as well.
So it appeared that when the dust had settled when this attempt at collection had failed my client was now left with double the set of his own bank charges being debited to his account but also a double set of charges being levied by his Mortgage Company. It is the sign of a slightly twisted society and business that makes the majority of its profits from those who are least able to afford them. Our client was starting from apposition of very little in the way of funds at the outset and through no fault of his own he has even less available to his disposal now!
The moral of the story? It is imperative that you examine any agreement prior to signature (usually hidden deep in pages eleven or thirteen of most documents in the smallest font size that the printers can get away with) and if you feel that you will have problems meeting any of your payments you are obligated to meet, get in touch with your creditors as soon as possible and make sure that you have “crystal clear” agreements (preferably confirmed in writing) as to how you propose to deal with any rescheduling of any of your debts.
Attempts to avoid this situation will only benefit you in the long term and help avoid the occurrences of ridiculous bank charges later on.
Further resources worth checking
