For anyone who is considering a loan with Beneficial, think again before you sign the papers!
There had come a point where my husband and I needed to buy a used vehicle. So, my mother and I went went out looking and found the perfect family van, albeit used. Because my husband didn't have any credit, and my credit was ruined by my ex, my mother co-signed a loan for us with Beneficial.
Now this first loan wasn't too bad. We had payed it on time and thought that we had established credit with Beneficial. To our dismay, this was not the case.
When it came time a few years later to get another vehicle, we had approached them for another loan, to the tune of roughly $3700.00. We were advised that we would need to have my mother co-sign yet again for us, which she gladly did.
Now, keep in mind that my mother is up to her eyeballs in debt with Beneficial with two mortgages that far exceed the loan value on her home. The remainder of the first loan was placed on the new one, which amounted to roughly $1000.00. Not so bad, we thought.
It wasn't long after we got this new loan, that we ran into some financial troubles. We asked them if we could split up our one monthly payment into two monthly payments, making half a payment every other week. We were abruptly told "No". I gave them the account of what had been going on and that it would be better for us to be able to pay this way so that we could budget our finances. Again, we were to no, and that they couldn't do that.
Well, we ended up getting behind, since we felt that my health, which was becoming a problem was more important. We made a payment when we could and tried to be courteous.
Keep in mind that it is my husband and my mother that are listed on this loan, not me. After a few months of harrassing phonecalls, of about 7 per day, I spoke with a woman who had offered to re-age the loan. After explaining to her what we had been going through, she said that it would the best bet and proceeded with the re-aging process, which we were sent copies of the new contract which contains no signatures what-so-ever.
We were able to make a couple of payments, and then things went downhill again. At one point, I had spoken to a person in collections who had called several times, and had set up a one time payment to be deducted from our checking account. It went through without a hitch.
The following month, my husband spoke to yet another person who had asked if he could set up another draft from our account. My husband told him that I was out and that I had the checkbook with me. The man read off some numbers and my husband told him that he couldn't confirm the account number, since he hadn't memorized it. The next thing I know, there was a draft from Beneficial for the amount of the monthly payment, which I found out about when a few checks started bouncing.
The next month the same thing, with the exception, that there wasn't any money in the account for them to get. This went on for 4 more months. We then found out that the man my husband had talked to had set the payments up. When I confronted Beneficial with it, they told me that they don't do one time payments, they only set up drafts for six month incerements. Now, I was furious. We were in even more financial ruin than what we were before. I closed the account, with a large negative amount, due to them pinging the account for payments.
I called Beneficial and told them of the problem. The man that i spoke to told me that he would look into it and get back to me. A week passed and nothing. I called again and went through the same dicussion as I had before, with the same response. And with the same outcome.
When the next person called, a woman, to set up a payment, I told them that they weren't going to get another payment until they took care of the checking account problem that they caused. She became rude and hung up.
Months passed with us trying to pull ourselves out of the debt that Beneficial had caused. My mother had arranged for a conference call with another woman, who told her "Us mother-in-laws need to stick together", proceeded to inform us that if the loan was not paid, they would attach it to my mother's mortgage and foreclose. Now, this loan was a personal loan, no collateral. They browbeated her into believing that they could just walk right up and snatch her house from under her.
They set up payment arrangements with us and deducted a large amount off of the loan. The total amount to be repaid was almost double what we had applied for!
Ironically, the payments were set up twice monthly! (I thought they couldn't do that!) Here is the big problem, besides the outlandish amount of interest—the new contract cancels out the original one. The new contract has no signatures on it, by anyone. Doesn't this make it a fraudulent loan?
If anyone has any good advice, please let me know. What I have written here is just the tip of the iceburg with these people, and quite frankly, my heart and my ulcers can't take much more of this.
Feel free to contact me by using the rebuttal box below if anyone can help. We are at a point where we can't afford an attorney.
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