Our problems started with an innocent check in the mail and now have led us to a house payment that gets us no where. We found out about Household Finance Corp (HFC) with one of those checks that you get in the mail and then you cash it and it is basically a very high interest loan. When we received this check, we were fairly in debt and were trying to get out. So everything worked out ok, we knew it was high interest from the beginning and the only problem we had at the time of signing up for this loan was the high pressure sales tactics to get us to purchase their credit insurance, which we refused and even had to have then make a new loan agreement because they tried to sneak the insurance in there anyway.
About a year after that, we were having financial troubles again due to my husband getting fired from his job, and although he was employed with a new company, the time we went without a check really hurt us, plus we were paying for COBRA insurance until the new company's kicked in. So we received in the mail once again a letter from HFC saying that we could refinance, etc. And use our equity to pay off other debts or cash out whatever.
Being right before Christmas and with 3 children, it seemed like a miracle.
So we had our house appraised and found out we were going to have over $20000 in equity, but instead of being smart and either selling the house for a better one or going to a real bank, we figured what the heck we need to pay our bills off. We got the loan for a very high interest rate, somewhere around 16% or more, they claimed the interest was so high because we were paying off credit cards with the extra money. (LIARS) Then they told us another big lie, that in 6 months we could refinance no problem for a lesser interest rate. So, we are paying over $600 a month on a $44,000 house. We figured it's just 6 months and then our payment will go down.
Well, about 6 months into the loan, we had problems making a payment (when we got the loan, the swindling sales lady who has since been fired told us that if we ever ran into problems like that to just call and they would work something out such as a defer a payment.). So I called and she was of course too busy to take my call so I spoke with some other liar who told me to just send as much as we could and then collections would get in touch with us about deferring a payment.
So we sent in half a payment and 2 weeks later collections called wanting to know where the rest of the payment was. I told them what the liar lady had told me and they said that was wrong, but they would go ahead and defer a payment for us as long as they could have our payments taken out of our savings account. That seemed reasonable.
So a few months ago (we have now had this 15 year loan for 2 years) I glanced at my bill to see the balance as we were preparing to look into some refinancing so we can begin the remodelling on our fixer upper home. Only to find that we have only paid $400 on the principle... Because when they told me I was deferring a payment, they actually RESTRUCTURED our entire loan. I found this out from a manager (yes it took about 5 phone calls 5 days straight to get him, but I am persistant) who had just started working there a month before. He informed me that when we "deferred" a payment that meant that for the entire time a full payment was not made, we were paying interest for EACH DAY from the last full payment, we would have been better off making the payment a couple weeks late. I told him that I thought that what they were doing was illegal and that if it wasn't illegal it should be but that I knew it was unethical.
So after it was explained to me how bad I had been cheated (and still am being... A year after the "deferred payment" and I am still not paying on my principal. I went to look for a refinance at other banks, who would not accept me because of a) not enough equity or b) income to debt ratio is too high (guess who the highest payment is to). So I called HFC and told them they were screwing me and they were now going to help me. I even offered to extend my loan term to 30 years, he told me the that they would only be able to save us $50 a month. I told him that as soon as I could get out of this loan I was declaring war.
PLEASE NO ONE DO BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE!!!
Kati
Dallas, Iowa
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