Soon after moving into our home in our water well went out. We needed about $5000 to have it repaired and running again. We went to Household Finance Corp (HFC), here in Harrisburg for a loan. First off, the lowest amount they would lend us was $10,000.00 that we really didn't need or could barely afford. We really had no choice but to borrow the $10,000, because we had to have the well repaired or go without water. We faithfully paid on that loan every month with an average amount of between $135-$150. We were never late with one payment. We could see that the interest on this loan was ridiculous. They were only putting on average $15-$18 on the principle every month and the rest was going to interest. They were killing us with interest every month, but there was nothing we could do because we signed for the loan. They scammed us by requiring that we borrow twice as much as we needed to begin with and then ripped us off every month by taking almost the whole payment for interest. After paying them for a little over 4 years, my husband retired and collected his severence pay from his job. At last we could pay them off. The balance on our last statement for November was $9,195.71. This was after 4 years of paying them over $130 a month. So, we calculated that exactly $805 went on the principle in 4 years. We paid roughly close to $7000 in interest for those 4 years. However, again, we signed for the loan and agreed to everything when we signed on the dotted line. Really, how many people sit and calculate how much goes on the principle and interest charges when they desperately need a loan for something major? These loan companies, banks, etc., take advantage of people because they know they have you over a barrel. You either agree to their terms of the loan or you don't get the loan. What do you do when you need the loan? You sign! To get back to my story, we called HFC on November 16 and told them we wanted to pay the loan off and asked for a pay off amount. We were informed that we had to write a letter to the payoff department requesting a payoff amount and wait for them to send it back to us before we could send the check in. After waiting 2 weeks, we still didn't hear anything and the monthly payment was due. So, we called again and were put off for another couple of days. Finally, they gave us a payoff amount of $9,441.92! Can you believe this? It was $246.22 over the amount of our last statement. If we could have just got a payoff amount when we called in November, which probably would have been closer to the $9,195.71, everything would have been fine. But, they made us go through this whole letter writing scenerio, etc., which took almost 3 weeks and now they were trying to add more interest to our final payoff in the amount of the $246.22. That is almost 2 months worth of monthly payments. I just cannot believe that they make us wait to pay them off and then have the audacity to make us pay them interest for waiting. I also cannot believe that our government lets these companies get away with ripping the citizens of this country off, namely, the middle and lower class. The upper class do not need loans!!! What is this county coming too? I am so angry right now and with good reason. My husband and I worked damned hard all of our lives to have a nice home and the minute something goes wrong and we don't have the money to take care of it, this government lets these companies do this to innocent people when they need to borrow money. It is a shame and this government and these companies should be ashamed of what they do. It is also a shame that people have no recourse.
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