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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 12/17/2008
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Everest must have several schemes, we got no interest free period despite being told we would have the first year interest free. Barclays PLC (as oppose to Barclays Partner Finance) are now on the case, hopefully they won't take too kindly to having their name associated with the deception (at best) that we, and others, have endured.
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Have you confirmed this with Barclays? Its just that when we did we were advised that interest is paid from Day 1? And not only that but there was a sliding early repayment fee. The only way to avoid it was to leave a small amount to be paid off on month 12.
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Yes - I agreed to open an account in September 2008 when Everest quoted for the work and got the 10% discount. I then settled the entire balance in February 2009 in the short window between the work being completed and the first month's interest being charged to the loan. Interest is calculated from the day you sign-off the work (see my earlier comment about that) but it is not payable until it is actually added to your account so you have the opportunity to pay the loan off before this date (bit like a credit card). Ultimately if you have the cash it is probably better to see if you can just get the 10% off by negotiating hard with Everest, this arrangement suited us because we needed the extra time to save up. I noticed that there were punitive early repayment charges in the Barclay's lona agreement but the Everest salesman confirmed that I was free to pay back as much as I liked as early as I liked without penalty (I had this in writing and the promotional literature from Everest is also very clear on this point)... http://www.everest.co.uk/finance/easy-funding/ I don't know the reason for the contradiction and I had no problem with Barclays but should they attempt to charge an early repayment fee you would have a very strong case given how clear Everest are about the account's flexibility. I thought this might be helpful if people have opened a home account and since regretted it.
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Rank: Newbie
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The salesman told us about the 12 months interest free period in response to us asking why we would want to sign up to a loan that would charge us more in interest than the 10% on offer.
Ours was a small flat roof job (in and out in a day or two) and we had a chequebook on the table ready to pay. The salesman told us what he did to get the extra commission for selling the finance. Barclays are more than aware and have refunded some of the money, as has Everest.
Everest break the consumer credit act on most or all of their advertising by not showing the APR. This allows the salesman to create different stories for different clients. We feel a bit daft for falling for this - our guard wasn't up due to the reputation of Everest - my parents even had them in 30 years ago! They have shattered that reputation for us.
The 10% cashback is offered by Everest as a 'bonus' but it cost us real money, money that is now in the pockets of Everest and Barclays. They didn't get us on any 'early repayment' but they got us on the interest.
The best Barclays have come up with as an excuse is that we were given a spreadsheet of repayments that demonstrated that we knew what to expect.
Unfortunately for Barclays, the salesman gave us this spreadsheet 6 months after the sale - he knew that if he showed it to us at the time of sale, he wouldn't have got his commission.
Barclays could only have known about the spreadsheet from Everest and have relied on them entirely for their defence.
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Rank: Newbie
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We're due to get installed in a couple of days time, and I finally got to speak to the Everest Area Finance Manager today.
He said that we could pay off the loan amount in the 30 days before the first payment. All that we would be forfeiting is the 10% cashback after 6 months. He did say that operating the account for less that 12 months would likely trigger a request for the 10% cashback to be returned, but I can't see any fine print where they have that right. He also said that running the account for 12 months, with the our balance sitting in an interest-bearing account would probably make up the difference between the interest charged over 12 months, if you add the cashback to it.
Not sure we're going to risk running it for 12 months just to see what they do about the cashback cheque, so we'll probably just clear the loan amount before the first payment.
pdowling - did you pay off the loan amount in one go, and if so, did you have to pay the 1month + 30 days interest on the loan amount? I presume Everest didn't come calling for you to pay back any other discounts you got for taking out the loan in the first place?
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Rank: Newbie
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I paid the full amount just a couple of days before the first month's interest was added to the account and avoided any interest that way. Everest didn't try to renegotiate the 10% discount - there was no reason why they would as the payment was not outside the terms of the account.
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Thanks for the quick response and help. That's what we'll do then.[Y]
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Joined: 9/11/2009
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Hi,
The same thing happened to us with the Everest Home Account. The Salesman told us it was interest free for 2 yrs and now we found out that we've been bearing interest from day 1 at 25%. Has anyone taken this case further i.e. involved solicitors? What was the outcome? Your help would be appreciated.
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thank, this is a very helpful thread!
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 9/30/2009
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Everest Home Account:
A slightly different question about the same account from Everest. We signed two finance agreements from Everest/Barclays on the same day, one for a kitchen and one for a conservatory. Unfortunately we didn;t get planning permission for the conservatory (to close to a listed building) so the work never took place.
Am i able to get out of the finance agreement for the conservatory completely free? Just to confirm, we did sign the agreements, the 14 day cooling off period has expired but the work never took place and nothing was ever delivered to us.
Everest have simply said that we can't have our deposits back and that we need to try and cancel the finance agreements ourselves!
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Rank: Newbie
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Not sure what there is to finance if the work hasn't been started? But I would point you to the Everest website (see link in my earlier post). This is a direct quote from the website: "We can quote for Everest Home Account payments over 10 years, so each payment can be very low. And along the way you can: - pay off lump sums or pay more than the minimum each month to shorten the term of the loan, reduce the overall interest you pay or both
- pay off any or all the loan at any time "
Don't take up the issue with Everest - I just contacted Barclays and asked to pay the entire balance off in one lump sum before any interest was added to the account and they facilitated this with no early repayment charge. If you do encounter a problem I would think that Everest's own description of the account would give you a strong case (there is no mention of any early repayment charges on their web page).
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I'm reading all this with great interest as I'm in the pre-delivery stage of a Home Account, having been sold it on the basis that it was "interest neutral" if I paid it off early. However I am very alarmed by the £900 per £1000 stated as being payable if I settle the account early, which of course I fully intend to do once the cashback arrives - or perhaps even sooner.
At the moment I'm seriously considering cancelling the whole thing.
In the current banking environment, are Barclays Partner Finance more likely to insist on enforcing these charges?
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Joined: 1/27/2010
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The home loan is definately not interest neutral as the salesman suggested it could be. His idea was that if you put the money into a high interest account (no specific account identified that paid interest more than the interest charged on the loan of course, as one doesn't exist!) then when you paid it off, taking into account the cashback cheque Everest sends you, it would be more or less interest free overall. Of course this was totally misleading.
This was a much more expensive way to pay for home improvements and I paid several 100s of £s more in interest taking on the loan. However I did recieve the promised cashback cheque from Everest and I didn't get stung by the scary figures quoted (so much for every £1000 owed etc) when settling up after having recieved the cheque. The only final charge was yet another 2 months interest - so I paid 3x interest in my last month!
Why did I take out the loan as I had the money all along? Because during the visit the salesman said he would only sell me the windows at a semi reasonable price if I took out a loan there and then. all other quotes given were ridiculously high. the products bought were of good quality and I am pleased with them. The loan was bad value and the sales techniques of Everest (and most other similar companies) are not good for the consumer. Thank goodness few other products are sold this way.
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Rank: Newbie
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Just a thought,
At what stage do Everest take your 10% deposit?
Thanks
Prop
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