Complain about a product or service

Beneficial

Monica of Ozark, MO July 22, 2009

I had a loan with Beneficial only about 3000. They opened a new office in our area and "transferred" my account to that office since it was close to where I lived. What they really did was open a new account for the balance and didn't close the first one. They are not still billing be they said it was paid in full but the Credit Bureau still shows a Balance of 504. When the local office was open I call, I went in, took a copy of credit report, they agreed it was paid and would take care of it. Now several years later it's still there. I'm trying to buy a new house and they want my debt to income a little lower and this is one of the inaccurate items affecting getting the new loan.

Sundi of Manassas, VA June 29, 2009

I have had this account for a long time. Payments have been late lately due to financial difficulties, but the record will show that I have never missed a payment. I am elderly, and your collections people are sometimes impossible to understand. Do you not hire anyone other than Indians? Recently, perhaps due to the language problem, your agents had an unauthorized payment deducted from my bank account causing me to be overdrawn and NSF for two other checks. Now they tell me anoher payment is scheduled for 6/30 that is also unauthorized, is more than is due at that time and will cause another overdrdraft.

Futhermore, your people dun us incessantly, day, night, Sundays, whatever. I know my credit is not that bad to justify such behavior and mever had such treatment under the old HFC. Consequently, I will seek other funds to pay off Beneficial as soon as practable. I further refuse to talk to all unreasonable calls from Indians and will hang up on them.

G of Cary, NC June 24, 2009

After 25 years of having loans with Benificial, HFC, General Finance, completed a consolidation loan with Benificial again. My balance was quite low. I did not read the loan info. She changed it to a revolving account from a closed end account.

Alfreda of Irmo, SC June 23, 2009

On Friday June 12, 2009 at approximately 5:45 pm, I called Beneficial inquuiring about a 50 charge to my paid out account. Initially I spke with Vince. I explained to him that my account balance reflected on the computer was 0.00; the autoated system gave a baoance of 0.00; and the letter gave a balance of 0.00 but had a sentence stating a 50.00 charge is on my account and needed to be paid before I received my final "paid in full" letter. It goes on to say the charges could be due to interest or late fees. I asked him wh was this not shown on my account as part of my balance owed. He stated because they did not want to charge interest on the fifty dollars. I stated this makes no sense. There was no problem in charging me a fee for paying on line or paying more than required payment.

When asked if they treat all their custoers like this - hitting them with a charge after balance has been paid. He funbled around and after my persistence of asking him yes or no, he stated he could not answer yes or no because that was not a yes or no quesrion. He finally stated no but there are different accounts. I then asked to speak with a supervisor, he asked why I wanted to speak with a supervisor. I explained that I did not get a satisfactory answer from him and as a citizen of the USA, I have that right to ask to speak to a supervisor. At that point, he ask me to hold for a supervisor. After holding approximately 10 minutes, Ruma came on the line. I asked her the same questions I asked Vince. The only difference in her answers were I had a returned check in 2006. I told her I have made every check good and paid fees. I explained each month I paid what was required and some months more. I stated it was hard for me to believe a returned check fee has not been mentioned until I paid out the loan account. I asked her to speak to her supervisor and she too asked me why did I need to speak with a supervisor.

Again, I explained I was not satisfied with what she was telling me. She kept persisting what she was giving me the correct information. Finally, she asked if I was looking for a favor. At that point, I was insulted therefore I told her I will write the preisdent or whomever and that I was not looking for a favor but further clarity. I told her to have a great day and I hung up the phone. I was appalled to have two individuals with a foreign accident to question me numerous times regarding why I needed to speak with their supervisor. I regretted having to use my USA citizenship to reference my freedom of speech and freedom period before I was transferred on one instance and refusal in the second incident. If all [their] staff is like the two I spoke with, I know [their] customer service rating is not getting a high one. I appreciate [their] assisting with my financial needs, but annot and will not tolerate the poor customer service I received from two of [their] employees. I welcome any feedback and will register this complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. My intelligence was insulted and freedom of speech ignored.

TR of Levittown, NY June 17, 2009

Oh Lynne of Davenport, how lucky you are! 1/2009 We, like you, took out personal loans to pay our property taxes, year after year. Yes, 25% is high, but we accepted. During that time, we became friendly with the representatives at that branch. When we would come in to make payments, they asked if we would sit with them to look over, "how they could help us SAVE money" so we wouldn't have to come in for "tax loans" every year.

Unfortunately, we took the bait. The plan made sense on paper. We were never given a truth in lending statement for the 2nd mortgage they were giving us. They had told us that they would be paying off all our credit cards quickly, so don't bother making payments this month.

On the day of the closing, we were stuck between a rock and a hard place. We were told that one of the credit cards could not be paid off because we had to pay 6000 in points. We discussed at the closing table NOT going through with the loan, but, we knew that we would be unable to come up with all the minimum credit cards payments that quickly, and feared the interest rates rising to an uncontrollable percentage due to universal default. We had no time to think this loan through.

Although they had told us that every 6 months we would be able to lower the interest rate if we made timely payments, nothing was in writing. We had an 11% rate which never declined. After six months when we called, they didn't want to speak with us - they used to be so cordial!

We were given papers at the closing for an "adjustable rate", which we not only refused to sign, but we wrote VOID across the pages several times. They also tried to slip in "pre-payment penalty" forms, and "car insurance & employment insurance" forms. All which we destroyed with VOID. They agent even stated, "Boy you guys are tough!"

A strange thing happened days after we closed. We received in the mail, a letter stating we had been declined. We were told that our home did not adequately appraise for the requested amount.

Several days later, we received calls from the branch. Our "friend" Kevin, was on the line stating that there "was a small problem" because we had written on the loan documents at the closing, stating we did not receive the "truth in lending" statement. We were told that the company directors wanted to tape us stating that this loan was good for us. We were told that if we did not do this, they would not do business with us in the way of refinancing our interest rate down as discussed after 6 months of timely payments were made. He begged us to please help him with these statements as it was a big problem due to the truth in lending statement not being properly issued. He was afraid he would lose his job.

We were taped stating that we did not receive the truth in lending statement, and that it has harmed us by not totally paying off our credit card debt. We were asked if this loan was good for us for our monthly budget, which we did agree it was.

However, we did not expect to be paying an 11% interest rate on 190,000 for this long of time. This has greatly hurt us financially. We are trying to get another bank to refinance, but no one will now touch it because we owe much more than our home is worth.

Kathleen of Lompoc, CA June 16, 2009

We went to Beneficial during a time of financial hardship. We knew we would pay more for this financial bailout but could not get our mortgage company at the time to deal with a refinance. This was around 1999 or beginning 2001 timeframe. They bought our mortgage and the 2nd as well. Over the next couple years, they called us every few months, telling us they could refinance at a lower rate.

The mortgage kept going up and up. If we'd refuse to refinance, they'd continue to call until one of us would agree. They always made it easy to "pull money out" so the base mortgage would be higher. They always told us the house would have to come in at appraisal at a certain amount and were always "sure" it would.

Of course, all this refinancing built to the point where one disaster would topple the house of cards we had built. We are struggling to pay a mortgage that's totally upside down. We take responsibility for being such idiots in the first place but feel Beneficials' "predator lending" tactics surely didn't help.

Mary of Baker, LA June 15, 2009

I did a refinance of my home approximately two years ago. My payments have esclated to 2,000 a month. I have tried to refinance by changing from 15 year mortage to a 30 year. The office in Louisiana has closed; therefore, I have to speak with individuals on the telephone who has told me that Beneficial at present is not doing any type of refinancing or changes. I have never been late on on payments, but am constantly getting calls and statments showing payments due in amounts as 4,000 or more.

The people that you speak with are bascially telephone operators who have no knowledge or direction to tell clients what to do or direct them to individuals who can assit. I have called to get this cleared but to no avail. I recently found out that my payments were increased from 1,796 to 2,000. I have been sending 1,800 and the payments were not posted but are being held. My credit score at this time are low and I cannot find anyone to refinance, and I am struggling to pay this mortage to insure that my family maintains a home.

B of kirksville, MO June 10, 2009

I started out with an original loan of 6,000. I now owe about 8,000 due to high interest and late fees. I talked to 3 different people about catching up on the payments. They all told me if I paid a certain amount I would then be put on a hardship program. I paid what I was told but never received papers,as told I would, being put on the hardship program. I did this 3 times and no one ever followed through. I was willing to pay what I borrowed but not at 29%. I was sending them over 200 per month and 10.00 was going towards the loan. Yes, this company is a ripoff and something needs to be done! I am getting calls daily at work and this is not helping my nor their cause!

FRANK of SOUTH SAN GABRIEL, CA June 10, 2009

The first loan I acquired from Beneficial Lending was a personal loan, under 10,000. I got this loan in Dec. 2005 and seven months later, I applied for larger sum and paid the first loan. The loan closed Sept 2006 and I received my proceeds after all the charges and other creditors Beneficial paid off for me, thru Debt Consolidation. I was paying my monthly payment for more than 12 months, when I realized that on the same month, Sept 2006, Beneficial re-financed the second loan within 10 days. The total monies received and other pay-offs amounted to under 70,000. However, thru the third financing I did not authorized nor applied for, Beneficial recorded an indebtedness of more than 83,300.00 It's now 33 months and my balance is at 83,376.18 with the monthly payment of 831.59. Now the really interesting part, being this is supposed to be a mortgage loan 360 months term, amount being applied toward principal is under 25.00 per monthly payment. I had this matter investigated, and luckily I was able to retrieve documents from Beneficial/HFC a member of HSBC. Upon careful review of such documentations, I now have enough proof that my trust with the loan officers employed by this company, did not lose a wink of sleep betraying me, taking my money before I was handed my loan proceeds, and not quite satisfy yet, for now my hands are tied, every single month I make my payment, not even 100 goes to the principal. I will be on my next life, before monthly payment will even show significant change in my Principal Balance. Beneficial...This is for you to understand, your perseverance which I trusted left me victimized. Elderly person, like myself, may have a tedious life, but I worked very hard for my money in God's honest way--C L E A N! Beneficial, nearly lead me to a Financial ruin, but I am one of the Blessed one. Employed with [their] company have left my Faith in Humanity beaten to the ground. Watch! and I shall prevail.

Linda of Culpeper , VA June 9, 2009

Once again Beneficial Financeis trying to stop people from getting a good loan with a good company. It has been 3 months and I cannot get my payment history from them. It seems like everytime I get to this point they do something to keep me with there company. I am to the point I feel I should get an attourny that they have to pay for and they should not get any more payments. I have tried to get them to lower my payment and interest rate serveral time. How do they think if you pay a higher payment you cannon afford to pay a lesser amount they decline it every time.

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