Hard Lesson Learned

I learned a hard lesson this month.
I hope this information will help you avoid having to learn the lesson the same hard way I did.
Last year I borrowed $5800 from GE Moneybank to finance two heat pumps at an apartment building I own. It was supposed to be a '12 months same as cash' type deal so I wasn't worried about the 23% interest rate.
When I showed up at the building to sign the contract, the workers had arrived early, and one old furnace was already removed. They were in the process of pulling the second one out. The contractor gave me the contract and it read '90 days same as cash.' I was informed that GE would not do a '12 month same as cash contract' because of some supposed 'problem' with my credit. Credit that was as close to perfect as you can get. They wouldn't disclose what the 'problem' was - against their company policy.
Why didn't they call me first? They 'didn't have my phone number'. Total BS. It was written on the contract itself next to my name and address.
(Do you smell a rat? Companies that finance thru credit companies such as GE Moneybank actually get a kickback – called a ‘finder’s fee’ for running the financing through them. You end up paying them the kickback out of your interest payments.)
Since they had already removed one furnace, I couldn't simply say 'forget it.' I wanted to but they would have left me with two units without any heat or a/c, and would try to bill me for the work already done - at an inflated rate, no doubt.
Ok, I signed it, figuring I could come up with the money in the 90 days.
Sigh, life happens. At about day 60 we had a crisis that caused us to not have the money available.
GE Moneybank back-charged us the interest for the 90 days, added some extra fees I have yet to have explained to me, and generally ripped me off.
After making payments for 10 months, I decided 'enough was enough.' On a $130 payment, $123 was going to interest, and the remaining $7 was going to the principle.
Yep, only $7 of what I owed was actually being paid off.
Here's where it gets worse: On three different occasions, our payments were sent well in advance, yet they charged us a 'late fee' of $35. Hmmm. I didn't know it took the post office 10 days to deliver a letter. Strangely, on two of the three 'late' payments, they were processed one day after the due date! Why do I think these things sat on someone's desk for a couple of days?
I sent one payment with a delivery signature required, and strangely that payment was processed only three days after I mailed it. Guess they knew the jig was up.
Oh, they lost a payment one time, too. Cashed the check, just didn't credit it to our account. Finally got that one straightened out, but of course they never credited me back the late fees they charged, nor apologized, nor even admitted they made a mistake. They also never apologized for the constant harassing phone calls because 'we haven't received your payment yet.'
Every time I asked to speak with a supervisor, I got someone else, and had to start explaining from scratch because the notes didn't show anything. I finally told them to quit calling, but that just made them call more often.
Finally, I had enough. I asked for a payoff amount, and was horrified to learn that after ten payments, endless hassles, and much frustration, I still owed $6,200 on a $5800 loan!
Fine. I paid the bastards off using the proceeds from a 8% loan - remember they were charging me 23% plus all kinds of added on fees - and a week after they were paid in full (plus an extra penny just because I wanted to see if they would actually refund me the extra one cent – they didn’t,) I got yet another phone call wanting to know when we would be making our next payment.
I think I broke the poor idiot's eardrum.
Now here's the sad part - A few days later I received an offer from these same idiots to take out another loan, at only 23% interest...
The men in the funny white coats now give me 'happy candy' four times a day now...

Lesson learned: GE Moneybank BAD – Local bank GOOD!

Never, ever use a non-bank lender, and watch out for red flags in the contract.

(PS to GE Moneybank - if you want to sue me because I dared write about you and what you did to me, you should know that you also screwed my lawyer a few years ago and he's itching for some payback. I also have documented everything, including dates, times, people's names I talked to, etc.
Talk about the emotional distress and mental anguish you caused my wife and I! Don't start anything you aren't willing to finish!)




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