Household Finance

I have been dealing with Household Finance Corporation for more than 10 years. I first encountered HFC when I was taking care of my grandfather finances and found that the company was taking advantage of my elderly grandfather by supposedly lowering his payment from $360 to $160 per month because of his limited income. While looking over his statements I noticed that although they told him that his payments for $160, they were still assessing a late fees and acculated interest as the original payment had not changed. After speaking with a representative and investigating the payments further, HFC agreed to remove the additional charges.

I acquired the loan after my grandfather died and I inherited the house (and the payment). I refinanced the house into my name, which was the worst thing I could have done with this particular company. I noticed that although I would allow ample time for my payment to reach the company, it always arrived a day late according to my statement. I started to complain and they actually removed the fee a couple of times, but to ensure it did not occur again, I enrolled in automatic withdrawal.

I started having financial difficulties in 2006 and inquired to HFC as to whether I could refinance for a lower interest rate and cash out as I needed to do some repairs on the house. At the time my interest rate was 13.85% due to my credit score. They agreed to refinance with cash out, but would not lower my interest rate although even people with bad credit were getting interest rates much lower than mine. I agreed. I had always paid HFC on time until late 2007 when my husband lost his job and his grandmother fell ill and we had to relocate her from California to Oklahoma. My mother had also died early that year and I took on the added responsibility of moving my father into my home. I explained the situation to HFC and inquired again as to whether I could refinance for a lower interest rate. The answer was no.

When I started to fall behind on my payments, I started to receive threatening phone calls and tried to work something out with loss mitigation. The first person I spoke with asked me 'why can't you make your payment?' to which I replied 'because of financial difficulties'. He told me that my only option was to catch up the payments or the house was going into foreclosure. He then stated 'why don't you sell your house?' to which I responded 'then where will I live?'. I was so frustrated that I hung up the phone and called back in an attempt to get a more sympathetic representative to no avail. I was able to get a loan modification which is not helping much as I had to take out two other loans to meet the payment which is only $50 less than the original payment.

In the height of this economic depression, I called HFC recently to inquire as to whether I could now get some relief from the high interest rate with a refinance loan. They told me that they will be closing all branch offices and will not refinance, consolidate or take any actions on any loans at this time and will be relocating (as stated by another RipOff reporter) to India. I am just livid and I still have an un-heard-of interest rate of 13.85%. Once I finally get out from under HFC rule, I will never go back. They have been doing the same type of predatory lending for too long now.

I'd recommend shopping around before signing with Household. I was very disappointed.

Orchard Bank sets forth on their website a payment schedule, (i.e. pay anytime on Saturday and payment will post to your account on Monday) HOWEVER, unless Monday is a holiday, then it will not post. So, when you sign on Saturday to make your payment, you are forced to make a Rush Payment at the cost of $14.95 charged to your credit card, or assess a $35.00 late fee because since Monday is a holiday your payment won't post until Tuesday, therefore it is late.

They continue to schedule payments due on holidays or on weekend days when the payment will not post rather than changing the due date on the statement. The customer is now forced to assess a late fee or pay a rush fee. I've had to pay rush fee's twice because the payment due date fell on a holiday. A person is forced to pay the bill earlier than the due date or assess a late charge or a rush fee, although the statement clearly states the due date, i.e. September 1st. This also happens with Household Bank, which owns Orchard Bank.

The consequences are: assess a late fee of $35.00 or pay them $14.95 to rush your payment there before the due date. If they do this to 10% of their customers who due dates are the same as mine, how much money are they pocketing. They should adjust the statement due date around the holiday or accept the payment to post on the due date or the next business day after the holiday and not assess a fee. In the alternative it the payment due date would fall the day after the holiday, and not assess a charge. This is extortion in its simplest form