Black Horse Life Assurance Co Ltd > Reviews (2)

My husband andI took out a loan tin April 2006 hrough one of Lloyds TSBs sister companies, Black Horse Finance. We wanted the money to pay off another more expensive loan and pay for our wedding in June 2006.

We were more then happy when we were offered £4000 as that would pay off the outstanding loan that we had and leave us with around £1000 towards our wedding.

We were also very happy when we were informed that would receive 3 months where we wouldn't have to pay a penny off the loan at the beginning of the loan period, and that we were entitled to 2 further months payment breaks per year. The breaks would be added to the end of the loan period. This means that you end up paying off your loan over a longer term, but you can have a bit off extra cash if needed. Great at Christmas time.

Unfortunately not everything went smoothly. We had money taken from our account in May, June and July of 2006. Even though we were supposed to have 3 months of non payment as stated in our loan agreement.

Each month I telephoned the company, and each month I was informed that I would not have to pay the nexts months money, however as I have already stated this was not the case. In the end once they got it sorted we made no further payments until November 2006.

Then we decided to use one of our payment breaks for the christmas period. However for some reason this was not put through on their computer. A note was made on the system, but not actioned.

Again I telephoned to complain. The manager put the payment break in place for January 2007 and another in February 2007. He was also kind enough to gift us with an extra payment break because of the trouble that we had been having.

We gladly took the extra payment break in March 2007. Then we received a letter saying that our account was in arrears by one months payment!

After more exhaustive telephone calls the matter was eventually sorted last week! The manager had made a mistake when he gave us the 3rd payment break and because of this the account went into arrears. Not only were people from his own office telephoning us asking for the money but we had letters and calls from the companies finance department down south!

I rang the company on 16th of May 2007 and requested that they send me a full statement of the account, showing any payments and payment breaks taken. It takes a couple of days to order so I was informed it should arrive by 21st May. I rang on 23rd as I still had not received and was informed it had been posted, but they would send another copy just in case it had gotten 'lost'!

Hopefully, at least one copy of the statements will turnup after the weekend, but for some reason I am not holding my breath.

None of this was our fault. Since we took out the loan 13 months ago we have had nothing but hassle. It seems that the left arm does not know what the right arm is doing. Nobody in the company talks to each other and it has caused my famiily no end of trouble because of it. Perhaps it is because of sparkling personality and telephone manner that they like to hear from me so often!

If you are thinking about taking out a loan through Black Horse Finance I have one piece of advice for you - DON'T!