Churchwood finance debt problems solved

Advantages: reliable friendly service that really does help
Disadvantages: you have to be working

...a poor credit history I needed some advice so I called up the help line and spoke to my advior he was very helpful he said once most of the debts had gone down and proof of regular payments were being made there are companies that work along side them that would help me finance a morgage with a poor credit history, unfortunatly the house was built on mine shafts so full payment was needed and you would struggle to sell it would be great for renting purposes. I was also told about low cost loans that they offered if I was ever going to think about borrowing money. Eventually all the creditor stop contacting me and I only receive a few bills now but in almost 3 years my debts have fell from £5000 to £1100. The only reason that these have not been paid off is because I met my current partner and he got made redundant his debts were at £7000...

hitchjo 15.06.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Churchwood Finance Ltd

Freedom Finance

Advantages: none
Disadvantages: Having to deal with company in Gibraltar for complaints

...My experience with Freedom Finance has been completely different and after searching the internet so many others too. I took out a loan with them and had a complaint that I assumed would be dealt with by them as I thought it was them that I took the loan out with from their homepage. Apparently, they process loans on behalf of a company called Bespoke Finance who are based in Gibraltar and unless you want to be dealing with some other country throughout your complaint then I suggest you steer clear. In their smallprint it states "Freedom Finance process loans on behalf of Bespoke Finance." When making the complaint it is then passed to Gibraltar where this Bespoke Finance is based. Remember to read the smallprint and don't get caught like i did....

marshallka 17.06.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Freedom Finance

Issue Free Finance

Advantages: money works harder than in a normal bank
Disadvantages: can be complicated to understand at first

...I must say I was surprised to see so many critical reviews of Intelligent Finance here on Ciao. I felt I must redress the balance somewhat as I have had a completely different experience with them. Intelligent Finance are a division of Halifax plc. They are solely internet based which is ideal for a lazy bones like me. Having come across a link to their website I went to investigate... The website (www.if.com) itself is clearly laid out and easy to understand. There are fantastic step by step demos which explain the way IF work using Macromedia Flash or Non Flash (text). You can find information about the different products they offer on this site but in my case I like to talk to someone first so I just telephoned and presented the poor service agent with an endless barrage of questions. The agent I dealt with was incredibly...

volpina 02.07.2002 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Intelligent Finance

Intelligent?? Finance

Advantages: Competitive borrowing rates
Disadvantages: Woeful call centre expertise and supporting systems

...Style"). The result is that after a couple of years you are forced to go through the rigmarole of making an application for a further advance. This means you have to pay futher administration fees, and valuation fees. But the worst aspect of the whole thing is that IF simply need to be chased constantly. Your application gets stuck in the system and only a call from the account holder can unjam it. You get told that the application is waiting on a call to the account holder, but there is no mechanism actually to action anyone to make the call. It is desperately depressing talking to the first-name-only call centre staff as they seem to have the haziest idea about their own products. (updated on 14 July) I always refer to this bank as 'so called Intelligent Finance". Their customer service is truly awful. I began the process...

stevehem 14.07.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Intelligent Finance Mortgages

Intelligent Finances IQ?

Advantages: 24 hr access to money, good comprehensive web site
Disadvantages: Poor customer service (phone), not easy to pay money into the account

...When it comes to banking I have no loyality what so ever to any bank, I mean lets face it, would they have loyality to you as individual. Most will take your money without giving you a second thought. I have had an Intelligent Finance current account for about 4 years. They are my no means the best bank account around and they arent the worst. If I could describe them in a word - mediocre To be fair to them, when they first appeared on the market they did offer a pretty good deal. They offer the following products 1. Mortages 2. Loans 3. Current Accounts 4. Savings Accounts 5. Credit Cards They also offered a very attractive offer called offsetting. This offsetting allowed the customer to off set the balance of a current or savings account against the balance of a mortage, credit card or loan. A very useful item...

Jaws311uk 13.05.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Intelligent Finance

Intelligent people who gave me Finance

Advantages: Competitive, Backed by Halifax, Excellent service
Disadvantages: early days

...I went to see a mortgage lender who was supposed to represent most of the lenders on the market. I was offered a ridiculously low borrowing amount and hastily started looking elsewhere. I looked on the net and quickly found that I could easily get £5000 more than was offered earlier. I then saw a recommendation for Intelligent Finance. I was advised that they were offering a very good mortgage deal by the Tesco.com mortgage supermarket and again in the Sunday Express. This led me to look into what the catches were. The low interest rate was a 1.5% reduction for 6 months then payments would return to normal at the variable standard rate of 6.1% The mortgage had no booking fee, no Lenders arrangement fee, no mortgage Indemnity premium, and a remaining fee of £150. The loan had no Loan conditions such as early redemption penalties...

floater 30.10.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Intelligent Finance Mortgages

Not So Intelligent Finance

Advantages: Good interest rates for both borrowing and saving.
Disadvantages: Slow international incoming transfers. Credit card account now outside of IF plan.

...OK ... I started off being really quite pleased, and proud of my Intelligent Finance accounts. I had been a student, and we all know what students are like with money. This was my first "working now ... going straight" account, and I opened up the current account, credit card and savings account. All was fine, until I had a reasonably large sum of money sent from the US. This was funds from a sale of stock in the company for which I work. Most of my work colleagues were receiving their money on the 4th working day after selling the shares in the US. Mine was taking nearer 10 working days. I queried this with IF, and after much umming and arring, they admitted to me that they could not tell when funds wired to my account from the US would arrive. It wasn't the 3,000 mile journey that was the problem. They agreed that the funds were...

sexyjw 28.07.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Intelligent Finance

No intellegence, too much finance

Advantages: Only as a last option
Disadvantages: Unintellegance, and confusing.

...Going through this whole ordeal would be too much to bear to be honest so this is going to be a very short review. My apologies to those of you who like long in depth and fully researched stories, but I can only tell you of my experiences after all... It started when my fiance and me decided to purchase a house. It is over £100k and over our budget, but we thought, what the heck. The problem was finding a company to give us a mortgage. The only one was Intellegent Finance. Hooray, we thought - a decent company... Shortly after, we were discussing our personal affairs with them about money coming in and out and such, all to be confirmed by post. When our forms arrived to sign, I noticed they had decided to call me 'David Peter Kent Kent'. I quicky called to correct them - "it shouldn't take a second" I said. I eventually...

ffberryb77 11.01.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Intelligent Finance Mortgages

Intelligent Finance for Dummies.

Advantages: Quick, simple, from the comfort of your own home.
Disadvantages: None.

...We bought our present home 4 years ago and like many people in the same position, we now have a house that is worth more than we could afford today. Of course, this means we can't afford to move to anywhere bigger. So of course it would be nice to free up some of that equity, without changing my monthly payments and for no more than an hour or so of my own time. And you can... I called Intelligent Finance (I know you can do it all online, but - and this is something that I want to stress - I.F. make this absolutely idiot proof) because I wanted to get the application right first time. A very pleasant lady walked me through the whole thing in about 20 minutes. On a Sunday afternoon. I needed to call her back about one piece of info that I could not lay my hands on immediately and left a message for her to call back - which she...

eduardob 02.03.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Intelligent Finance Mortgages

IF ONLY IF WERE INTELLIGENT FINANCE

Advantages: Online Account
Disadvantages: Online Account Doesn't Work and nethier do the Business Processes behind IF.

...one thing, being able to access your accounts is an entirely separate matter, or so I have been told! You see the problem now is a rather dubious error that no one at IF seems to be able to correct and since I have been told it is a system wide problem and one which is shared by others I felt compelled to write an opinion for my fellow banking buddies! IF aynone out there know's how to correct the 'This account does not exist' error message once you are 'logged in' please could they get in contact with IF and let them know as I have been told that it would be corrected within a few days, a few weeks, next month and now I'm not so sure IF ever! Oh of course you can always use the telephone banking system ... kind of defeats the Intelligent part of Online Finance though don't you think? Happy Banking - IF you use an Intellgient Bank!...

DoomSlayer 17.01.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Intelligent Finance