More Than 2000 Repossessions On GE Money Loans
Despite talk of signs of improvement and even recovery in the housing and homeowner loan markets, the effects of the credit crunch have taken their toll on lenders and borrowers alike.
One of the worst hit sectors of the loan industry over the course of the past two years has been that of specialist lending, i.e. organisations which primarily offer loans in the self certification or bad credit loan areas, with several loan companies closing down to new business altogether and a much higher rate of arrears on loans and repossessions than is seen in the mainstream lending institutions.
One company which has been particularly suffering due to the credit crunch is GE Money. The company closed both its specialist loan subsidiaries, i group and First National loans, earlier this year, due to a lack of funding for the specialist lending sector, but the company is still left with the problem of handling the arrears on its existing loan book.
The company has admitted that in the three months up to the end of June this year, 25.9 per cent of its secured loans were more than one month in arrears and in total the company has repossessed 2,100 properties due to borrowers defaulting on their loans. To put this in perspective, over the course of last year, there were a total of just 1,602 repossessions from the whole of the secured loans industry, which emphasises the scale of the problem faced by GE Money.
GE Money say that they are doing all they can to help borrowers who are struggling with their loans. A spokesman for the company said “We have been and will continue to be a participant in a number of key government and third party schemes such as the Mortgage Rescue Scheme, the HMSS and our pioneering partnership with the Consumer Credit Counselling Service.”
