Recently Real Finance and the Commerce Commission (who regulate the legislation that your loan account is governed by) reached an agreement about some of the fees which we have previously charged to loan accounts.
Real Finance and the Commerce Commission agree that some of the fees charged by Real Finance were unreasonable and in breach of section 41 of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003. Real Finance has undertaken to the Commerce Commission to put this right by paying or crediting reparation and interest to all affected customers.
The affected fees include:
Establishment Fee: This is the fee associated with establishing your loan, including processing and approving your loan application, identity verification requirements, budget preparation and analysis, risk and collateral analysis, documenting the loan, providing and explaining the documentation to you and any other party in full and then providing you with the loan funds once you have signed up and returned all documentation.
Monthly Administration Fee: This is the monthly cost of keeping your loan account active, including providing you any mandatory loan statements, running repayments, and any other administrative tasks needed, and is debited to your account at the end of each month
Default Fee: Charged each month that your loan is in arrears.
The result of this is that the portion of each fee which was incorrectly charged will be returned to you shortly, along with an amount of interest associated with each fee, and the difference between the date it was charged to your account, and the agreed settlement date.
Existing Customers
For those customers who have existing loan balances, we will shortly begin crediting your current loan account with the amount of reparation due, reducing your existing balance.
In some cases, this may end your loan obligations and put your account into credit, and we will notify you each individually with the outcome and make suitable arrangements to refund you any overpaid amount.
Previous Customers
For those of our customers who were unreasonably charged an amount relating to the fee types above and who do not currently have an open loan account, we will make endeavours to contact you using the details we have on file, to organise a refund of the amount due to be returned to you.
If you are a previous customer, and your contact details may have changed since you had a loan with us, please contact us so we can make sure that the reparation gets to you.
We have updated our fee setting practices to ensure that future fees are reasonable.
Real Finance sincerely apologises for the inconvenience arising as a result of your loan account receiving partially unreasonable fee charges.
If you have any concerns please contact us directly through our Free Phone number 0800 21 21 21 option 1, or you can email us on info@realfinance.co.nz.
Sincerely,
Real Finance Limited
“Real Finance listened to what I wanted, understood my requirements, then delivered a solution that was fit for my purposes first and foremost.”
© Real Finance Limited - A Registered Financial Services Provider - FSP3821
We provide consumer credit lending with terms of between 2 months and 48 months and our annual interest rates (AIR) are fixed for the term of the agreement. Our current annual interest rates range from 9.95% to 39.95% depending on credit profile, collateral and several other factors and are calculated in accordance with the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 (CCCFA). Some fees will vary based on the new loan amount. Full details of all fees are available here. A loan contract will show all applicable credit fees and charges. See our Responsible Lending page of our website for further details.
Actual loan example – A loan of $10,640 was provided at an AIR of 6.58%, the applicable establishment fee was $181, Centrix Check of $10, Wheels Report of $11, PPSR search + registration fee of $15, and an administration fee of $18 per month ($648). Total interest was $1,141.03 making the total repayable $12,646.03 over 36 monthly installments. The comparison rate for this loan was 10.87% per annum.
Real Finance is a New Zealand Registered Financial Services Provider (FSP3821) participating in the Financial Services Complaints Limited Dispute Resolution Scheme (FSCL). Contact Information – Free Phone 0800 21 21 21. We are located at 69a Manners Street, Te Aro, Wellington 6011