Beneficial and HFC finance, watch out

In the beginning of December prior to my due date on my mortgage payment I had called that official inquiring whether I could skip a payment and if there would be any consequences to doing so. They said they would have to get back to me which they did and they indicated that yes indeed I could skip a payment. They offered no information whatsoever as to the consequences of doing so. Whether I would have to make a double payment or if they would attach a late fee onto my mortgage payment. Lo and behold once a December payment, which they said I could do had been skipped received a letter from beneficial indicating that I was behind him my payments. I immediately called beneficial and and asked why I was getting this kind of a letter. At this point the manager said he had no recollection of my calling him but later backtracked and said that I speak spoken to a person named John (no last name). He said they would get back to me and see what they could do about the problem. Apparently this is a common tactic for this type of company hoping that the customer will not pursue anything further. The manager at this point became very belligerent and indicated that I would have to make a larger payment and would have to also catch up with the loan which is not what they had agreed to. I guess he thought it was going to be a pushover, wrong, wrong, wrong. I am anything but.

I must warn anyone who wants to deal with this company that is beneficial or HFC to do so at your own risk. I had to file a complaint with two government agencies asking that they would look into their banking practices requesting a full audit and that no late charges be assessed and nothing to on my credit report. These government agencies was the Wisconsin Department of regulation and licensing, stay Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, trade and consumer protection, and the state of Wisconsin Department of financial institutions, within a matter of days indicated that they were going to look into the situation. I also indicated that I wanted beneficial to put this all in writing so I would have something in black and white indicating that they had taken care of the situation. I vigorously indicated that I would accept nothing less. As for me, as soon as I am able I will try in the not-too-distant future to refinance my house with a different more reliable company.