Early Settlement Penalties!! A bad policy in an otherwise good company.

Bought a Volvo V40 about a year ago which was financed through wesbank. All was good until i sold the car this month. I requested a statement to see how much i owed them ( Capital Balance outstanding ) and then asked for a settlement letter. The settlement letter was around R9000 more than the balance outstanding. I phoned and inquired as to why and was told the following. Somewhere in the contract i signed it stipulates that if the contract is for over R250 000 then they charge 3 months interest if settling early. I questioned where in the contract this is and that fact that i was no aware of this and it should have been specifically brought to my attention when signing, all i was told is that i should have read all the fine print in 30 page document!!

So my question is this why would wesbank have a clause like this in there, gone are the days of early settlement penalties but i feel this is just that. We now pay upfront contract fees when taking out a HP agreement so why penalize me when i want to settle before the end date. Things are looking gloomy in south africa and me having settled my R260 000 outstanding should be a good result. Now i feel bitter about my dealings with wesbank and ****** of nearly R9000 as there is no service being offered to me over the next 3 months, yet i'm paying you.

I see it as having taken good customer who was in the future very willing to finance another car through wesbank and for R9000 turned them against you. I will personally never finance another vehicle through you and warn anyone willing to do so A bad policy in an otherwise good company.

Make your customers aware when signing and put it on there statements for all to see. As the outstanding amount is not correct.

Regards Dylan