Customers of collapsed rent-to-own company BrightHouse will have to continue paying their outstanding loans after the chain's accounts were sold on by the administrator.
Perch Capital, a credit management company, bought more than 100,000 BrightHouse accounts from Grant Thornton last month, including all outstanding BrightHouse loans, and affected customers should have received a letter from BrightHouse explaining payment arrangements with Perch.
It was confirmed earlier this year that customers who believed they were mis-sold high cost loans will not get any money back after the firm's joint administrators said there wasn't enough cash to refund people. Originally, there had been plans to set aside £600,000 for borrowers who felt they had been mis-sold expensive loans by BrightHouse. This means there's no point filing a complaint for mis-selling to either Grant Thornton or to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
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BrightHouse allowed people to spread the cost of household items but charged its customers very high interest to do so. Most of its customers were from low-income households receiving state benefits.
After the firm collapsed in 2020, accountancy firm Grant Thornton was appointed as administrator but customers now need to repay their loans to a Perch Capital. You should be able to pay using the same method you used to pay BrightHouse - whether that's direct debit, postal order, standing order, recurring payment or cheque - but you will need to follow the instructions in the letter to contact Perch to set up your payment arrangement, as it won't be automatically transferred. All interest has been written off, so your balance owed should be lower than it was previously and Perch has also confirmed it won't charge any late or missed payment fees.
If you paid your BrightHouse debt via a debt management plan (DMP) or individual voluntary arrangement (IVA), you'll need to pass the details of your new Perch account to your debt management firm so it can make sure your payments go to the right place. You can contact Perch via email at support@aciuk.co.uk or by phone on 01253 531517.
BrightHouse was the UK's largest rent-to-own company, operating between 1994 and 2020. At the time of its collapse, BrightHouse had 240 stores across the UK, including 21 in the north East, and had around 200,000 customers. It started to struggle in 2017, when it was ordered to pay around £14.8m in refunds and redress following an FCA investigation. However, the final nail in the coffin come when lockdown closed most retailers in March 2020.
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