BHM Financial Group
BHM Financial Group charges exorbitant interest, fees, and penalties!

In late December 2015, I decided to take out a short-term title loan on my vehicle for $6, 500 to cover an upcoming business expense. As a small business owner, sometimes there is a little too much red tape at the bank (even if you have a good credit rating, which I do) and things take a little too long to approve through that route. I wanted a faster loan; so, I thought I'd try out a faster option to cover this expense.

I'd never taken out a vehicle title loan before; and, after this experience, I never will again. But this was an interesting learning experience for me that I will share with others online—just as I'd promised to both the BHM loan officer, Sandra (a.k.a. Sandy), and the BHM credit collector, Sherry, if either of them harassed me by telephone or email even one more time. Sure enough, I received a collection notice via email from Sherry tonight despite the fact that I paid them in full in January, so I am making good on my promise and publishing this consumer alert to warn the public about them.

Before I took out this loan, I researched this company online and found a few negative Rip-Off reports written about them; so I discussed this with the loan officer, Sandy, over the telephone. She assured me that, although their standard rates are obviously higher than a bank's rates due to the type of clientele they usually deal with (high risk... which I am not), they don't ever charge any exorbitant or unfair fees to their clients. She said I have to understand that the clients who were complaining about additional fees were clients who had neglected to make their payments on time. They were simply late fees. In other words, their past clients were to blame for these issues rather than them. She assured me it would all be fine for me. For some reason, I believed her and I truly regret that now.

** Side note before I continue with my story: not only am I a low risk client with a good credit rating, but I paid them off in full after only one or two weeks, and I was still charged exorbitant fees... PLUS they are now threatening to send me to collections to charge me another $400+ in additional fees for whatever reason. **

Now, back to my story...

I read over the contract Sandy sent me. Of course, there was much fine print in that contract (along with a surprise additional $520 fee based on "... costs that were accrued on your behalf during the loan process to be deducted before the transfer or added to your first 2 payments.") that I wanted clarification on; so, I not only talked with Sandra over the phone about this, but I also asked her for clarification by email. I wanted her clarification in writing to protect myself.

My email to Sandy, dated Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 11:14 AM, read:
Hi Sandy,
Please add those costs to the first two payments.
Please confirm again for me:
• My monthly payment amount
• The date of the month you're taking it out
• Additional costs added to the first two payments
• Additional fee I will have to pay you for paying this out early
Please email that info to me so I have it on hand for when I pay you back. Thank you.

And her emailed reply to me, dated Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 11:16 AM, read:
Hi Sandy,
Please add those costs to the first two payments.
Please confirm again for me:
• My monthly payment amount[Sandy] $426.57
• The date of the month you're taking it out[Sandy] 22nd
• Additional costs added to the first two payments[Sandy] $260 for Jan and Feb
• Additional fee I will have to pay you for paying this out early[Sandy] $650.00
Please email that info to me so I have it on hand for when I pay you back. Thank you.

Based on these calculations that I got in writing from Sandy, even if I paid back this loan early (i.e. within the next month or two, as we had discussed I planned to do), then my only penalty for early pay back would be $650 in additional interest fees on top of the original $6, 500 plus this additional $520 in admin fees. In other words, my payout would be $7, 670. This is already a very high penalty, I know. It's a high interest loan for sure. But I went ahead with it because she had been willing to put it into writing for me in an email. It was a price I was willing to pay to cover my upcoming business expense quickly.

Long story short, my company made a couple of unexpected sales within the next week or two that allowed me to pay off this loan within the first month rather than two months. I was happy about that, so I emailed Sandy to get her to confirm for me again that the final owing was $7, 670 and to let me know how they preferred me to pay it out.

Any reputable company (any bank, and even some of the more reputable high-interest loan companies) are quite happy to accept early payments from their customers without additional penalties. But BHM Financial Group took this as an opportunity to try to slap even more fees and penalties on me. (Nice way to say "thank you" to a good customer, don't you think?)

Sandy proceeded to put me through to BHM's collection officer, named Sherry, who came back to me with an email saying my final pay-out to them that day would be $9, 074.83! She wanted to charge me an additional $1, 404.83 on top of the surprise $520 admin fee that Sandy had already slapped on earlier on top of the $650 in interest on top of the original loan!!! I kid you not, this is what this company tried to say I owed them even after putting it in writing for me that they would never do something like this!!!

I'll tell you what my reply to these two ladies was. I said, "Let me tell you something: you have a reputable 'low risk' client here who also happens to be a professional writer. I have it in writing from you, clarifying all the legalese from your contract for me, saying that there would only be those two fees applied and nothing more. A Rip-off report from someone like me is something you want to avoid."

When Sherry went on to threaten further action if I didn't pay them this amount, I added, "Do what you feel you must do, and I will do what I feel I must do in response to that. I'll be sending you $7, 670 this week or next, either by mail or by wire transfer. If you choose to charge me more than that due to whatever shady policies you have, then I will then be writing public reports on my experience with your company. I'll be posting those reports to the Ripoff website and other Canadian consumer watch websites. I'll be including the names of the people I dealt with at BMH Financial Group."

I meant it.

To all the consumers out there who are looking for short-term loans or title loans: I strongly recommend you deal with CitiFinancial if you can't (or simply don't want to) deal with a bank. I STRONGLY urge you to avoid BHM Financial Group at all costs.

To BHM Financial Group: I owe you NOTHING. I paid you IN FULL based on the contract plus verbal and written conversations I had with your loan officer, Sandra.

Company: BHM Financial Group
Country: Canada
Province: Quebec
City: Montreal
Phone: 5147871682
Site: www.bhmfinancial.com

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