Can you get your fees waived?

No matter what you do with your loan, you're probably going to have to pay some fees. We've talked about silly fees before - fees that some lenders charge you to make extra or early repayments on your loan - but did you know that you can sometimes even get serious fees like default interest and missed repayment fees waived?

‍

Why charge default fees?

First, let's put it bluntly. In a perfect world, default fees and default interest wouldn't exist - because nobody would miss a payment. But we all know that there's no such thing as 'perfect' in reality. Life happens and sometimes payments are missed. The default fees and late payment fees are supposed to dissuade people from missing payments on purpose, but in cases of honest mistakes, the extra cost can just feel like a kick when you're already down.

‍

How to avoid fees or get them waived

The good thing is that you can sometimes get fees waived or, better yet, avoided altogether. The key is that if you're about to miss a payment for whatever reason, you get in touch with your lender as soon as possible. Lots of responsible lenders will arrange a different way for you to pay, like a different schedule or structure, so you don't get those nasty extra fees.

If you've already missed a payment, don't panic! Again, getting in touch with your lender ASAP to organise an alternative can give them the opportunity to waive the fees that might already have been charged.

The same can be said for other fees. Sometimes your lender will be able to remove things like early repayment fees if you're closing out your loan, which is great if you're consolidating your debt with a financial reset. That's one less chunk of change that you'll have to cover with the new loan, and so one less chunk of change that you'll have to pay interest on.

Full honesty here: this doesn't always work. Sometimes the lender won't waive fees or change structure. Sometimes you'll get pinged with those fees anyway. The point is that avoiding talking to your lender about it is pretty much guaranteed to get you hit with the fees. But picking up the phone has a chance for a positive outcome. If we had to pick, we know which one we'd try.

And just as a reminder: Money Sweetspot doesn't charge monthly account fees or early repayment fees. If you miss a repayment and sort it out in 60 days, we don't charge late fees either. Still, give us a call if you think you're going to miss a payment. We want to help you get out of debt and on with life, and spending your hard-earned money on more interesting things than a default fee!

‍