Anyone have any knowledge re. Consumer Credit Act?

On Saturday my partner and I opted to buy a sofa from SCS. The value of the goods we purchased is £1800. We wanted to take advantage of the interest free credit offer that they currently have. The particular sofa we were interested in was available on 2 years interest free credit. The sales assistant told me that the payments would work out at seventy-odd pounds per month. I was a bit hesitant to pay that much each month. I explained that it wouldnt be wise to commit to this because if the interest rates go up suddenly we could find ourselves in trouble. So the guy explained he could get us a 'special' low rate of interest if we paid over a longer term, and make our payments lower. He said he could get our payments down to £55 per month. That sounded fairer. Due to it being the end of the day the forms were not ready as the application went through to referral so we went away and told to come back. SCS rang us back when the application went through so we returned to the store the following weekend and the forms had already been printed. I was just shown where to sign. Well I got home and looked at the forms and the 'special' low rate of interest is 17.9% APR over 46 months (4 years!!!!!!!). I dont know what I was thinking of that day. I never suspected it would be for a 4 year credit agreement. Well I looked at the total charge for credit and it is almost £700 in total - over 30% of the value of the goods. So I dedcided I'd like to cancel, thinking I would have at least 7 days cooling off period. Well I read the terms of the agreement and apparently there is a pre-contract agreement in force so that I cannot cancel. I looked on the order form from the supplier and it says that the pre-contract form was to be read and signed prior to the agreement. I remember at the customer services desk AFTER id signed the credit agreement forms the lady said "Oh before you go I need you to sign this, this is just a form if your sofa is available for delivery prior to the estimate lead time". I signed it without question, and it went in my pack. I have just looked at it and this is the so-called pre contract agreement. So in essence I was shown the pre-contract agreement, after the agreement. I feel like Im now trapped in this agreement that I do not want. Where do you think I stand? I want to cancel but due to the 'pre-contract agreement' it looks like I cant cancel. It is probably my fault for not reading what I was signing, but it wasnt clearly explained to me at the time of purchase. Everything was really rushed and the sales guy (im embarrassed to say) intimidated me by telling me the 3pc suite had already been ordered as we had been in the week before to express our interest. I feel so stupid, Im usually so hot on this kind of thing :( EDIT: (ommission) we would perhaps have got ourselves into trouble if the interest rates went back up as our mortgage repayment would also go up, due to us being on our banks standard variable rate. Ergo, the more our monthly payment on the sofa, the more hesitant I became

2 months ago - 3 answers