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I've joined this forum just to post some information about the company that calls itself New Trades Career (among other names). It's based on some background checks I did on them after a negative experience. These things should immediately set off some alarm bells for you:<br />
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1) They seem to have set up a website under the domain trust-reviews.org which has some very good reviews on it and appears somewhere at the top of the Google search results. The website is clearly meant to mimic other review sites like Trust Pilot, but when you look into it you realize it only has reviews for this company on it. These are obviously very deceptive tactics and it's the main thing that made me gain trust in the company when I did my first background check on them. I've attached some screenshots of the website in case it's removed in the future. When asked about the website, they deny all knowledge of it.<br />
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2) They go by various different names. During my communications with them they sent emails from the domain "tradescollege.org". Links were sent to the websites "newtradescareer.co.uk" (New Trades Career) and "ntc-college.co.uk" (NTC College). There's also a website under the domain "tradescollege.co.uk" which most likely also belongs to them.<br />
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3) They say they have colleges "all around the country", but there is no information on any of the websites about where these colleges are. When I phoned them and asked about the location of the colleges, I was told by the representative that she did not "feel comfortable divulging this information".<br />
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4) They expect you to sign up for the course without sending you a contract or any information about the kind of financial commitment you'd be getting into. In my case it was a 48 month commitment at £180 per month. When I asked them to see a contract, they told me this was not possible until after I'd handed over my bank details because "the system didn't allow it".<br />
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5) There are some negative reviews of the company on Trust Pilot, however the trust pilot reviews don't seem to appear when you Google the company (at least not anywhere near the top). I also tried to post my own review on Trust Pilot, but my reviews were flagged for "Violating Trust Pilot Guidelines" (No further explanation). If you do a bit of digging into Trust Pilot itself, you'll find that you can't trust them either and that they frequently take down genuine reviews on spurious grounds.
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</blockquote>Hi Slabos,<br />
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So I've roped myself into a 12 month contract with these people and I'm starting to regret it. Luckily my contract only discusses payments for 12 months so my total is only around £2000. Did you find any way to get out of the fixed term loan because I'd greatly appreciate any advice on how to best go about it. <br />
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I actually receieved a contract by email and I still have copies. In the contract it says that the finance companies should have sent me a copy of their privacy policy but they never sent me one. On top of all of this the materials they give you are outdated (a virtual reality game which doesn't even work and is on CD for some reason), a textbook which is riddled with spelling and grammar errors and has a really confusing way of explaining things. They fail to mention in any contract that each practical day is £80 per session, running costs up substantially. They absolutely were reluctant to tell me where the training centres were and only after I'd signed up did they show me that I was two hours away from the electrical centre. To top it all off, I've read reviews saying that the pre-attendance exams for the practical days are extremely hard to pass and they offer little to no help to get you through them. <br />
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On the more financial side of things, they knew that I only had £80 a month spare to pay for the course but still accepted me as a student even though its £180 a month. That's probably my fault but these people really pressure you into signing up. I had two interviews within two days and by the end of the second one everything was set up and my payments were starting to be made. <br />
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Again I'm trying to get out of the agreement now, but I'm failry sure I'm going to be stuck paying the £2000. It could be worse, I could be paying the full 48 months.</div>