Hi renegadeimp. First I disputed with CRA (Minicredit only report to CallCredit) with a Notice of Dispute. Minicredit didn't reply within 28 days (there's a surprise) so then entry was suppressed. However, when they did reply, they said they thought it was valid and thus Callcredit unsuppressed it. I have outlined by grievance about the default to the ICO following their complaints procedure, and included that with my letter back to Minicredit, but suffice to say Minicredit are sticking to their guns. So, finally, for now sent an LBA to Minicredit (both hard and soft copy) with 14 days to comply: LBA was thus: "Dear Sir/Madam, Thank you for your response, as a result of which it appears obvious that I will need to take court action to resolve this matter. This is not something I take lightly as it will involve cost, but it will once and for all substantiate the validity of your claims. Please be aware that when the court assesses this matter, it will have the power to grant costs and award damages, however, if you were to settle this matter via the ICO and remove the default, that would be the end of the matter. Please note, no loan was forthcoming on 4th March 2011 and therefore, the agreement could NOT have legally been in force. If the loan agreement was in effect, I should have been able to borrow against it and I was not. Additionally, if the agreement was valid, then why did Minicredit, as I can see in my credit reports, take out further searches on the date the loan was taken out and ask me to sign another pre-contract agreement? Your view of the validity of the "loan agreement" dated 4th March 2011 is perverse. If your organisation is prepared to stand up in court and attempt to prove that charges of £778.50 on an amount of £130.50 received are "fair and reasonable" and meet all of the statements detailed in OFT664Rev, including, but not limited to clauses, 2.2, 3.3j, 3.3k, 3.3l (your number is still listed as an 0871 number), 3.5g, 3.7a, 3.7o, 3.11a, 3.11d then that it what shall happen. Therefore, I can confirm that I will initiate court action as defined in my previous communication within 14 days unless you confirm you have instructed Callcredit to remove the default from my account."

I've, unsurprisingly, not heard anything back yet, not even an acknowledgement of my letter. In order to prepare for court, what exactly is it I should be taking them to court over and which court/how? I am assuming (and we know what that can do) that I should just use MCOL? If so, what do I claim for? They don't actually owe my anything financial, just a correction to my credit file, which if they'd have done so, I would have left it at that. Do I claim for the current value of the default? If I do, does that mean given the cost of making the claim relates to a specific financial range, am I jeopardising the level of damages if it ever got that far? As you can see, I am really not very sure about the way forward. It may still be it doesn't need to come to this, but it's looking more and more likely ... TIA!

Brilliant - thanks again. That's a healthy round of ammo there. Although whether it's enough to get through to these people, who knows?

Thanks squaddie, I have already completed that when I sent them the letter in which I copied in the ICO complaint form. It sounds like they will not be changing their stance in what is now the next 10 days, so how do I go about that Civil claim? If there are any links to the case law that you or anyone knows of, I would be very interested. Tim.

Hi there, I will try and be as brief as possible with this. Here's the deal: Originally applied for a loan with Minicredit 04/03/11 and was declined. Re-applied and was granted loan on 04/07/11. Sent notice of cancellation within 14 days, as per CCA 1974 on 12/07/11. At the same time informing Minicredit, as per rights under that act, repayments would be made within 30 days by Faster Payments, and could they please supply bank details. I also informed them that I no longer authorised them to use my card details. Here's the breakdown of events: 04/07/11 Received £130.50 (£150 less £19.50 deducted without an explicit acceptance of that) 12/07/11 Notice of cancellation given 05/08/11 Minicredit takes £85 from my debit card having still not forwarded bank details 10/08/11 Minicredit takes a further £50 by debit card It was at this point, having repaid £135 which was in excess of the £130.50 I had received that I refused to pay them any more until they agreed that the total payable (as calculated via their website) was £189. Thus I believed I actually owed them £54, but they had received more money than they had paid out (as well as a random £2.50 fee for something). Minicredit claim that my cancellation was incorrect as it was after 14 days from 4th March 2011 when I originally applied and was rejected as that agreement was in force. Well, if that agreement was in force, how come I couldn't borrow against it? AND, why did I have to signed another pre-contract agreement and Minicredit perform another credit search before being allowed the funds on 4th July 2011? They continued to bombard me with calls telling me how many hundreds of pounds I owed them ... Anyway, wind forward 600+ days and I checked my credit file with Noddle and discovered a Default from Minicredit for £547! I didn't even bother writing to them as I'd got nowhere chasing them for months long before. So, instead I wrote to Callcredit with a Notice of Dispute. Minicredit didn't reply within 28 days (there's a surprise) so then entry was suppressed. However, when they did reply, they sai they thought it was valid and thus Callcredit unsuppressed it. I have outlined by grievance about the default to the ICO following their complaints procedure, and included that with my letter back to Minicredit, but suffice to say Minicredit are sticking to their guns, although I now supposedly owe them in excess of £800. My question is how do I resolve this? They say they will not remove the detault without full payment, which is ludicrous. I assume I need to take them to court, and I have no issues with doing that, it's the how I am not sure of. What exactly do I claim for and even then, would that get the default removed? As far as I can see, of OTF664, they have flouted at least 2.2, 3.3j, 3.3k, 3.3l (your number is still listed as an 0871 number), 3.5g, 3.7a, 3.7o, 3.11a and 3.11d yet still think their action is valid. Please help! Thanks, Tim.

Thanks for your thoughts asmile, but I would just say their (worthless) Ts&Cs state you can confirm cancellation of the agreement by e-mail to the "info" address, which is what I have done, whilst including requesting a delivery receipt, so from a technical IT viewpoint that is the equivalent of a signature on a recorded delivery letter. They cannot dispute that the information was delivered. Granted that doesn't mean it was read, but neither does a recorded delivery signature. I would agree letters are the best, but I am simply not prepared to be wasting my time with these folks. That's just my opinion though, and as the OP simply asked for e-mail addresses, that's what I gave them.

These guys are something else. Plenty of letters sent demanding payment (despite the fact I cancelled the loan within 14 days and that they never actually sent any fully signed paperwork, just the pre-contract agreement). Anyway, if you want addresses for them you can use info@capitalfinanceone.co.uk or imraj.jabbal@capitalfinanceone.co.uk. I have sent my responses to those addresses in the last few days and received delivery receipts, I will be keeping these receipts in order to prove they have received my communications in the event the try and take the matter to court ... very unlikely given the shambles they are!

Thanks dx. It appears that is what the Nationwide form actually is, so I will fill it out and take it from there. I am so utterly shocked that this kind of behaviour is actually permitted by the UK's banking system and that stopping a card doesn't stop all transactions. P.S. great choice of album, Jeff Beck's guitar work on that is awesome.

HELP! Dispite having changed the card details Minicredit have today raided my account for £105. I have spoken to Nationwide and they inform me this is because Visa still have the account details and this is permitted. I can get sent a Visa dispute form (within 48 hours) which will get the funds creditted, but they say short of closing the account and opening a new one, there is nothing that can be done. Is that really true? I cannot believe the banking system is that lax! Thanks, T.

Just a quick update, things have rattled on for a while with them refusing to believe I have cancelled the loan appropriately and this morning's e-mail was full of bluster: "We would like to remind you that your MiniCredit overdue loan balance is £304.50. If we are unable to recover full amount within next 10 days we'll send Your account to THE DOORSTEP COLLECTOR and You will incur extra costs. We may also contact Your employer and start legal action against You. We also report the status of Your outstanding account to Credit reference agencies. All this process affects your credit score adversely and ability to receive credit in the future." *** note that the £304.50 is based on an original loan of £150 with £65 already repaid at the time of them sending! I have replied but am losing the will to live with having to repeat myself time and time again to them: "Please be advised that I cancelled the loan in line with my rights under UK law, a fact I have had confirmed by the OFT. I have since had £65 withdrawn by yourselves from my account, despite me requesting you not to use my card, and today I have made a further debit card payment of £85. This makes a total of £150 and repays the original loan amount. With regard to the points below, as previously mentioned, should it be your intention to arrange a “doorstep call”, please be advised that under OFT rules, you can only visit me at my home if you make an appointment and I have no wish to make an appointment with you. There is only an implied license under English Common Law for people to be able to visit me on my property without express permission; the postman and people asking for directions etc (Armstrong v. Sheppard and Short Ltd [1959] 2 Q.B. per Lord Evershed M.R.). Therefore take note that I revoke license under Common Law for you, or your representatives to visit me at my property and if you do so, then you will be liable to damages for a tort of trespass and action will be taken, including but not limited to, police attendance. Additionally, please also be aware that you have no right to make contact with my employer with regard to this matter and should you do so will also be in contravention of the OFT's guidelines and in breach of the Data Protection Act. The OFT clearly state: 2.6 i) disclosing or threatening to disclose debt details to third parties unless legally entitled to do so." I am pretty certain this will be ignored like everything else, but at least my actions are recorded and explained. Also, for those having difficulty contact Minicredit, use the e-mail address claims@minicredit.co.uk. That address does not get bounced or issue an auto-reply.

Hi Sillygirl, can you advise, should I JUST be paying back the original sum, or "as per their Ts & Cs" the original sum + daily interest until the cancellation notice?

I e-mailed the folks at Minicredit, as per my post above and have received this as a response: " Our final response to Your Complaint is that the Loan Agreement is not cancelled because the time passed from the date You signed the Agreement. All the charges and interest have been and will be added to the current outstanding balance until full repayment or Legal action. You may see the balance and make payments through Your MiniCredit.co.uk online account 24/7." Do you think it wise that I should pay what I believe I owe anyway, or withhold funds until the matter is settled (which is likely to be in court as that is seemingly where they want to head? I have already advised them I do not wish them to contact me further by phone, only e-mail or letter and I have also sent the relevant letter outlining I am not prepared to accept a visit from a debt collector. Thanks, Tim.

Yep Delboy they say it's a NOTICE OF DEFAULT SUM UNDER SECTION 86E OF THE CONSUMER CREDIT ACT 1974 Thanks for your input sillygirl1. Don't get me wrong, I have not trying to wriggle out of paying, simply that as you state in the resposne I should give, I am purely cancelling the loan within the statutory period, although they dispute that as they say the agreement came into force when I "signed" it, even though I was refused for a loan, but in March. I have had two other loans from them since, the first for £250 and duly paid off, the second for £150. As you say, certainly to me as an "outsider" this whole area of law same messy and unclear to present. Maybe it's therefore not surprising that these type of people take advantage of that, even though some of their tactics are distinctly illegal. Anyway, they have mentioned paying by UKash voucher, which I am willing to do. In the meantime, they have racked up supposed default charges totally £80. How should I proceed? My idea is to simply purchase a UKash voucher for the original amount + interest up until the cancellation point, and contact them to advise, if they wish to take that payment as full and final settlement I will give them the 19 digit code? Thanks, Tim.

Received 1st Default Notice early this morning and warned of second one in two days. Replied as follows: "This agreement has been legitimately cancelled under the terms of the Financial Services (Distance Marketing) 2004 Act. As a result this charge cannot be raised against it. You have previously stated that I "signed" the agreement on 4th March 2011. I have confirmed with Trading Standards via ConsumerDirect that this is incorrect as no monies were borrowed at that time. Without any lending taking place the agreement cannot come into force. I once again confirmed with ConsumerDirect that the statue permits 30 calendar days from notice being given for payment to be forthcoming. You have also informed me I may pay by UKash voucher, although that contradicted your earlier claim that payment MUST be by debit card. Therefore please expect the due amount within the allocated legal time period, remove any current erroneous charges and cease the addition of any further such charges."

With companies like this, you can never been certain what they will or won't do, but if you are not in arrears I have never come across even Minicredit attempting to deduct monies before they are due. Of course, if you were to keep your money in another account until it was required to be taken from the account which Minicredit have details for, you would be 100% safe. They only hold authroity to attempt a debit card transaction with the details you gave them nothing more. They will have no visibility of any other payment types you have or other cards. However, please note some payday loan companies share information regarding accounts and if you have used the details of your other account(s) with other loan companies they may try and fraudulently access it. On the balance of probability, given they have no reason to suspect you are not going pay, they should play by the rules. I hope this puts your mind at rest.