Awesome, thank you When filling in my acknowledgement on MCOL, I said I intended to defend part of the claim - does this matter or can it be changed to a full defence?

Apart from the phonecall on 27th December, all of my communication with them has been by email, including when I alerted them to the problem Following on from advice from dx100uk in another thread, I've sent an SAR to NatWest to request transcripts, recordings, notes, logs, etc, that relate to the two times I've called them about Safeloans' website not taking payments. Obviously I did take out a loan for £200, so I do owe them £206.40 (£258 - £51.60). Does my defence cover me for this? I was advised above not to admit to part of the claim.

Hi renegadeimp, The details of my defence are in my opening post. I've tried to draft it into a more formal defence: The claimant promised to make available an Internet-based facility ("Safepay") that enables management, including repayment, of the loan account. This feature is prominently advertised on the claimant's website. The claimant allows its customers to make reduced, early, repayments of loans. On 21st December 2012, the defendant, aware that this was the last working day before the Christmas period, elected to make such an early repayment using the Safepay facility. The facility quoted the amount due as £250. The defendant made several attempts to pay on two debit cards, but in all instances the facility declined payment. The defendant had previously made the claimant aware of this technical problem on 25 October 2012. The claimant appears to have not acted on this warning. The defendant made contact with his bank, NatWest, who confirmed the transactions had been authorised and funds were available, but the money had not been taken. The defendant was not able to make any further contact with the claimant until a telephone call on 27th December 2012. During this call, the defendant offered to pay £250, the amount due on 21st December. The claimant refused this offer and demanded the full amount of £258 plus all interest and charges that had been levied since 24th December 2012. The defendant chose not to pay this as he felt the claimant was acting unreasonably by not acknowledging the technical error and accepting £250. The defendant was dependent on the claimant's service to meet his day-to-day living costs. As the defendant's account was now in arrears, he felt that he could no longer rely on the service to approve future loan requests. Consequently, a complaint was made using the claimant's complaints procedure, and the offer of £250 was withdrawn. An affordable six month repayment plan was offered instead. The claimant responded quickly to the complaint, but wanted £250 despite this offer previously being withdrawn. The defendant has proposed numerous fair and reasonable repayment arrangements to the claimant, but they have all been ignored. On 26 April 2013 the defendant made a goodwill payment of £51.60 in an attempt to express his seriousness to enter into one of the proposed arrangements, but even after receiving this the claimant is ignoring the defendant's offers and is expecting to receive far in excess of the original £200 capital and £58 interest.

Hi, Sorry to bump my own thread but I have about a week until the defence needs to be filed. I'm not sure how to put the details above into a solid defence, and I don't know how to argue against the whole amount of the claim. I also need to know if there are any costs/risks involved in filing a counterclaim as outlined above? Thank you

Yesterday I emailed Cashgenie and revoked CPA. This was their reply today: I assume this is untrue? As far as I'm aware I can cancel CPA at any time for any reason? I responded:

Hi, I need to gather evidence for my defence against Safeloans Ltd. They claim I failed to make the repayment of my loan, but I attempted to do so several times, and ealirer than required. Their website said my card was declined. I recently spoke to NatWest. I got a very helpful advisor who sent me transaction logs to prove I had funds in my account. Unfortunately, he couldn't provide details on the Safeloans transactions from 21st December, as there's a 30 day limit. On 21st December, the day I attempted repayment to Safeloans, I called NatWest after Safeloans' site rejected my payments. They advised me that the transactions had been authorised, but the site did not take any money. I need a way of getting NatWest to provide a copy of transcript of this call, as it would prove beyond any doubt that I did make several attempts to pay Safeloans. Thanks

Here are pages 2-8 of the loan agreement:

Hi, Following on from my previous thread, I've decided to write a massive complaint to HSBC. The full six page letter I've written (but not sent) is below, so a massive thank you to anyone who makes it through to the end! I'm looking for any opinions or advice that might strengthen my case. In summary: In 2009, HSBC led me to believe paying £15 towards a balance which exceeded my agreed overdraft limit would stop them from taking any further action. They then used 'set off' and took £240 from another of my accounts. This money wasn't mine, it was my housemates', and was to pay utility bills. In 2011, HSBC put a 'security lock' on my account which rendered it unusable. They would not remove the lock despite my best efforts. Between 2011 and now an ongoing direct debit took me over my agreed overdraft limit, but HSBC accepted a repayment plan of £20/month. Despite accepting this plan, they referred it to their internal collections, Metropolitan Collection Serivces, anyway. I am asking them to write off the entire debt, and refund the £240. Cheers

Hi, The agreement was for 28 days. This is the first page of my agreement: If I cancel the CPA, Cashgenie will then presumably want the £150 back, plus the £45 interest they would have got through the CPA payment, and will then start adding interest and charges? Obviously that's not far as I've already paid £405 to them on a £150 loan. What action do I take at that point?

Hi, Cashgenie keep rolling over my account automatically. On 25/07/2012 I applied for a £150 loan, which came with a £45 interest charge for a total of £195 repayable. Since then, I have paid: 25/08/2012: £45 25/09/2012: £45 25/10/2012: £45 25/11/2012: £45 25/12/2012: £45 25/01/2013: £45 25/02/2013: £45 25/03/2013: £45 25/04/2013: £45 That's £405! What's the best way of breaking this cycle? They've had more than enough money from me now, but I'd rather not end up with another default on my credit file.

How do I go about it, havinastella? Do I use Wonga's complaints procedure first? Is there any relevant legislation or OFT guidelines I should quote?

Hi, No I've never received any kind of statement from Wonga.

Hi, In March of this year I completed a 12-month repayment arrangement with Wonga. The original loan, taken out on 24 November 2011, was £1086 with £333.77 interest. I originally offered a repayment plan which would repay this amount. It took them months to actually come to an agreement with me, and in the meantime they slapped on interest and charges. In the end, I repaid £1873.03 which was more than £156 a month. Can I go about getting a refund for £453.26 (£1873.03 - £1086 - £333.77)? The due date was 25 December 2011. I made an email offer on 11 January 2012. The only response I got was "Thank you for your message". No actual reply. So it's not like I ignored the debt for months, I did try and deal with it quickly. I don't think over £450 of interests and charges were fair. If Wonga were quicker in dealing with me, it wouldn't have been added on.

Slightly off-topic, but I've seen this list of 30 lenders mentioned a number of times. Do we know which lenders are on it? Payday Express? Safeloans?

How do I argue against the whole claim? Also is it too late to change the setting on MCOL so I defend the full claim? No, this won't happen until after my defence is filed.

One more thing to add: In early April, they wrote to me with a letter titled "NOTICE OF FAILED REPAYMENT PLAN". It went on to say, "Dear mike00, Following your agreed REPAYMENT PLAN you have failed to make repayments to us in accordance with the terms and conditions of that arrangement. We have always tried to mediate the settlement of this debt with you. Unless payment is received within Seven days by the 12/04/2013 you will leave us no option but to proceed with legal action by trying to obtain a County Court Judgement against you..." I never agreed to a repayment plan. They never accepted any I offered. And the fact they try and claim they've always tried to mediate settlement is absolutely hilarious.

Hi, In 2009, I went slightly over my agreed overdraft with HSBC and they slammed me with a £100 charge. On 17 November 2009, HSBC called me to let me know I'd gone over the agreed limit. I could not afford to repay the enitre amount until I got my student loan (which was running late, due to the Student Loans Company needing medical evidence to let me repeat the year). HSBC were okay with all of this, and we agreed I would make a small payment of £15 on 3rd December 2009. I made the payment as agreed. In a separate savings account, I was collecting money from my housemates to pay utility bills. HSBC decided, on the 8th December, to use their right to set off and take £240 from this other account. 1. I informed HSBC of my financial difficulty while I was waiting for my student loan 2. We both agreed on a £15 payment 3. They gave the impression that £15 would prevent further action, but I may need to make another small payment later Considering these facts, were they wrong to use the right to set off?

Hi, I've been having the usual nightmare with Safeloans. I've made numerous offers of repayment which have been ignored, they can't even be bothered to say 'no' to my offers. It's now at the point where they've issued a Claim Form, hoping I'll give in, or they'll get a judgement against me if I don't turn up to court. I've already acknowledged service online, and plan to defend part of the claim. Their Claim Issue Date: 17 April 2013 Amount Claimed: 546.50 Court Fee: 55.00 Solicitor's costs: 0.00 Total amount: 601.50 Particulars of Claim: The claimant agreed to lend to the Defendant under a fixed sum loan agreement dated 25 November 2013 the sum of 200.00. The Defendant agreed to repay the loan upon pre-determined dates between 1 to 4 months. On 24/12/2012 the Defendant failed to repay the Claimant's loan and is in default under the terms of the loan agreement. T he Defendant has agreed to pay the Claimant's expenses and charges in the event of any default as set out in the terms and conditions of the loan agreement. . ...And the Claimant claims:.. 1. The unpaid loan balance 200.00... 2.Interest and loan charges of 346.50.. 5. The claimant claims statutory interest at 8% up until the date of settlement, under section 69 of the County Court Act 1984. .. 4. The Claimant total claim is 546.50..Date: 15 April 2013.... Note: The order of the Claimant's claims (1, 2, 5, 4) is exactly how it appears on the Claim Form. They've done some really nasty cut and paste job. Number 3 is missing. My Defence On 21st December 2012, I attempted early repayment as this was the last working day before Christmas. I made several attempts to pay from two debit cards, but their website refused to take the payment. I contacted my bank who said the payments were authorised and plenty of funds were available, but the money just wasn't taken. Safeloans allow early repayment at a discounted rate. On the 21st December I should have been able to clear the loan with £250. As I work in a rural location with a poor signal, I was unable to contact Safeloans by phone. They close at 17:15 which is before I get in range of a signal. I was able to discretely call my bank, but this took up my entire lunch break. When I was finally able to talk to Safeloans on 27 December, I told them about my payment problems and asked them to accept £250, which is what I should have paid if the site took payment. They refused and demanded I pay all the interest and charges they'd added too. I just hung up. Since then I've sent them numerous written offers of repayment. Most were £51.60 for five months to clear the original loan of £200 plus one month's interest of £58. All of my offers have been ignored. I made a payment of £51.60 last month, and will keep making them until I have paid £258. I think the court would look favourably on this. I intend to admit liability for £258 (minus £51.60 already paid), and then defend the rest of this ridiculous claim. A Counterclaim? I have spent hours writing long emails to Safeloans, all of which would be unecessary if they'd just accepted one of my offers. I freelance as a web developer and these hours could have been spent making money. My hourly rate is £30. Safeloans have also made at least five calls to my place of work. This is embarassing, could result in the loss of my employment, is extremely stressful, and damages my professional image. What costs and risks are there involved in filing a counterclaim? Can I claim: 1. My freelance rate multiplied by the number of wasted hours spent emailing them 2. One month's wages for embarassment, damage to reputation, risk to employment, stress 3. One day's wages for taking time off to attend a court hearing, which was entirely avoidable if Safeloans had negotiated Data Protection Act Safeloans made a massive balls up. In Feburary, they sent me a letter with somebody else's details in the same envelope as my own letter. Can I use this to my advantage? Thank you

Thank you freakyleaky

Also, sorry if this is the wrong subforum. I cam here via Google, which had similar threads in this General Consumer Issues forum, rather than the Council Tax forums. Could a moderator or admin please move it if necessary?

Hi, In February and April, I submitted a Single Person Discount Forms to my council. They never acted on it. I have no proof of postage. This month, they took me to the magistrates court and I assume they were successful in obtaining a liability order for the full amount of council tax due until the end of the financial year. I have not received anything back yet. I did not receive a court summons until the evening before the hearing. It's a common problem that my mail is mis-delivered to the student house next-door, and it's often the landlord that puts it through my letterbox every few weeks - he could presumably testify to this problem existing. Is this enough for reasonable doubt that I did not receive the summons in time? I was unable to arrange to attend the court hearing at such short notice, and was therefore unable to argue that I was only liable for 75% of the amount claimed by the council. I emailed the council on the date of the court hearing (twice, once via the website, again directly to their email address) to attempt to come to an arrangement to pay, but it has been almost three working weeks since then. The council aim to respond to email enquiries within five working days. It's been almost three times that. Today I sent a letter via recorded delivery which again proposed the arrangement to pay. I also included printouts of emails and automated delivery receipts that the council's system send, as well as a third copy of the single person discount form. I made my first proposed payment a day late due to problems with NatWest, and if I continue to pay at £200pm I will clear my arrears with a final repayment at the end of October (based on 75% liability + fees, not 100% liability). I think this is quite a reasonable timeframe. What options do I have, legal or otherwise? I literally have no idea what I'm doing. All I know is the council claimed 100% of my tax band, which the court presumably agreed with, but I only owe 75% as I'm a single occupant. I have tried calling them several times during my lunch breaks, but I'm always on hold until my break is over. I work out of the city so I can't go in and see them in person without taking time off, which I can not afford at all. I racked up huge debts (credit, payday loans, etc) last year while I was homeless for a few months (moving between hotels, B&Bs, friends sofas etc), I am depressed, and suffer from insomnia. I have been extremely hard-pressed financially until this month when I received a large pay rise, and I'm using the majority of that to pay £200pm to the council. Please help, I don't know what to do. The council seem to be ignoring me