after recently discovering we could claim back from PDL's, I recently approached Payday UK for a statement of my account. It was a general query and they immediately responded and said my complaint had been forwarded to their complaints team and they had 8 weeks to respond. 8 weeks arrived and they said they were still investigating my complaint. Great, hadn't made a complaint yet, was just asking about the default on my credit files and a list of my loans I had taken out with them After about 10 weeks they sent me a statement. I was actually shocked when I looked back at all the lending! First loan was taken out in June 2009, and continued till October 2011, when I defaulted and never paid them the outstanding amount of £650. Every month, I either paid off in full, or deferred payment and part paid an amount in "rollover" fees. They only started checking my credit report in april 2011. Amounts involved over 28 months: Amount borrow: £4 625 (including interest) Interest alone: £2 900 Each month I would either pay the whole amount, and then either reloan the same day, or a few days later as I needed the money to survive the rest of the month. I then also started making the mistake of taking other PDL's out to repay them. I feel that with minimal checking, they provided me loans for over two years without checking affordability and should have realised that I was reloaning all the time and that I was spiralling downwards. I took my last loan with them in October 2011 and they defaulted me in July 2012. I intend to accuse them of irresponsible lending. What are my next steps? Do I just email them back saying that I feel I was lent money irresponsibly and that I want a refund of the interest? and default removed? Please advise.

I have just discovered that my elderly mother inlaw (73) who is on income support has been getting regular loans from a local agent for provident. It would appear that a neighbour is drug dependant has been regularly getting money from her and so she has borrowed to support herself. There are two payment books in her possession which have a total of 5 different account numbers across the two books and are very difficult to understand. I can see on one occasion she was given two separate loans for £1000 each over the course of twenty days ( total credit £4200) surely the agent from provident would be starting to ask questions. How can an elderly person who gets income support be expected to pay over 50% of their benefit on loans. I have since moved her away from the area she lives, so the neighbour problem is sorted for now, just need to get my head round this provident stuff. Any help advice anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated. I have asked my mother inlaw what documentation she was asked to provide as evidence of income / benefit of which she informed me that it was all verbal, the agent asks how much and that was that. I also asked how she found out about them and she said she got a card posted through the door. Posting loan cards through old age pensions bungalows is disgusting. I am happy to provide

Hi There Just a quick query. Back in 2011 after a couple of years in the payday loan cycle I just couldn't keep up all of the interest payments to the large number of payday loan companies I was with. I was in a DMP at the time for a number of credit cards and stupidly got stuck in the payday loan cycle. I tried to add the PDLs to my DMP but Payday Express refused to agree to this because I shouldn't have taken on any further credit while in the DMP. I wasn't aware of this and my financial situation had become dire so I resorted to the PDLs. I was thinking of going down the irresponsible lending route with PDE but I am put off because I don't want to stir up any issues as I have been PDL free for a couple of years now. I had a number of loans with PDE and rolled them over regularly. They emailed me regularly saying that I wasn't using all of the credit available to me. I always paid on time up until mid 2011 when I had to admit defeat. They never registered a default and as I said I finally paid them in full. Does anyone think it's worth pursuing or should I just let sleeping dogs lie? Thanks in advance for any views. C

Hello, I have a problem, I have some debts with Lending Stream, I approached the CAB and informed lending stream of this and gave them a reference number so that they can communicate a payment plan. This has been going on since April, countless times my CAB officer has attempted to contact them to no avail, they do not respond. However I do get message still from CRS/Lending Stream about the debt, the other day I got a text message from CRS stating they had not received the payment from the plan agreed with my debt authority, which is not true because nothing has been agreed. My officer has contacted both parties yet again but to no avail. I've tried calling both parties also to see why they aren't responding to CAB but all I got was the debt it still with the other party and both sides not being helpful. Any advice on what to do or what may occur next?

Just had my noodle report and an account for Lending Stream has appeared on my file with the Date of default 28/05/2014 I did use Lending stream back in 2013 but I dont remember having anything outstanding. It might be I opened one just before I moved out but am 100% sure. The thing is all of the accounts from them have the wrong date of birth. My question is this. 1. Should I contact them and pay it off or wait for them to contact me 2. If they have the date wrong do I do anything about that. 3. Its showing as open - will that have any impact on anything? Just to add some more detail - the Default balance £ 158 I had 2 other loans with them (all pretty much one after each other or same time) all have the incorrect date of birth on it.

Hi, My husband and I took out a £6k loan, with £500 broker fee to Purple Loans. The loan was originally from iGroup, who became GE Money Home Lending. The Loan was taken out in Oct 2002 and was due to expire in October 2009. During the course of the loan, we did experience some financial difficulty (I wasn't working when we took the loan out) and fell into some arrears periodically. We always cleared the arrears. After buring our head in the sand about this loan never ceasing to end, In 2011 we entered into a verbal agreement, and suggestion by GE Money, to increase the monthly payment and that the loan would be 'clear in 4 years' . No chance of that! We are in year 4 and still owe £4,880. This is a secured loan, or I'd just stop paying. Detailed below is what we have paid (the second line of data is from the expiry of the loan) and been charged for up to 2013! I still have 2 years worth of montly £150 payments to be added and additional interest and additional interest - SI (simple interest) Credits Interest Additional Interest Additional Int - SI 10,916.45 4,684.44 4,245.56 22.41 6,397.80 3,374.03 345.56 We have also incurred the following charges during the 'term' of the loan. Admin Fee Default Notice Solicitor Interim Litigation Referal Interest Adj Valuation Fee Debt Councilling 2,560.00 119.25 2,169.15 20.00 1.01 17.62 94.00 There were threats of court during the arrears, although there was only one occassion that it go to the court attendance stage. I have been in touch with Citizens Advice, who passed me onto Nat'l Debt line. I have requested SAR from GE Money and have raised a complaint about unfair interest/admin charges with the Financial Ombudsman (as advise by Nat'l Debt Line). At one point, we were paying £133 per month, with the remaining £1.24 contractual interest, but with a whopping £88 something for additional interest!!! Any advice on where to go from here would be great. Oh, also on an illegible part of the contract - the PPI wasn't selected - so can't claim that back. Thanks

Hi, I've spent the last 5 years trying to clear through all the mess I was in, and through some great help from this site I've done a reasonable job so far. I've cleared a big chunk of the stuff that was keeping me in trouble and have now looked through the payday loans I had. Reading on here about irresponsible lending made me look at my old QQ loans, where I was quite shocked to see I had 59 loans one after the other,starting at £100 and ending up at £1350! In total I borrowed over £50k in 3 and a half years and the interest paid was over £8,500 Irresponsible on my side I understand but I was getting in more and more of a hole. Then I realised that was up to 2012 and my loans changed to a flex account that I could draw from, which seems to be blank on the QQ website. I've asked for details to see how much interest I paid over the 18 months I had that. At the time I also had loans with Wage Day Advance (small) and Pounds to Payday (pretty large), but understand the latter was based in Malta so I don't really have a leg to stand on there What is surprising is I also had a loan with Pounds to Pocket (4 of them in fact) while I had my flext account and they are owned by the same parent company as QQ. There is no chance they did any proper checks as my credit rating was shot to bits and 59 loans is not a short term fix I've fired them an email to ask them to explain their process and see what comes back. I'll update as I hear anything

Hi , just a brief question ... my parents , both over 70 and on pension are both gambling every penny and more on the fruit machines ( though as most addicts do they deny it ) and are regularly taking out Provident loans to support this ... I reclaimed nearly £2k in bank charges for them which was gone within the month as well as over £2k of Provident loans ... they have been on the phone to the agent again this morning so no doubt more will follow ! I have told the agent several times that they are gambling the money and she said she wouldn't give them any more - but she has ! and keeps 'paying off' old loans to make new ones ( more interest and charges ! ) Do I write to head office as I told the agent I would if she carried on ? Or write to the ombudsman ? This agent regularly helps them make up excuses for why they need the money - including 'doing up the house' despite being told they no longer have any financial hold on the house and that I do all the maintenance etc.

Lending Stream Hi there, in March 2011 I took out a loan with lending stream (amongst others), which I didn’t pay back, Due to a gambling addiction (addiction fixed now:-)) All of my accounts at the time fell into arrears and therefore default, which I deserved But upon checking my credit file, all of my other accounts show a default date of around may-sept 2011, yet lending stream show there’s as Nov 2012 With the 6 year rule I was happy to wait till sept 2017, but lending streams is a more than a year later, I thought It was a reporting mistake so I called them, and they confirmed the same date Surely it should have defaulted within 3 months to 180 days like the rest, I’ve heard of lending stream being weird how they report things to the CCA’s Can I challenge this? I.e. you should have defaulted me sooner

So as the title say can they refuse permission? Do I need their permission? It's regarding a loan I took out in 2011. At the time I had already been using payday loans since Oct 2011 several times a month with several different companies, rollovers, same day borrowing, several on the go from different companies and at the time I took out the loan I already had loans outstanding with 6 other payday loan companies and it far outstripped my income leading to a default on the all in April 2011. I contact CFO 2 weeks before repayment and they refused a repayment plan telling me that they didn't "do" repayment plans and I had to pay the full balance or default and refused to provide me with paying in details. I got details from here and started paying back small amounts but like others on here they hounded me with emails, texts and phone calls to the point I was scared to check my emails or turn on my phone. They sent Daniel Silverman after me and offered their Resolve Loan which I obviously didn't take although I do believe if I had that would have compounded the problem. The loan which started at £250 has ballooned despite payments of £93 initially, my payments then started being rejected by CFO and returned to my bank. I certainly think its irresponsible lending on their part and put in my complaint. I've had their final response back saying that as a goodwill gesture they will reduce my balance to just over £400 and that my complaint is out of time for the FOS and they don't give me permission to take my complaint to the FOS. I've obviously rejected their offer, I believe at the least the should reduce it to the original loan of £250 minus what i've paid plus compensation for the unsympathetic and frankly appalling way they treated me when I told them I was in financial difficulties also they should remove the default. In an ideal world i'd say wipe the balance but I don't see them or FOS agreeing to that so I need to be fair. I've kept a good paper trail of all emails from them except the Resolve texts and emails as I've got a new phone since then and must have deleted the resolve email Is this the end of the line for my complaint or can I go to FOS?

Hi all I have a question regarding irresponsible lending. I had a massive amount of loans from 2011- 2014 with them. I tried getting my full my previous loans from the site however. I have checked my email account for all confirmed payment emails. £294.51 on Fri Mar 25 2011 £338.64 on Fri Aug 26 2011 £186.17 on Tue Sep 27 2011 £254.14 on Thu Oct 27 2011 £74.54 on Fri Dec 23 2011 £432.64 on Sun Feb 26 2012 £383.84 on Tue Mar 27 2012 £298.34 on Fri Apr 27 2012 £176.97 on Sat May 26 2012 £305.90 on Wed Jun 27 2012 £404.59 on Fri Sep 28 2012 £1377.68 on Sat Jan 26 2013 £198.15 on Wed Jun 26 2013 £726.60 on Fri Jul 26 2013 £551.16 on Mon Aug 26 2013. £1276.99 on Sat Oct 26 2013. £1297.10 on Wed Nov 27 2013 £1052.27 on Fri Dec 20 2013. £1357.43 on Fri Jan 24 2014 £581.33 on Wed Feb 26 2014 £1164.50 on Tue Feb 26 2013 £122.15 on Mon May 27 2013 £1357.43 ON Fri Jan 24 2014. £112.89 ON jan 24 2014 £581.33 on Wed Feb 26 2014 Total = 14907.29] I have just sat down and worked this all out I am and really angry with my self for being so stupid. this is a base figure but I seriously need some advice on how to claim back from Wonga and irresponsible lending to me. my loans rolled over for multiple months and I did email them at one stating I was having financial difficulties I have email references etc - I borrowed the funds from my family to clear down. Things just spiralled out of control. I have a young family and these things just kept on piling and piling on. I finally managed to escape them. How ever I feel my circumstances were never considered and my account was never reviewed fully. I tried to apply for one again in just after the one in feb 2014 when I was struggling but I think Wonga had finally reviewed my case and deemed that it had gone against responsible lending and refused me. Can anyone give a step by step procedure.

Has anyone seen this from the Daily Mail - pathetic attempt to prove what we already know happens.. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/cardsloans/article-2573686/Woman-allowed-EIGHT-payday-loans-time.html

Hi I am in need of a little advice. I currently have 3 loans with Lending Stream and 3 loans with Sunny and unfortunately am unable to make the full payments. I have contacted them with regards a repayment plan. I want to know if I will get into trouble as I unfortunately lied on my applications. I stated that I was self employed earning £1900 per month when in fact I am unemployed. I know I should not have done this but I am/ was an alcoholic and gambling addict. I have now stopped my gambling and am still working on the alcoholism. I am just worried they could take legal action if they find out. I also read on here that it is irresponsible lending to give me 3 loans at the same time. I have also been constantly paying off and taking out new loans with both of them due to gambling (winning/losing). Should I be looking into this or should I just keep quiet and accept a repayment plan so that they don't realise that I lied on the application. Sunny have asked me to fill in an income and expenditure form and have froze my account for 30 days (this was 2 weeks ago) and Lending Stream have also sent me an income and expenditure form but they are also asking for Proof of JSA/ Termination of Emplyment which is what worries me. Lending Stream are still adding interest at this time. Thanks in advance for your help.

Ok, CFO lending have just responded to my complaint and said they basically agree they lent to me irresponsibly and were too harsh with collections. They have offered to half my balance from 2k to 1k - removing interest. Now they were my worst lender, I rolled over loans with them non stop for months, years. They lent to me even with a DRO. They did no checks at all and were horrificly harrassful. I paid them zillions in interest and charges, and then they offered me CFO resolve, MORE credit after a year of defaulting which TRIPLED my balance with them. I think I should take to the ombudsman, but could I expect a better outcome? Personally I think the loan should be wiped completely plus compensation. I mean my loans went like this: 200 - 250 - 450 - 550 - 750 - 900 with MULTIPLE months of rollovers in between. Whats your opinion?

We were palmed off with these cowboys by the Mortgage point (Liverpool) when we first moved house. What we were not told was that we were stuck with this outfit for the first three or four years on a two year fixed rate meaning the extra years were being charged at a much higher interest rate. Due to illness I can no longer work so changing provider is more or less impossible, we are stuck with them. We tried to get solar panels to cut our ever rising energy bill but GE refuses to give permission, one of only a very few companies to not allow this because, and I quote, " we (GE Money)own the house till you have paid for it". Avoid at all costs.

Hi I stupidly took loans out with lending stream. I then had my hours cut and was unable to pay. I emailed them and asked not present direct debit as it would be rejected. they stil went ahead and made lots of withdraws at midnight for £3.00 even though I owe them £100 The bank phoned me and as I did not recognise the amounts put a stop on the card and my account. I have open another account but I am confused what do I do now. Will they agree to a repayment plan over 1 year? Really worried they will start phoning me at work

Hi, I'm new here so please accept my apologies if I'm asking the same question as hundreds of others or posting in the wrong place! A couple of years back, I suffered mental health problems and also a gambling addiction and got 'stuck in a rut' with various payday lenders. I knew I could say I earnt however much I wanted, no one checked, few credit checked, and I got money to waste. I was forever offered the chance to extend these loans, or repay them and get a higher loan the same day, until I reached breaking point, and for a while I've ignored them all. My question really is, although I'm not saying I was completely innocent in all this, are the loans enforceable? Were all the times Payday UK and CFO lending emptied my bank account, right down to the pence, reasonable? Was the refusal to discuss payment plans without including ridiculous interest rates fair? I'd be grateful of any feedback/advice. Many thanks

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33555764

Hi all - I hope someone can help with this query - thanks in advance for any advice! My situation - I've been on a Debt Management Plan for a few years and use one of my two bank accounts to make the payments. Last summer while I was making my usual DMP payments I noticed online that an overdraft facility had become available on that account, interest free for a year. I thought it'd be a good way to help pay off the few creditors who were still charging me interest, including a couple of payday loan firms. The problem is that in the coming months every time I clicked on the overdraft link online I was allowed to borrow more - taking it from £200 up to almost £6,000 now. I was stupid to keep clicking, I know... But the bank gave me this overdraft despite me: a) not paying my salary into the account; b) having multiple defaults on my credit record; c) making payments to two or more debt collection firms each month; d) using payday lenders and, e) even more stupidly, gambling online - a big part of how I ended up in this mess in the first place. So - they are due to start charging interest on this overdraft soon and it's going to tip me over the edge (again). I really don't want to default and want to find a way through it. But my question is whether I should complain about a breach of their responsible lending guidelines. Would that serve any purpose? Do I have a case? What might they do, for better or worse? I've actually had refunds from a few payday loan firms who acknowledged they should never have issued loans to me, so I'd have thought a mainstream bank must have some sort of similar view? Any advice would be very much appreciated! Thanks

Hiya I was wondering if anyone can advise me on what I can do about HSBC and irresponsible lending. I’m going to keep it as short as possible and am happy to give more information but no point hurting your eyes any more reading my thread than needed In 2007 I got a personal bank loan couple of years later the media started talking about banks doing wrong and there being a court case about if / what they done wrong. I started researching about my bank loan and felt it was mis sold. Applied to bank then escalated to FOS for PPI refund and this, in the end, was given back 'as a gesture of good will'. Then tried to apply again to FOS about irresponsible lending. Esp. where the manager had to over ride the system in order for me to get the bank loan. Asked for correspondence/notes/information (internal and external) from FOS and Bank when all was happening. On the FOS own internal notes it states that HSBC haven’t got a contact for my loan Alarm bells rung and I stated that without a contact (esp. pre April 2007) there was no loan! On HSBC own internal paperwork it has there own employee saying it would have gone over SLA timing. Another note said that there had been a restriction on my account up until the day we'd asked for the contact. FOS did not agree the bank loan was mis sold. In fact they said I had lied in order to get the loan. Truth was it was there OWN employee who suggested I add my boyfriends (who was with me when applying) income in the section of ‘OTHER GUARANTEED INCOME’ and again with there own paperwork the asterix by it states that any information put in that box would need to be verified. Within my paperwork my credit rating was classed as an A2. When we asked HSBC what this meant they stated - (Quote) The system grades lending requests - in the cases of A1 this would mean an outright acceptance with no further decision making necessary . For example, someone with an excellent credit rating requesting to lend a small amount of money. Likewise, a R1 would be an outright reject. The A2 in this case means that the system accepts on the condition that the branch also accepts on the condition that the branch also accepts - it not a 100% computer generated decision but dependent on review and acceptance by branch (End quote) So it states the bank would have to say 'yes this person is able to have the money they can pay us back'. Again I stated to FOS that due to the bank not being able to produce the contract that would make it void they again didn’t agree. Another thing that buggered me big time with HSBC (ever so slightly separate but equally need advice) is in 2010 stated to them I was in financial hardship. They put the loan in 'parking' (hold payments / not add interest as in financial trouble) yet 2 months later they started their weird process of taking 1 and half month money then normal payment then 3/4 of a month payment etc. In a space of 30 days they took 3 payments totalling - £835.05!!! For a part time working, single mother of a young lad with wages of £550 odd per month that’s more than my month wages!! Then came in the bank charges (the circle of being charged for being charged...sometimes hundreds of pounds!) no matter WHAT I said I was always in the wrong from there point of view. I am more than happy to go in to more detail about anything needed but any kind of advice would be brilliant. I don’t know if Id be able to go down a legal process to get them. I have read through the whole CCA 1974 and feel that by there own rules they have been irresponsible for there actions. For me now it’s a principal thing. Don’t get me wrong Id LOVE the money back but for the last 5 years it’s been about my credit rating . They have totally buggered it up! I feel I am right in what I have found but to be told no your wrong by the FOS is a confidence hitter. Ok so I’ve waffled on here....repeated my self I’m sure...just hope that I have made (some) sense. Thank you in advance for any help!

We are looking to take out a bank loan secured against our property, we have been advised by the bank that we need to obtain 'independent legal advice for secured lending against a property for debt consolidation'. I've just spoken to a solicitor who basically said that the purpose of this is just to take the responsibility away from the bank, and that that it's largely for their benefit. Is this the case, should we get it anyway?

Good news, Cash Genie will no longer issue any loans at all, so hopefully less people will get in trouble in the future, just got this email out of the blue:

Deep breath.....I had a mortgage brokerage business which has gone into liquidation. I have a mortgage with GE, payments 789 per month I have been unable to pay since December due to business issues and no job....I am currently 10,500 in arrears. They have a suspended possession order from Novmber 2008, at which point the arrears were 5000 I now have full time employment and also, this month, I come off a horrendous fixed rate of 7.09, to a more manageable variable rate of 2.25%, making my payments circa 300 per month I received a field visit and offered the new payment plus 100 per month by direct debit, and said I would pay more as and when my finances allowed. I set up a direct debit with GE last thursday, and received confirmation by letter. Yesterday I rang them to confirm something, and was told they were cancelling the direct debit, and had applied to the court for an eviction date. I made them an offer of £800 per month, which they declined, and they said I had to find circa 7000 pounds upfront for an arrangement to even be considered. They also asked if I knew anyone who could lend me the lump sum, and declined to discuss the matter further. My estranged wife and three children live in the house. She is suffering from depression and Bells Palsy, and is currently undergoing counseliing due to violent and horrific abuse suffered as a child. Repossession will kill her, and I begged GE to reconsider. They said because I had broken previous arrangements, they simply werent interested. I also pointed out the 25k of negative equity and asked them how they benefitted from putting my kids on the street, especially seeing as my payment is about to reduce by 60% They told me no court hearing would take place, they would simply ask for a date for eviction, and a bailiff would hand deliver the letter confirming the date. he bluntly pointed out, when I offered to pay a payment by card there and then, that it would make little difference to the overall situation and I would probably be better keeping my money and contacting the local authority. Any help with this would be most appreciated, I really am at the end of my tether with all of this Thank you in advance

Hi I am new to all this. I have a mortgage with GE which is nearing the end. I know that on a few occasions they have not credited my account with payments that I have made, and that I have been charged for visits that I did not request. I haven't got a clue what to look for or where to start with regards to the possibility that they have been robbing me over numerous years. My payments over the years have been a bit haphazard and on one occasion I cleared my arrears but they only cleared them from one account, leaving that account in credit and the other two still in arrears. They still charged me £40 admin charges that month. They are charging me £40 per month admin fees, interest, and additional interest. Can someone please help me or advise me of where I can go to get this checked because I don't know what is legal or illegal with what they have been doing and I now owe much more than I borrowed in the first place. Please help me.

I received a text message today from CFO, which said they had contacted my employers regarding a debt with them. I was furious and called them straight away, what happened next beggers belief.. I spoke with an advisor and said I did not want any calls to my employer and to contact me by mail only, he said " we will continue to call your employer until you pay us what you owe us, no matter how many requests you put in. I will call them ten times tomorrow " and then hung up on me, furious I called back, spoke to another advisor who said that I could contact OFT with a complaint but that didn't alter the fact I was a thief as I had not paid all money back " surely it cannot be legal to speak to people like that irrelevant if you have outstanding debts or not ???