Credit unions have been around in the UK since the late 1970s and are a form of co-operative and self help organisation. They were set up to offer low-cost loans of smaller amounts for people who couldn’t get affordable credit, or who were using doorstep lenders. Sadly, they are an underused resource, but they are a realistic alternative to payday loans [PDLs] and loansharks. As they are not profit-making, their rates are much lower than other high street lenders or PDL companies. There are 400 to 500 credit unions in the UK with almost a million members. As well as low-cost loans for smaller amounts, some now offer current accounts, savings and mortgages. Who can they help? Whilst the main aim of credit unions was to provide affordable loans to people who can’t get help from the banks, nowadays they also appeal to people who want to bank with an ethical organisation and benefit their local community. And because their rates are attractive, credit unions are becoming a popular form of affordable borrowing. Any member of a union can apply for a loan. How do I find a local credit union? The ABCUL website has a search facility to find a local credit union. Once you find one near you, you will still need to check the rules to make sure you are eligible to be a member. http://www.findyourcreditunion.c o.uk/home There is also a helpline on 0161 832 3694.. And your local library or CAB may be able to help. Who can join? Each union will have its own rules, but generally you will need to live or work locally, or belong to the same employer or organisation as other members. For example, the NHS participates, along with some transport companies, trade unions, churches and other organisations. From 2012, organisations as well as individuals are allowed to be members of credit unions. What is the least I can save? Credit unions will let you save as little or as much as you can afford when you have money to spare, weekly, monthly or more frequently. You can make deposits at your local credit union branch or local collection points like shops, or have money deducted from your wages or by direct debit from a bank account. When you save, you know you will be helping neighbours or colleagues, rather than helping to make money for shareholders. And at the end of the year, your credit union aims to pay out a dividend on your savings, depending on how well the union has done. According to ABCUL, this can be up to 8% of what you’ve saved. Many credit unions include Life Assurance at no extra cost. How do I get an affordable loan and how much can I borrow? Loans are usually available up to around £3000. To borrow, you need to be a member of the credit union. They will take into account your circumstances and make sure you can afford the repayments. Life assurance should be built into the loan at no extra cost, so if someone dies owing money, it’s paid off by the insurance. What will it cost? This calculator helps you work out how much it might cost to repay a loan, although you would need to check with your local union. The most a credit union is allowed to charge is 26.8% interest, compared with 4000% for some payday loans! http://www.abcul.org/credit-unions/b...a-credit-union Can I pay the loan off early? Yes, there is no charge for this. If I invest, can I lose my money? Your money is protected in the same way as other savings, by the FSCS [Financial Services Compensation Scheme]. http://www.fscs.org.uk/ Credit unions are regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority [FCA]. Where do I find out more? For other information, here is a link to the ABCUL website. Or contact your local credit union. http://www.abcul.org/home

Hello, new user here. Ive recently come under financial struggle and had 2 loans with lending stream and paid 3 months for each of them but struggled last month and emailed them about it to see if they can half the months payment required and put it on the next one as i would of been able to pay it all in one go then. They refused but instead tried to set me up a 3rd loan account covering the payments, i didnt take it as thats more interest i would be paying but since they refused to help me i refused to pay as i simply could not anyway and i am now contacting debt charity. How ever i just got 2 emails today from LS stating my accounts have been terminated for failure to update my account after a default within 14 days. Thats fine, they will now chase the money and harrass me but the thing i noticed is on the email it stats im still going to be hit with interest until i have paid it off? So they can cancel my account and demand the money upfront but continue to add interest like i still hold a contract with them and its still in good order? Sounds iffy to me. Currently my 1st loan remaining of £170 is now £320 with all the fees they have hit me with after not being able to pay the 1 month. Now they will keep adding interest even though my account has been "terminated" Am i reading into termination incorrectly and presuming the account should now be "closed" with no more fee's being added but they obviously have the right to chase up the original loan sum which im happy to pay off but i am not happy or capable of paying off insane fee's such as these which seem to be happening.

Hi, So im trying to set up a payment plan with lending stream. Ive sent them all the relevent information they asked for via email. They are now saying that i must ring them up to set up a payment plan as they carnt do it online. I assume they are doing this to try and pressure me into ageeing to their terms for the payment plan? I have set up payments plans with ease with other companies online. Im sending them emails everyday stating i am eager to set this up and start paying, but as of yet no replys. Anyone have any experience with this company when it comes to payment plans?

Hi guys i have put the claim through small claims courts as GE money refused to pay me the charges.Help me please what to do now.

It seems there is an enormous tailback of serious complaints out there in the forum relating to the activities of GE MONEY HOME LENDING and it's associated companies - In 2002 my wife and I approached a company called Purple Loans for a secured loan on our property to carry out home improvements, it seemed right at the time since we owned the property outright, the loan was approved and that was that. In 2003 a member of the family had a tragic accident which left him paralysed and in need of constant care. We applied for a second home owner loan to carry extensive alterations to our property in order to provide the right accommodation for him. The first loan incorporated a Life and income protection policy which we were told was a mandatory criteria for the loan approval, when the second loan was approved in 2003, we queried the benefits of the policy and what it actually covered, in my case it didn't cover anything as I was self-employed - I was told that the policy couldn't be cancelled and would have to run to the expiry date of 2005, the cost of this policy was part of the loan amount which was over a fifteen year term, my loan repayments therefore include the cost of this policy along with the interest over the fifteen year period, a policy which expired in 2005 and was not renewed since in a nutshell it was worthless. It was pretty chaotic during the period 2003 and 2009 as both my wife and I had become full time carers for my father, I did however on a number occasions during this period argue the point about the policy and why it was I was paying for this policy over a fifteen year term when it no longer existed and was fraudulently sold in the first place. In 2011 I again began chasing the company, Ge money home lending, over this matter, nothing was forthcoming from GE other than excuses, one person would say there was never a policy on the account, another person would say the matter was 'time barred' and others would say the company was not regulated prior to 2005 and so on. Late on in 2011, I perhaps did a stupid thing - I with held making further payments to the account on the basis that they, GE, owed me money, this went on for about three months during which time I was bombarded with letters at the rate of one every other day and phone calls every day ranging from eight in the morning to nine at night. .and they were continual! eventually I resumed making my normal monthly payments which meant my account was in arrears, even though they, GE, were not prepared to recalculate my payments with regard to the policy matter, in 2012 i notified GE that I was leaving the self employed industry and becoming employed, something which I had been considering for a long time, I also notified them that I was putting my property up for sale in order to get rid of the 'GE millstone' once and for all, they sent me a letter back, to say they appreciated the fact that I was keeping them informed and I was being positive (eh). Leading up to Christmas 2012 apart from being laid off from work (recession!) I was also involved in a car accident which didn't help matters, even so, I was still making my normal monthly payments to the account. On January the 21st 2013 I rang GE to say that I was unable to make the full payment for January, they agreed that I could pay them half the amount on the understanding that I contacted them on the 28th January with an update as I had a job interview on the 24th January. On the 23rd January a car ran into the back of my car pushing me into another car (does this get worse?) luckily I was insured although my car was destined to be off the road for several weeks. On the 28th January I rang GE as per agreed to give them an update, whilst I was on the phone trying to explain my dilemma, the postman dropped a big fat envelope through my letter box, which had the words 'EVERSHEDS' in bold letters across it. It was GE's answer to everything 'repossession proceedings commenced' - 2 days after having agreed a lesser payment over the phone, taking the payment by debit card, they decided to issue repossession proceedings - there was no pre-legal protocol applied, they lied in the court documents, they lied about the content of the telephone call - the first hearing on the 28th February was adjourned thanks to the intervention of the solicitors of a charitable organisation called Shelter, the second hearing on the 28th March was dismissed as I had brought my account up to date the day before, the judge ordered that the case for costs was also dismissed although I still got notification from GE 3 days later that legal costs to the tune £1100 had been applied to my account - even now I'm still getting letters from GE at an average of three to four a week, and instead of phone calls I now get text messages from them to say 'payment due on' such a date. I can't wait to get these people out of my life once and for all. My message to anyone out there is - steer well clear of anything that has anything to do with GE MONEY HOME LENDING and to all those who are at their wits end having already dealt with them post your experiences in order that others don't fall victim to their unscrupulous tactics!______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi Everyone, Firstly, i'll say thanks in advance, i need all the help you can give me. I've borrowed from Lending Stream, stupidly, but was in a bad situation and i made a very bad decision to go down this road. Hubby not been working for a long while now, we only have my wage and things are very tough. A job was in the pipeline, or so we thought, but it fell through last minute, i'd already borrowed from Lending Stream and i'm just not able to pay them back. I emailed them over a week ago, i explained the situation and asked if they would consider a payment plan of £65.00 per month. Got a very heart warming email from them saying if i called, they would be more than happy to work with me to get a repayment plan set up and to help me clear the outstanding balance. What a load of toss. I phoned (very silly of me), was passed from pillar to post and 20 mins later no plan set up. They needed my most recent payslip and an i and e form filled out. Email tennis has now went on for a week now. So i've been on here reading everything i can to try and keep myself right. I am refusing to give them my payslip, i filled out Ellen's Budget Sheet and sent them this under duress (i felt theirs was too intrusive). I got an email just 10 mins ago from then, firstly i can arrange a plan by email, then they gave me their bank details, next it said they updated the system with my income and expenditure sheet, they're happy to work with me, then i need to send my most recent payslip and that a plan can only be worked out for an affordable amount by phoning their customer service reps. Are they on drugs? Can someone help me PLEASE. I'm worn done and dont know what else to do. Unhappy x

I have been reading a lot of post on the forum in relation to pay day loans but have finally decided to seek my own advice and somebody can help. Over the course of the last year or so I have unfortunately fell into the payday loan trap of securing further loans to pay interest on others but this is a story I’m sure you have heard a million times before but desperate times called for desperate measures. My payday loans are with Wonga, TXT Loans, PDUK, Pounds to Pocket and Lending Stream. It came to a head and I decided that I needed to take back control of my situation before it spiralled out of control. I contacted each lender and over time I have managed to secure affordable payment plans with each lender and to be fair they have all been very helpful to date apart from Lending Stream. I have tried and tried to contact Lending Stream but have yet to get a reply and they keep bombarding me with calls, texts and e-mails requesting payment. I have now e-mailed them on several different e-mail addresses over 25 times and even (contrary to advice on this forum) tried ringing them but there seems to be a fault on there telephone line. I have made an official complaint to the company but still no reply just constant reminders of my required payment date/amounts. How should I deal with this firm? I simply can not continue to send them e-mails if they are falling on deaf ears. Has anyone else had any dealing with this company and failed to contact them? I hope someone can help me as this is the only outstanding payday loan where I have not secured a payment plan with.

So I am an idiot and took out a loan with CFO lending for £200, I paid that back and then took another £600 and it was due at the end of april and I didn't pay it back nor could I rollover. CFO is telling me I have to fill in a IE form and send a bank statement. I have filled an IE and sent it back but refuse to send a bank statement. There seems to be no resolution as they want a bank statement and won't set up a payment plan without one. But there is no way I will ever provide that. So now my balance was £680 owed, and is now £840. Actually, come to think of it. I could provide them with the bank statement which they sent the money to and not my other bank account which my salary goes into, reckon it would work? Anyone got any advice for me? Thanks.

We have 2 accounts with these people. I know I should have had this at the FOS by now but I thought I'd try and sort it out without them. So in June 2012 we sent though a repayment proposal. It was ignored. We sent a formal complaint that was also ignored in September of 2012 and this was also ignored. They have sent 3, maybe 4 DCA to collect and each has been told that we won't deal with them due to LS ignoring us. We have finally got from them some information in relation to the 2 accounts that we needed and wonder what options we have. Basically the 2 accounts break down as; Account 1 - Original loan = £100. Arrears = £142.00. Payments made = £132.50. Charges to the account = £97.50. Account 2 - Original loan = £135. Arrears = £399.50. Payments made = £0.00. Charges to the account = £264.50. I just wondered what steps we should take next. Lending Stream, despite being in the wrong for ignoring me seem to not want to come to an arrangement at all. Thanks Lee.

Hello hoping someone could give me some advice, I stupidly took out a loan with CFO a few months ago but I lost my job so was unable to repay it, I contacted CFO numerous times on the phone to set up a payment plan but was always refused and was told I need to make payment in full to prevent legal action. Last month CFO offered me there resolve product to wipe off the current interest I have on my account and I thought this would be great that way I can avoid over £100 in charges, but the problem is when I applied there stupid staff put my account number in wrong so my resolve loan amount was sent elsewhere, after waiting 10 working days (ringing them everyday but no-one seemed to no where the money had gone) they finally received the funds back. I was then told I would need to re-apply for the resolve product so I could have the interest removed from my account, I re-applied and now CFO are stating I no longer meet there lending criteria!!! And I'm liable to pay all outstanding charges on my account by my payment date of 31/5/13 I have wrote a email of complaint to them but doubt if that's going to get me far, is there anything I can do about the interest I was told I can have taken off ?

Hi all, Firstly thanks for taking the time to read this and I really would appreciate any help that you could offer me. My father is going on 60 and is in almost £46,000 of debt (mortgage). He got into this debt through bad decisions with shares. He started buying shares in the early 2000s and used credit cards to fund the purchasing. He obtained numerous credit cards which each had amounts between £5000-£15000 and in total had access to over £100,000 of credit through credit cards. The companies he invested in performed poorly and when the share prices went down, he invested more money to try to recoup his losses and this spiraled out of control resulting in him remortgaging his house to pay off the credit card debts. He has now reduced that debt to almost £46,000. He has 5 years left on the mortgage term and is unlikely to be able to pay the mortgage off in full by the end of that term so he is going to approach the building society about getting an extension on his mortgage term. His situation is unusual in that he has suffered from mental illness on and off since the early 90s and he believes that the decisions he made to purchase shares and to keep borrowing more money in order to recoup his losses with shares were made whilst mentally unwell. All the credit card debts were settled in full some time ago and most of the borrowing took place between 2004-2008. I strongly feel that he was lent an unmanageable amount of money (his annual income at the time was around £30,000, yet he managed to secure over 3 times that in credit) and that there was irresponsible lending on the part of the credit card companies. I believe that the companies lent him the money knowing that the amount they gave him was more than he could afford to repay. As he took out numerous cards over the course of several years each new credit card company that he approached must have been able to see on his credit report that he was already over-extended financially. There are several questions that I have that I would be very grateful if you could shed any light on: 1. Is it possible that the credit card lenders acted unlawfully by lending such large amounts to my father (in consideration of responsible lending practices)? 2. Do you think it would be possible for him to claim compensation for their irresponsible lending leading in part to his very difficult situation with debt? 3. Does the bank have an obligation to take my father's mental health conditions and the reasons for him getting into debt with his mortgage into account when considering whether or not to grant him an extension of the mortgage term? 4. How would we go about approaching the credit card companies/relevant authorities to report this to? Many thanks, rbr

I have been reading a lot of post on the forum in relation to pay day loans but have finally decided to seek my own advice and hope somebody can help. Over the course of the last year or so I have unfortunately fell into the payday loan trap of securing further loans to pay interest on others but this is a story I’m sure you have heard a million times before but desperate times called for desperate measures. My payday loans are with Wonga, TXT Loans, PDUK, Pounds to Pocket and Lending Stream. It came to a head and I decided that I needed to take back control of my situation before it spiralled out of control. I contacted each lender and over time I have managed to secure affordable payment plans with each lender and to be fair they have all been very helpful to date apart from Lending Stream. I have tried and tried to contact Lending Stream but have yet to get a reply and they keep bombarding me with calls, texts and e-mails requesting payment. I have now e-mailed them on several different e-mail addresses over 25 times and even (contrary to advice on this forum) tried ringing them but there seems to be a fault on there telephone line. I have made an official complaint to the company but still no reply just constant reminders of my required payment date/amounts. How should I deal with this firm? I simply can not continue to send them e-mails if they are falling on deaf ears. Has anyone else had any dealing with this company and failed to contact them? I hope someone can help me as this is the only outstanding payday loan where I have not secured a payment plan with.

[ATTACH]42796[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]42796[/ATTACH] Good evening, I have been reading some of the forums recently with regards to GE Money and would like some of your expert advice please. Let me summarize... Took out a loan for £26,000 ( Secured) in March 2005 over a 15 year period Had difficulties early on in the loan and started to incur some charges and additional interest, this was then on/off like this for the next 7 years. With repayment plans put into place etc etc Seperated from my Ex Wife in 2011 and ended up having to sell the house for a large loss due to pressure from GE Money & Halifax Paid off the GE Money loan in January 2012 Now....I am ready to take these guys on :mad2:, I requested a SAR which came within 2 weeks (yesterday), I have been through this document today and the anger grew as I listed all the charges that had been applied to the account over the 7 year period!!! It seems to be over £7,000 pounds in admin fee's, additional interest, solicitors fees, lunch for GE directors ( made that one up ) and I am very very confused how they distributed the final payment which I will summarize later. I am going to attached a full excel spreadsheet showing my findings but below is a brief summary which may give you some idea of what I want to claim and if I can?? Charges I think I can claim NARRATIVEFEEADDITIONAL INTEREST£3,387.61 ADMINISTRATION FEE£2,000.00 SOLICITOR INTERIM LEGAL FEES£1,089.86 INCOME ON EARLY SETTLEMENT£353.92 REFUND OVERPAYMENT 999999 CHAP£204.16 INTEREST DUE DATE CHANGE£130.01 REPAYMENT OF ADMIN CHARGE£84.00 DD RECALL CHARGE£65.00 DEFAULT NOTICE CHARGE£65.00 INTEREST ADJ£5.38 £7,384.94 Summary of the loan ACTUALTOTAL MORTGAGE PAYMENTS£33,111.02 FINAL PAYMENT£28,006.26 £61,117.288 2MONTHS LESS INITIAL LOAN AMOUNT£26,000.00£745.33TOTAL COST OF LOAN£35,117.28ORIGINAL LOAN PLANINITIAL LOAN AMOUNT£26,000.00180£404.76 Months/Payment£72,856.80 In the 82 months I was paying this loan my average monthly payment was £745.33!!!!!!!!! Final Payment Redemption Below is the last few transactions on the loan account before it was cleared, I am confused on what all these payments mean, in particular the payment for repayment of fees and additions ( £4,539.22) DATECODENARRATIVEDEBITCREDITBALANCE26/12/20114004ADDITIONAL INTEREST£67.60£0.00£27,498.4106/01/20124443REDEMPTION ( TT THE LAW PRACTICE)£0.00£28,006.26-£507.8508/01/20124004ADDITIONAL INTEREST£3.93£0.00£503.9209/01/20124444INCOME ON EARLY SETTLEMENT£353.92£0.00-£150.0009/01/20124439SOLICITOR DISCHARGE FEE£66.00£0.00-£84.0009/01/20124342BLANK?£84.00£0.00£0.0009/01/20124420REPAYMENT OF ADMIN CHARGE£0.00£84.00-£84.0009/01/20124414REPAYMENT OF FEES AND ADDITION£0.00£4,539.22£4,623.2209/01/20124416REPAYMENT OF CAPITAL£0.00£20,622.58£25,245.8009/01/20124063BALANCE TRANSFER ON SETTLEMENT£25,245.80£0.00£0.00 Please based on the above could you give me some advice on the following Can I claim back all the charges? If not which ones do you think I should aim for? If yes to the above, what is the next suggested move? Can I claim back interest on these charges? I have used 8% on the charge calclulator ?( Tab 1) Do the redemption figures look correct? Figure on the calculator shows £9k + does this mean I have to go to court? I am really sorry that it is such a long thread for a newbie bit wanted to try and give you as much information as possible to try and get some valued comments Hope someone can help I will keep this thread as fully up to date as possible with all my results to aid other people in there claims. Regards Steve Excel Sheet Tab 1 - Compound Interest Calculator Tab 2 - Summary of charges and mortgage payments Tab 3 - Full breakdown of charges by date Tab 4 - Final Redemption Summary

Hi i am hopeing you can help. I took out a payday loan with CFO lending a while back for £500 pounds. With interest this comes to £680 pounds. I have rolled over the loan 2 times and on each occasion i have paid the 180 interest. I have now offered to clear the balance and another 1 months interest in the following plan April 28th - £180.00 May 28th - £250.00 June 28th - £250.00 I was told this would not be possible but i could continually pay the interest and small amounts off my loan. as of 28th of april i would have paid £540.00 interest Do you see this as an acceptable plan as they are plain refusing to assist and i feel like i have a case to make a complaint kind regards

I stupidly took a pay day loan out with these people as my partner has been on long term sick. When i looked on there repayment schedule it didnt make any sense. This month it was 98.00 then next month it was 158.00. I asked if i could set up a new repayment pan and offered to pay 35 this month and next and when my partner returned back to work in May i could pay a lot more. They sent me an email back with an explanation why the payments were different each month but it didnt make any sense to me. They have asked me to email them an I+E and my payslip and wont take any payments till the 22nd April. At the bottom of the email it goes on to say that if i want to set up a new repayment plan to get in touch with them. This is what i have done and they seemed to have ignored it do you think they have done this on purpose. It states on my account that i borrowed 315 and that total repayment is 409 but according to the schedule i am clearly paying more than that. I have sent them a further email this morning stating that i have asked for a new repayment plan and i am offering to pay something i just cant afford what is on the schedule for the next two months. Any advice on these people will be greatly recieved.

Hi Guys, Long time no speak lol. Hope everyone's well? Payday Loan free now, but need a wee bit of help re Lending Stream. I was on a repayment plan with them, and all was straightforward. Last payment was made at the end of November, and although I asked for an email or letter to tell me this, nothing was received and they haven't taken or tried to take any more payments. I have the original repayment schedule though. I signed up with Noddle, cause like everyone else who's been down the Payday Loan rocky road, my credit rating is very poor to say the least, and i'm just wanting to keep an eye on how things are going. Well good old Lending Stream have marked 2 Late Payments on my credit file and I can't understand why. I've emailed them with no joy, I've not received any communication telling me I still owe any money, I've made all the payments they requested, and they've marked it as a fully paid loan. Can anyone help me to try and make sense of this. Cheers Guys, Karen x

So I have been trying for ages not to get LS to agree with what I see I owe them, they claim £93 I say £34 (late fees + default fee). I have tried to get them to agree to removing all negative information if I pay up, long shot but thought I'd give it a go, they just reply with 'agreement number xxxx in termination status'. My online account states: My credit report has just been updated with: Status history - D SF Balance history - 0 Date of default - 26/11/2012 So my account has now been settled, is this account likely to be going to DCA now?

A friend of mine took out two payday loans with this compayn and now she cannot pay the loans back. Each loan is due tom she took them out over a six month instalment period. The total loa amount for both is 500.00 I have told her to offer instalment plan but I am now worried that they may try to collect payment. She works part time and earns less than 600.00 a month so not sure how she qualified for the two loans. Please can you advise next steps.. IVe told her to cancel her debit card account will this help?? and I am looking for template letters for emailing. She is also worried that they ma call her home and workplace..are they allowed to do this?? Thanks in advance.

Just after some information:) We have 2 PDL with these people that we have defaulted on. They were passed to the idiots at Mackenzie Hall. We contacted LS to say we wanted to deal with them and they ignored us. We know they received the email as it was passed on to MH who then proceeded to act in such a way as to now have one the loans brought to the attention of the FOS. I have now made a formal complaint to LS who have ignored the complaint for the last 9 weeks so it is now ready to go to the FOS. I was wondering as these are 2 separate accounts can I make 2 complaints, one for each account? Also, when the FOS ask how I want this to be solved would I be in my rights to say that we want to pay back in installments the amount borrowed plus interest minus any payments already paid? I've read to pay only this to the PDL companies but wondered if this generally acceptable by the FOS. Thanks, Lee.

Hi all , im new here but ive been reading the forums for a while and some very good information been given out so thought id give this a go. Ive been silly enough to fall into the pay day loan trap . My payday loans are as follows Payday express - 593.30 ( inc intrest ) Quick Quid - 194.30 9 inc intrest ) Lending steam - 395 ( over 6 months ) and 175 ( also over 6 months ) Ive been using quick quid as payday express for a while now but really want to get out of this mess so every month im going to just pay the intrest ( extend my loan ) but pay a small amount off aswell so the loan amount is slowly getting smaller, around 60-80 ontop of intrest. My lending stream loan is due to come out on the first but i cant afford the payments this month, as there has been a problem with not being paid correctly and im due money, does anyone know if they will extend my loan or how " nice " they are at repayment plans ? Ive emailed them but had no reply yet and from what ive eben hearing the call centre is a waste of time as kn one understands a word your saying. Has anyone had similar experience or any advice on what to do ? the payments are due to come on on thursday and add up to £225 ( thats both loans ) . thanks very much Rory

I'm new to this so please bear with me! I took out a PDL with LS in April 2011 which was repaid within 14 days giving my notice to withdraw. I have recently found out that since then LS has updated the CRA's with late payment markers for approx £350 interest which was never due. I have sent 2 recorded delivery letters and countless emails to LS to dispute the info, they have failed to reply to any. I since contacted the CRA's who eventually confirmed that LS had agreed to amend my record. I have requested compensation from LS for the incorrect data entered as per their T&C's and those of their trade association to which they stated that 'it was unreasonable to request compensation as they have outlayed money to remove the information from my credit record'. I have also complained to the BCCA but they have also failed to respond. I am willing to take the matter futher but unsure which organisation... OFT, FOS, FSA, ICO? I know this matter might sound petty but this company should not be allowed to get away with treating consumers in this way, especially when they have breached their own T&C's.

There is an article in the Sunday Telegraph(Torygraph to some) about Wonga, and there seems to be an intimation in the comments that maybe their debt collection methods are dodgy: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/loans/9606570/Wonga-faces-questions-over-borrowing-by-children.html#disqus_thread Might be worth regulars taking a look.

Like other people who have posted, I had my account cleared out by CFO on 6/9/12. The interest payment which I thought was £117 (principal loan amount £300) was attempted on 31/8/12. Apparently it was unsuccessful even though I had the funds in my account - I had assumed the fraud department at the bank had stopped it although there is no note on my account - so I was charged £25.00 by CFO for a late payment. An interest payment of £144.55 plus the £25.00 left my account on 4/9/12. I thought that was it sorted, rolled over for another month. I was very wrong. On 6/9/12 I checked the balance on my account and was in overdraft by £14 because CFO had gone in for £295. I contacted my bank and was told that there was nothing that they could do because it was a card payment. So for almost a week I had no money and an overdraft at my bank. I knew I would have some funds going into my account on 13/9/12 and I had bills to pay so I got a loan of money from family to put into my account. Unusually, I checked with the bank before doing so to make sure there was nothing pending on my account and guess what? CFO had gone in for a payment of £27.30. I phoned CFO (13/9/12). I spent 20 minutes listening to a guy who basically starting contradicting himself and kept referring to "the system". I pointed out that they had been paid in full since the £295 had officially left my account on 10/9/12. "The system" wasn't showing that. I would have to send in a copy of my bank statement. He couldn't explain what the £27.30 was for, "the system" will automatically keep attempting to get the principal sum. I repeatedly said but you have got the principal sum but realised that I was getting nowhere. I took a note of their email address and asked him to assume that I was telling the truth and could prove that the £295 had been paid, would that be my account cleared? "We will look into your account once we have checked that". I said but you have told me that the balance according to "the system" is £295 and I can prove I have paid that so that would mean my account is cleared? "We will look into your account once we receive your statement". I came off the phone and immediately took a screenshot of my online bank statement, blanking out everything except the line clearly showing their withdrawal and emailed it in. On 14/9/12, I again went to put funds in my bank to cover the £27.30 CFO had taken so that I could pay my bills. Maybe I had a nagging doubt in the back of my head but as soon as I came out of the bank I checked my balance again and guess what?? £295 had been taken out again. I immediately phoned my telebanking to confirm it was CFO and yes it was. When I got home I phoned them again. The person that I had spoken to the day before didn't want to talk to me but had requested a manager phone. I had to go out for few hours and when I got home still no call or message so I phoned again. Was told a manager would phone me straight back. Waited 30 minutes and I phoned again, this time they put me through to the manager. He again referred to "the system" but said you're account is cleared. I asked why have you taken another £295 from account. He said they had only asked for it once, on the 13/9/12 at 5.30pm. I explained no you asked last week, you got payment (as above). He said "the system" wasn't showing that could I send in a bank statement. I advised that I already had. To be fair, he did go away to look for that and confirmed they had received my mail. Tried to suggest that the payment that left my account on the 10th was the payment that they had just received and I said no, you asked for it last night and another £295 has gone from my account. He further advised that the £27.30 was a charge because I had not told them that I wanted to rollover for another month and they basically didn't know what to do??? I asked why the £144.55 had been taken instead of £117 and was told that the interest rate had gone up and I would have received letters and emails - I did not receive any!! The outcome of that call was that he said they would not claim the additional £295 since my account was cleared and I asked him to send me an email to confirm that which he said he would straight away - I am still waiting. I immediately phoned my bank and asked to cancel my card. I explained that CFO had no right asking for the additional £295 and that I did not trust them not to keep trying to take money from my account. I was told that they had not yet claimed it and by cancelling my card they would not be able to so the money will drop back into my account in a couple of days. My bank also advised that after having requested the £295 at 5.30pm on 13/9/12, CPO then requested the same amount a further 4 times that night!! And only because I did not have the funds in my account, the bank did not pay. FYI - Moneymajesty.co.uk - "a new lender on the market" - are also CFO. They send you a text that you have to reply to at a cost of £5. Sorry this is so long-winded, just had to rant. Bad enough that I have been stupid enough to get involved with PDLs but to have my account cleared out twice in the space of a week is just soul destroying. Hope this helps to put other people off using this company.

Hi , I have 3 loans with Lending stream since June 2012 soon after which I was out of a job (Total to repay £607.00). I had emailed them on many occasion trying to explain my situation and sort out how to repay to no avail well no reply. Until yesterday 27th August when I received 3 letters (dated 20th August) stating I have to repay outstanding debt within 14 days(2nd September on Letter). I phoned yesterday to discuss a re payment plan to which I discussed and explained I could pay back about £100 a month. Then I was sent an email explaining to fill out I&E Form , which I did and sent back. Today I recieved an email saying : We would like to inform you that we will not be able to proceed further as you have not filled the information (expenditure information) in the income and expenditure form. We would request you to fill the complete information in the attached spreadsheet (income and expenditure form) and send it back to us as soon as you can. We would also require your most latest payslip in a non editable format (JPEG or PDF). So i phoned again stating my situation and that I had filled out the form and sent the filled out as I can view it from my computer, to which I was met with , on our screens it is not filled out and I have to send my wage slip to set up a re payment plan. I have been passed through about 20 different employees in the past 2 days and when promised a phone call back in 5 minutes after waiting for half the day for the first phone call. It never came. I don't know what Im meant to do if they wont agree to take my money through a repayment plan.

Hi everyone, Just like many other people on here, I have been silly enough to get into the payday loan trap! Until I can get interest frozen, I am literally trapped in a never ending loop. I have recently got a break from quick quid who are allowing me to pay over 4 months, which is a lot but I guess its manageable. Txtloan also were very helpful and have a good repayment plan that i am happy with. Does ANYONE have any success with lending stream, I have not yet told them I am going to have financial difficulty. I can pay my due money this month, but next month is not looking good. I would rather tell them in advance rather than default and face all the nasty calls etc. So hopefully someone will have some success or tips for lending stream please?? Thanks