Hi i recently received a letter from Provident stating unless i paid them an outstanding amount of £25 within 14 days then they would hand the debt to a debt collection agency, register me with the credit rating agency & that court action may be taken. I was expecting this letter as i refused to pay my agent anymore,since December. The reason for this is that my agent asked for my payment book in November 2012, as she said that she needed to refer to it. When she eventualy reluctantly returned my payment book there had been some alterations to my payments, going back up to 20 months ago, £60 payment had been altered to £20...£40 had been altered to £20 etc, on 5 different occassions the amounts had been altered, but you can still see the original amount underneath the alteration, by the side of each alteration she has written miscalculation. I phoned Provident & told them of this, they asked me to send a copy of the book to them, i requested a computer record of all my payments to them, before i would send the payment book. when i got the print off from Provident, there where several queries by myself as there are alot of payments in the payment book not on the print out of payment history, or the amounts are less than in the payment book, the dates also do not match up on several occassions. I worked out that in all i was around £115 in credit with Provident . I wrote to provident, sent a copy of the payment book & highlighted the alterations, lesser payments & no payments both on the payment book & the payment history print off. I stated that there is also no APR amount entered in the APR rate box on the payment book. I then said that my account seriously needed to be looked at & that i was giving them 14 days ( the same amount of time they gave me to pay, in their letter to me) to offer an explenation & to make a complete refund for the full amount of the loan, as the loan had been mishandled by themselves & the agent, they did not have proper records & what records they did have had been altered by the agent, therefore the loan is void & that if i do not get any satisfaction i will be taking the case to a small claims court . I received a reply this week saying that the case has been passed to a senior investigating officer, who will contact me soon. However, they have said that their investigation will take 8 weeks & if i am not satisfied at the outcome after 8 weeks i can put it to the financial ombudsman. ( which will probably take months). I have decided that i should write back to them with a letter before action letter, stating that i am giving them 30 days to resolve this matter, under The Practice Direction- Pre action Conduct ( i'll also include a copy of it for them), state that i will not be seeking advice from the ombudsman, but will be taking this issue straight to the Small claims court., listing my reasons & also all of the costs i intend to recover: the loan amount, costs for telephone calls, time for writing letters, loss of earnings if i have to attend court etc. Can anyone give me any advice as to where i stand on this matter & if im doing everything correctly or if ive missed anything.. .any advice would be most welcome, thanks.

Just Had a Provident Loan Agent at my Door !! It turns out to be an old Debt my wife had many years ago from Littlewoods...... Statute Barred.. He tried to get my wife to sign up for a loan to pay off debts that they cant collect through the courts... WTF. I sent him away with a flee in his shell like, Idiots.... Its like asking a stranger in the street for £50.00....

Hi everyone, I have few accounts with provident dating couple of years back which are all paid and clear. As there are quiet a few accounts, I wrote to them with the most sincerest requests I could think of to see if they would remove these accounts but failed. They wrote back saying:- " We are legally obliged to share information" Are there any other ways I can try or shall I send a second request? Also, the accounts are on my file with my name spell wrong, one letter missing. Can I use this as a way to get the accounts removed? Say if I write to CRA saying this account doesnt belong to me?

Hi, Found out the other day that my mum has been taking out loans from some bunch called Provident Credit - a product called Handycash ? She doesn't have all of the documentation so I have no idea whether any there is anything outstanding - my mum is not "all there" at the moment and I'm starting to sort things out including power of attorney so I can get suppliers etc. to talk to me. Some questions : 1. Are these companies under any kind of obligation to ensure that the credit can be repaid, and the people signing are fully understanding it ? My mum is still denying these are loans at all and I'm not even sure if she still has any of them. 2. How do I get them to give me details instead of my mum - if she gives verbal permission is that OK ? 3. I assume an SAR is required for copies of all documents ? 4. Is there something I can put in writing to them that under no circumstances are they to call on my mum again - a bit of a complication is that I live 250 miles away and there was a "Hi I'm your new agent" hand delivered card through the door. I would rather she was not tempted. 5. Related to 1. if there is any obligation can I complain to FOS ? 6. Anything else I need to ask them, do with them or indeed to them ? Thanks

Hi All, 1st post of my own, been a reader of the forum for a couple of years now and it's been really helpful. anyway.... I've been working to clear up my credit file for a few years, had some defaults which have dropped off all but one which falls off in a couple of weeks. For the 6-12 month I've held vanquish/aqua/luma cards and made all payments to build up some rating, also managed to get a T-Mobile phone contract with defaults , which is also all good, so here's me hoping for an ok rating when this last default expires, but since updating my previous addresses on creditexpert, I've noticed another account appear, a provident doorstep loan taken out in 2007. Here's the best bit, I've never taken any finance with this company nor have I ever made any payments , my credit file says differently. Now I am aware of what provident do and how they work as my ex is an agent for them, still is I believe. Back in 2007 she recruited a couple of her friends into the job and I recall there being some sort of incentive bonus for signing up new customers. It seems that an agent has taken out a loan in my name (£500 56 weeks x £15) they must have used my details and just paid it back themselves therefore me not having any record or knowledge of it. So this is basically fraud, and to make things worse, the payment history is really bad, not quite a default but a whole string of 6's across my file. It states that the debt was settled in 2011 (3yrs after it should have been, guessing it went to a DCA who didn't manage to get in touch with me, or I would have known earlier) , so would be 2017 before it disappeared from my file, even if it was all green and paid correctly, I don't want anything such as a 'home loan' on my file. I got straight on the phone to provident and explained as above, they have written back today and enclosed my signed credit agreement, which oddly has a signature nothing like mine on it. So there is my proof, just as I suspected, however they also say that I must send them a copy of my signature to progress their investigation, and then they MAY send a security officer to see me and validate my ID and signature. So a company that has already used my details fraudulently, want me to send them a valid signature!!!! yeah right. I rang them and explained I was reluctant to provide this for obvious reasons but more than willing to show my signature and ID to one of their officers should they want to send one to see me, but I was advised they wouldn't send one and couldn't progress the investigation until they have my signature. Now that I have the forged credit agreement surely that's the evidence I need, but do I go to the police with this? or pursue this with provident? As I've had bad credit on my file in the past this hasn't done a lot of harm but now all the bad has dropped off and everything else is good it will be crippling to me getting any decent credit. Also on the credit agreement is the name of the agent that did this, but giving them a good shoeing wont get this removed from my file . I've also contacted Experian who have set a notice of dispute on the account. I just want it to disappear. Any advice greatly appreciated. Paolo

Hi guys, I had 2 loans with provident and one of there cards. The balances total over £2000. I haven't paid anything for over 2 years now and recently started getting letter from ck edrupt (their in house collection people). They show on my Credit report as 6 late payments but no default. They sent a few letters. So I CCA'd them. Credit agreements are fine, but then they sent me a letter offering me 50% discount. Is there something wrong with the debt? I was tempted to write back and offer them 10% f and f after receiving their discount letter. Should I do this?

Hi all, had a debt thats done the rounds over the last few years and ended up with Gothia. Sent them a CCA Request and got a letter back in May 2010 saying they couldnt provide an Agreement and that the account had therefore been closed. Now, 18 months later, I get one of those stupid Provident letters asking if I would like to pay it off via an "interest free" (?) loan and that their rep will be calling ( Oh, you bloody think so do you ????). Actually, no I wouldnt ta, and if memory serves me correctly, this is now well and truly Stat Barred ( original debt around 2004). But is there anyway I can drop Gothia in it? Are they entitled to flog it on after admitting they cannot provide an Agreement or do I just get on Providents nerves with a Stat Barred letter? Thanks all.

hi im new here and just needed a bit of advice, been reading these forums for a while and wised up to the tricks of debt collectors a little bit ,but any ways ive been with provident many years a loyal customer, and in december and january i recieved a letter stating they were chasing me for a debt from a diffrent company. For weeks my dc who was a female never mentioned this as i excpected her too, the area boss never mentioned it to either me or my partner, i suffer with depression and anxiety so struggle to even answer the door to people so my partner does...any ways the female quit and then the area manager collected for a few weeks, he even called one day collected, and the next day came back posted a card through the door when he knew we were in wanting me to contact him...i ignored it,,,he never came back,,now they have hired a meat head to collect my provident,,,,and just today at 7.30 pm another different meat head knocked at the door wanting me , my partner was caught off guard and said i wasnt in ( i guess there hiring big muscley men as its quite intimidating ) he asked what it was about and he said he couldnt say much but it was regarding a debt that provident were now collecting and on his paper it said fresh start ,,which i think is the name of the new loans they want you to take out to clear this...if i remember right these old debts are from 2005 2006 2007,,and because of suffering with depression and worrying i stupidly ignored them I've read a lot here about debt collectors and old debts, but any advice on what i should do next would be greatly apreciated, ive been a loyal customer for years it just makes me angry they treat people this way . apologies if i have posted in the wrong place.

Hello, My first post on here so please be nice I was hoping that someone might be able to help me with what to do next? I ordered a credit report and there was a CCJ on there that was added in July last year at a previous address that I moved out of nearly 6 years ago and since August 2007. I contacted the Northampton Bulk Centre to find out what is was for and they informed me that is was to do with a company called Westcot in relation to Provident Personal money agreement. I asked how this was possible with no notice or paperwork sent to me, and they suggeseted that I call Westcot to find out, I googled CCJ/Westcot first and came across this site reading some of the posts prompted me to post this before making any contact with Westcot. The court also advised that I may be able to apply for a set aside on the grounds that I didn't receive any paperwork. I have kept some of my old credit reports from as far as 2010 and there was nothing on any of them for Westcot or Provident not even a default notice of any sort. So my qustion is what are my next steps? I am looking to move house soon and I'm afraid that this may stop me from securing a property. Shall I apply for the set aside and also contact Westcot about what it is they have in relation to this debt? If so what's my best approach and any help on filling in the N244 form would be much appreciated. Thanks very much

Hi, My problem relates to my girlfriend who has loans out with provident, greenwood and shopacheck. She works 21 hours a week and 6 months ago she was able to pay these loans off but then her youngest turned 20 and left education which meant she lost all her benefits and as she only works 21 hours a week she cant even get working tax credits. She is now finding it hard to repay these loans, she fell behind in her rent which has led to her giving up her house a nd the housing executive is taking her to court to get the rent owed off her. At the minute these loans are taking most of her wages every month which is the reason she cant pay the rent owed. I have come here to see if i can get any information on how she can get these loan repayments reduced to an amount that she can comfortly afford on a weekly basis so she can start to get back on her feet as she is getting so depressed over it all. I have told her some of what i know which sorry to say isnt alot about what she can do, so any and all information would be greatly appreciated....

Hi there, Just new to the site but would appreciate any advice on my situation. I have a provident loan for which I am supposed to repay £75 per week. I have fallen 3 weeks behind with this and even when I do get paid next week, if I pay the arrears by the end of next month I will be behind again. This is due to prioritising my payments ie rent, car insurance etc. Do any of you know if they can reduce payments or write off missed payments and add them on to the rest of the balance? I don't usually meet the agent, I just call to pay every few weeks. Cheers Craig

Hi there. I got a provident loan before Christmas for a tumble dryer and paid half off. And though since baby no 2 is on the way I would get a small loan on top and get some decorating materials since my hubby has a week off work. Contacted my advisor he said sure. I can get £300 but use it to pay what I owe and get £120. I was confused about how it all worked but he said he will explain when he comes over. He came Friday and I signed the papers and he gave me £330. I asked was it correct thinking I must of got everything muddled as usual. He said yes see you Monday. Monday is the day I pay our agreed amount of £10:50p. So the Sat and Sun we go and buy loads of decorating materials. Finish off the bathroom and start on our room and got stuff for my daughter's room n baby to be. Monday comes no provident rep turns up. I think maybe his girlfriend who also pregnant (he told me a week ahead if me) so maybe she needed him home or something? Then Tuesday evening at 8pm he rang me telling me he gave me £200 more I said how sorry I REALLY am and I would NEVER have spent it. I thought I got the info wrong. I thought he knew what he was doing. I know I messed up. I said I will speak to my hubby as he gets paid in 2weeks and ring him the next day which was Wednesday. Then Wed morning he turned up and asked for the 200 I said again I don't have it and he demanded I tell him what I spent it on. And he wants 50 a week to pay it off. I can't afford 60.50p a week. That's what I would have to pay including the agreed weekly amount. Our weekly working tax credits is 70. I need to buy food, gas and electric. He keeps ringing my phone and said he is coming Friday to pick up money. But I told him I can't but I will give him as much as I possibly can and just buy basic food things for a month or so. so He said he had to pay the 200 out of his pocket so I need to pay him back asap. What can I do??? I can't stand the stress of it and he was mad I can't meet him today but I have my heart monitor fitted. He text and called again whilst I was at the hospital. I text saying I'm busy and I can't ring/text him every day. He said it was comon curtasy for me to call him again today and I should have taken back all the decorating things I got (but have used..) as thats what he would of done. He is coming to my house again tomorrow... I feel so stressed out and stuck

hi i need some advice im normally on form but this hit me for six Today (12/10/2012) i went to visit my nan and whilst there a bloke turned up for provident personal loans, nice chap nan pays £20 a week for a loan she took out he seemed ok to me and my nan was dealing with him for last few months no issue, her bill is £19.50 a week and always pays twenty so she is not in arrears and frimly can afford this. Anyway after siiting on the couch filled in the book turned around to my nan and asked he was there to collect £350 debt for O2 if she could pay £250 today would right thre rest off. My instinct was to ask for Id he was now a debt collector and he didnt have any but provident credit servies (same company) are now also collecting debts the knob was rude and discussed my nans personal info in front of me, to which i feel is data protection surely and how can a loan company give money doorstep loans and collect debts at same time, i understand if they have gone into that kind of work then they should have one agent to give a loan and another to collect debts, the morale of story i threw the guy out i was right to do this? any advice? i am considering contacting trading standards does my nan have a case ? please help

Evening All, I've took out a loan with provident a few months ago for £700 to help assist with costs towards my wedding and was paying them regularly until about 5 weeks I was taken ill suddenly into hospital where I have had surgery to remove a suspect brain tumour and I am now undergoing treatment. As I have been in hospital, my wife has been working a 40hr week and spending her time visiting me and has totally forgotten about paying them until receiving a threatening phone call from the "area manager" demanding the money has been paid It has never been our intentions not to pay however given our circumstances it was put back as a less urgent priority, as I am undergoing treatment and as such not now being able to work, we are have had to give notice to our landlord to vacate and are having to move in with my wife's parents to ease the financial burden. I called provident today to explain the situation however they stated as I've missed payments, they cannot lower the agreed amount as it was our responsibility to notify them( we agree with this slightly but have asked them to show them a bit of empathy). I apologise if this is in the wrong area however was seeking advice on how I can re-approach provident as this is worrying my wife no end whilst making my blood boil. Many Thanks C.G.

Hi - both myself and my mum have got loans with Provident (as we have previous bad credit history) . My mum is 73 this year and is paying £100 a week back on various loans - she has had loans to pay back loans. In the last three weeks - she has paid her payments as normal - BUT, when she checked her books.. ...the collector had put down that she had paid 'double' the amount. When she drew his attention to this - he said 'I've had to put down that you're paying more as Provident would be in trouble with the FSA - you're not allowed loans at more than £50 per week pay back because you're over 70 !!!' .. ....so why have Provident allowed my mum to take out loan after loan ...??? Any advice on what to do....?? they are obviously 'fiddling the books' to keep the FSA happy !!! It's disgraceful !

Hi, Im a little curious for any advice or knowledge from others in the same situation. Whilst I was not at home today a person knocked my door. He told my husband he worked for provident and he has bought one of my debts and would like to speak to me about repayment. My husband asked to make sure if this was a debt that I had with provident and the man said no it wasnt. About two weeks ago a provident advert card was put through my door with my name on it offering me a £100 loan if I called the number. I have not called them. I have never dealt with provident in any way. Can they just buy a debt in this way? I do have a debt with another company but that is one that I disagree I owe and am disputing with them. Something here seems fishy though. Thanks in advance for any replies.

Just seen an advert on TV for a preloaded code from provident, get £200 for Christmas, then the APR came up....399.4%!!!!!! What planet are they on?

I have been unemployed for sometime now as I am Disabled. I reduced my payments to provident to a token payment. The Agent stopped calling as she said it was not worthwhile for her to pick up my token payment. So I arranged to send my agreed monthly token payment to my local branch, I have been doing this for over 2 year now. But over the last 6 month I have received letters from provident telling me I have missed payments on my account, These letters were signed by my local office but when I contacted my local office they said the letters are sent out automatically from head office. As I keep getting these letters I asked my local office to send out a statement of account as the letters were informing me I had missed payments. My local office did not reply so I rang them. I asked if they had received my letter, They said yes, I then asked if they were going to send out a statement of account as my payments were being called into question with there letters. They said no and told me to contact head office I rang head office to complain. I received a letter stating that I am paying much less than the original agreement. And so they are legally obliged to send out such letters every month. I said the letters insinuate that I am not making the token payments. Of which I have never missed. They said they would keep sending out the letters even though I have an agreemnet to make token payments. This just smells like harrasment to me, I wonder If anyone could suggest a letter I could send in regards to this thankyou.

I have looked again at my Experian and I note that Provident have lodged a default against me in the last month for £485. That account has been dormant since 2010 (I actually forgot about ever dealing with them) so I have no idea why they have just sprung up with it. I am in a position where I can offer them a F&F settlement of around 40%. Do I just write to them with this - or write to their pleb "lawyers", as I've seen from other threads? I do owe the money and just want it settled ASAP.

Well what can i say that hasnt been said before. Ok i had a provident loan, i defaulted and the debt was sold to moorcroft! Over the next year i made my payments every month and finally in July moorc wrote to me saying the account and debt had been cleared and sent me a statement and letter. I checked my credit file this morning and i have defaulted saying i have never paid they took my rating from a high one to very low i need help in dealing with this please. My first step is to call prov and explain what has happend, then i will scan and email the documents to show them all has been paid. What should i be weary of? How long until prov remove the default from the file and marked as settled?

Hi Guy's As above, basically a debt that has been statute barred for around 3 years. This morning we get a letter from Provident telling us they bought the debt from Scotcall. I have uploaded the letter for your perusal. Please advise on suggested next step. Many thanks David Just seen the letter is really small, cant at the moment see how to increase the size, will keep trying.

I have a loan with Provident for £501 over a year at £36 a month and have £325 to repay. I moved house just before Christmas phoned them up and told them that I’ve changed address and they told me to inform my adviser, so I done this by Text, I had one new collection from my new address and no-one has bothered to come around and collect any further payments. My question is, on my Credit file it states that I have settled the debt, should I chase them up and pay them or just leave it be?

Hi I had a contract with 3 between march 2005-06 paid it up in full and cancelled the direct debit, I thought that would be the end of it. Fast forward two years and 3 have Lowell chasing me for some ridiculous amount which I ignore due to not owing it. Since 2008 I’ve had a number of companies chasing me and all have given up. Today I received a letter from Provident stating they have acquired the legal rights to the debt, offering me a fresh start loan (for a debt I don’t owe) threatening me in a polite way with one of their doorstep agents. Thing is I know for sure this would be statute barred now but I don’t know whether I should respond in writing after staying silent for over 6 years. I didn’t want to respond in fear of opening the flood gates of phone calls and letters. Should I respond with the doorstep letter, stat barred letter or a combination?

I had my home reposessed at the end of April and told the agent via text that i would contact him as soon as i was settled and had some money coming in again. I owe around £200 from a balance that was £1400 so not got much left to pay. He is now texting me a few times a week asking for payments and saying that his manager is "going mad" over my debt. If i could afford to pay them i would. Any suggestions on how to buy myself a few weeks from paying them ?

Hi, I am new to the site and would love some advice if possible please. OK to cut a long story short I have had a few Provident loans over the years and have always found them fine to deal with, good understanding agent etc. My loan was over 50 weeks and I had a job where I would have to work abroad at short notice so I would always let my agent know and then pay extra when I got back home. I was upto week 30 and got called in, told my agent, got my housemate to forward my post and I got a letter saying I was in arrears and I needed to pay over the phone or they would pass it to their solicitors and possible court action. I text my agent to say thet the letters had come and he said to ignore it, a couple of days latter another one came very snotty so I rang them, there was only £25 left so cleared the balance by card. I let my agent know and he comes round asking my housemate if I am there and when he said no he just got stroppy and told him I need to contact him. I let him know again today as I'm back so not sure if he is coming back again. Sorry if this seems abit trivial. Charlene.