Payday Overdraft - Serious Help Required!!!

[Adzzz]

Hi all, I am a newbie to this forum so I apologise if I have posted in the wrong place.My wife has taken out approximately 10 payday loans, we are in arrangement with 7 of them (charges and interest frozen), 2 are not making noises yet and I am about to put a CCA request into them next week. I need you advice/guidance and wisdom in dealing with the other - Payday Overdraft:We have explained our difficulties but they will not accept a lesser amount - they would only accept £100 per month which would rollover and not freeze charges etc. They have actually suggested that they will get my wife investigated by the Police about potential false declarations made to get the loan!! When my wife stated that she would be getting advice about how to proceed the voicemail response was quite derogatory and suggested that if she could afford advice then she could afford to repay the debt - she obviously meant advice from the CAB etc.The £250 loan was taken out on the 1st July, £344.36 was to be repaid on the 31st July 2011. The only letter we have received is dated the 3rd July which cites overdue balance of £417.80 and interest at £4.48 per day. This is the only letter received. My wife has received approx 10 text messages from them and had tried to return calls which were unanswered. When she has spoken to them they would not enter into an arrangement.She has since received the Claim Form from Northampton County Court which cites £344.36 loan balance, £485 in admin and call costs; texts, e-mails and telephone calls £410 and estimated interest at £497.28.We filled in the form admitting liability for £344.36 and a defence that communication costs are not comparitive to what they have done, that we have made efforts to contact them but calls were unanswered, we are in repayment arrangements with other creditors and it's PDO reluctance to engage, they have attempted to make us pay more than we can afford, have refused offers of repayments and that their charges are not commensurate to the real cost of collections activity.We have since received paperwork that a defence has been filed only to be told when contacting moneyclaimonline that no defence has been filed. We now have to fill in a questionnaire about mediation and pay £40.Several questions;- is the defence valid?- I submitted the defene online and have it saved, if for any reason cyberspace has eaten the defence would I still be able to serve it?- I am planning to send a CCA letter but I guess that it is not going to slow down proceedings but the information is likely to be useful if it goes the distance to Court?I am losing serious sleep over this one and would appreciate any help guidance - thanks.

[Adzzz]

One more thing- on phoning the Court today we were told that the amount is now nearer £2800 - can this keep rising whilst this is resolved?

[Adzzz]

bump

[asmilecostsnothing]

Did this go to a debt collection agent first after default?

 

All seems way underhand or wonder if it's a scare tactick, think you'll need proper legal advice

 

Once court action is persued I understood they cannot charge anymore

[Adzzz]

No this didn't go to debt collection and the default letter was sent 3 days after payment and 3 weeks before the full default. Is there a proedure that creditors have to go through before going through the Courts?

[Ell-enn]

When you filed your defence online did you get a confirmation email/receipt ? If you have received notification of mediation they must have received your defence surely? Ring the court (Northampton I presume?) and ask what's going on. There's a very good chance PDO will withdraw their claim now that you have defended, it's extremely unlikely that they will want a judge to see what they are asking you to repay for a £250 loan - it's scandalous. Have you reported them to the OFT yet? you should, they are investigating payday loan companies at the moment.

[sillygirl1]

They CANNOT keep adding interest at their rate once they have gone to court, it is WRONG, you need to get that allocation questionnaire back to the court ASAP asking for mediation and yes to all the questions. They will have one heck of a job convincing a judge to allow them that amount, if you can't pay then they can make you bankrupt.

 

I think you have done the right type of defence, declaring the original amount, some of these companies rely on customers igonrance to get funds they are not entitled to.

 

If there was a police investigation it would NOT be to your wife, it would be to the company... the number of times I am hearing this lately beggars belief, fraud is committed on THEIR part by giving you a loan they will inflate to indecent proportions.

 

Get the AQ back asap and don't bother to ring Northampton, they sometimes do not know what they are talking about, has this now been transferred to a court nearer you?

 

YES to the defence being valid

YES to mediation

YES to small claims

[sillygirl1]

The OFT won't do anything until the court case has ended Ell-enn, its their standard answer now, the OFT complaint should have gone in BEFORE the court case. The OFT deem it that the court is the higher authority.

[Ell-enn]

OK, but surely another complaint about their practices wouldn't go amiss ? even if the OFT don't intervene, they can log the complaint.

[sillygirl1]

Sadly this happened with another Minicredit case, because the court were dealing with it the OFT did not want to know, they may have changed their tune a bit now as their guidelines now clearly state that the parties should try to agree before using court. It might be worth a try but I don't think much will happen

 

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk for the Office of Fair Trading

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk for Trading Standards who might be better.....

[stephenb]

being taken to court is not any due cause for concern chances are it will never happen,you have made an offer to pay your debt and they have refused it trust me thats all you need to do,heres what happened to me,welcome finance took me to court over an unpaid loan even though i had made several offers to pay 50 pounds a month which is all i could afford due to change in circumstances,they repeatedly declined my offer,i opened a post office account and put 50 a month a month in and sat back and waited on my day in court,when at court i got usual questions are you so and so are you liable for this debt etc etc,i replied yes i am then the fun began,i stated i had made repeated offers to pay 50 a month and showed judge copies of all letters from me and and welcome he read them and asked welcomes lawyer why did refuse this offer of payment ,the lawyer replied my client deemed it not enough considering the size of the debt which due to charges and interest now stands at 4587,the judge then asked him how can your client justify such charges and interest,there lawyer replied its all made clear to borrower at time of taking out loan what penalties will be if you default,to which the judge replied thats not what i asked you,as you can imagine there was no reply to that,so i then told the judge i had been putting 50 a month into po account and had brought it with me 450 pounds,now heres where i nearly wet myself,judged thanked me and said he would order me to pay 25 a month based on my circumstances also revoked all the charges and interest and now i just owe the original loan amount,now this happened in a scottish court but dont imagine english civil law will differ that much from up here,so ensure you keep copies of absolutly every single letter and if it does go to court do not worry about it at all,in fact enjoy your day in court exposing horrendous interest rates and scare tactics is good fun,good luck to you............

[sillygirl1]

Nice one!!!! I would love to have seen the legal bods face on that.

 

Yes, similar does happen here, one guy I helped had put the money to one side and actually lodged it with the court on the morning as his intention to pay the original loan, judge was NOT happy with the PDL company involved and accepted the money lodged with the court as full and final repayment, the company were claiming £1800 for a £500 loan where £350 had been repaid already, the remaining £150 had been lodged as 'proof of intent to pay regularly'.

 

Most PDL companies cannot justify their charges as their interest rate alone is extortionate. That factor is why you only owe the original loan amount and one months interest, even on larger longer term loans the most interest penalty that can be charged now is 3 months....

[stephenb]

hi sillygirl im of the opinion that most pdl companies would rather avoid court there empty threats are just that,empty

[asmilecostsnothing]

To true, yep taken me to while to but now I'd say to any payday loan company

don't like it lets go to court, though I doubt any of them would seriously as whilst they may not like my payment amounts they have 'accepted'

 

Thanks for sharing your situation stephenb - always good to see the positive outcomes from when what feels like dire times x

[Adzzz]

Thanks - starting to feel a little easier. Will get the aq filled out tomorrow. The case has been transferred to the local court. I managed to get their bank details and paying a token amount and will put the rest of the monthly offer aside for the court date.As for the mediation - should I stick to the £344.36 amount and 'see em in Court' if they do not accept?I'll keep you posted.

[sillygirl1]

Yes, stick to the amount you want to defend and wait to see them in court, it may be that they will want to make an 'out of court' settlement to cover their costs but I don't approve of this, it is a 'cop out' for them and a complete abuse of court processes.

 

You have been trying to come to an arrangement with them for a while and all they have done is rack the debt up and choose court as a collection method.

[Adzzz]

Can you believe this schmuck - he proposed £51p.m repayment which is a change from the initial £100p.m. He wanted us to agree to this arrangement before he had calculated the amount due!Told him we would see him in Court - I think he is running scared now!