Going to court with a payday loan company **

[greyplonk]

Hi there,

 

I've seen a lot of posts on this forum talking about letters that they receive from payday companies threatening legal action, inparticular MiniCredit/Fredericksons, but I can never seem to find what the resolution was.

 

I'm going through a similar situation with MiniCredit at the moment (just at the beginning) and inevitably these letters will start to come. I'm entering in to a debt management program with ClearDebt and they will be make payments to MiniCredit on a prorata basis. If they do threaten legal action then I will go to court and Defend the matter because the courts will see my income/expenditure, my total debt to all of my creditors, and they'll also see that my offer of prorata payments to each creditor is all that I can afford.

 

One thing for certain is that I will 100% not be able to make a large one-off payment to clear the debt.

 

I'm curious to know whether anyone here has ever been to court with a payloan/fredericksons, and if so what did the court rule? Or if not, then do they finally agree to a repayment plan just before you need to go to court?

[sillygirl1]

They do take people to court, and the latest trend is to settle out of court for the remainder of any original loan payment, I know because I help people write simple defences to head the outrageous claims at the pass - and then the defendants can complain to the Ministry of Justice about the company abusing the court system.

 

It costs a copmany £35 or so to issue a claim through court, if you don't defend they get judgement granted by default, and therefore WIN.

 

If you defend it costs you nothing, and it costs them another £80, so round about £145 or so for the company to take somebody to court and defend isn't worth it for an original loan of about £150. The claims I have been helping with have been in the region of £1800 and the last one was settled for £124... another for £80!

 

They are hoping for the judgement by default scenario but with a simple defence stating the FACTS, ie on X date I borrowed X amount, here are the transactions made to repay the loan, here is the correspondence trail where I tried to settle before court action, no cause to bring case to court.

 

They have no legal arguements to help them out in that type of defence, you don't need the paperwork as you would in a bank charges claim, and you don't need a default notice as the loan was not repaid on expiration of the original loan period - and many default notices I have seen are so dodgy even the newest or meanest judges see straight through them.

 

Yes, they do go to court and yes they do sometimes win by default, but not normally if a defence is filed. There are plenty of cases where they have gone and backed down.

 

I think you are trying too hard at the moment, concentrate on getting as much documentary evidence that you are trying to repay the loan back and then they will be well and truly stuffed.

[sillygirl1]

Freds themselves won't be taking you to court, it will be their solicitor for rent mates in the same building Uncle Bryan, who is easily fended off at the pass with a simple defence. That is why you can't find cases for Freds, they are a collection agent only, google Bryan Carter solicitors and you will get a clear picture of his MO.

[greyplonk]

Thank you very much for the swift response. I've only been on this forum for a couple of days and have already learnt so much.

 

I'll continue to gather documentation evidence so that I'm prepared when the time comes. Thank you for help, it's much appreciated.