MiniCredit & Opos

[dragzb]

Ok so this is a bit of a shot in the dark. I was a bit stupid and took out a mini credit loan back in January 2012 for an amount of £220, I got into financial difficulty and stupidily stuck my head in the sand and avoided them. Anyway they then stuck on the following:

 

Interest £328.00

Overdue charges £80.00

Debt Recovery fee £100.00

Attempt fees (£5 per attempt) £635.00

Total balance £1,363.00

 

I attempted to go into a payment plan with OPOS only to be originally told by their representative that Mini Credit don't do payment plans and I must pay the total balance. I had no idea at the time that I only had to pay one month's interest. Anyway the upshot was that I (god I'm stupid) entered into a payment plan paying back £137.03 per month and have to date paid off £1022.10. I personally think that I've massively overpaid them especially if I'd let them take me to court the likelihood is that I would have only had to pay the principal loan amount and one months interest.

 

I've cancelled the Continuous Payment Authority with both Opos / MiniCredit and also with my bank so they shouldn't be able to take the next amount of £137.03 at the end of the month. However has anyone been in the same situation and tried to recoup the interest back from them? I know it's a long shot but I was suffering with severe depression when I entered into the payment plan and I to be honest I felt pressured into paying the amount. I'm now back to full fitness and want to argue the point with them now.

[renegadeimp]

Overdue charges £80.00

Debt Recovery fee £100.00

Attempt fees (£5 per attempt) £635.00

 

All unenforceable and unlawful.

 

told by their representative that Mini Credit don't do payment plans and I must pay the total balance.

 

Breach of OFT guidance.

 

Please report this outfit to the OFT. Hopefully theyll lose their licence.

 

Anyway the upshot was that I (god I'm stupid) entered into a payment plan paying back £137.03 per month and have to date paid off £1022.10. I personally think that I've massively overpaid them especially if I'd let them take me to court the likelihood is that I would have only had to pay the principal loan amount and one months interest.

 

You got cash cowed BIG time.

 

 

Hopefully someone can give you advice on reclaiming the extreme amount you overpaid.

[dragzb]

Thanks for the reply what do I need to do next to make a complaint. I suppose the upshot is I've been stupid but I'd hate fir anyone else to go through the same thing

[dragzb]

Thanks for the reply what do I need to do next to make a complaint. I suppose the upshot is I've been stupid but I'd hate fir anyone else to go through the same thing

[fletch70]

I wish i could help and it's a shame you didn't find a forum to help before.

You can register a complaint with the OFT just detailing all their penalty charges.

As for reclaiming sorry but i don't hold out much hope. A complaint with the threat of court action might help but you need expert advice on that.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Ok so this is a bit of a shot in the dark. I was a bit stupid and took out a mini credit loan back in January 2012 for an amount of £220, I got into financial difficulty and stupidily stuck my head in the sand and avoided them. Anyway they then stuck on the following:

 

Interest £328.00

Overdue charges £80.00

Debt Recovery fee £100.00

Attempt fees (£5 per attempt) £635.00

Total balance £1,363.00

 

I attempted to go into a payment plan with OPOS only to be originally told by their representative that Mini Credit don't do payment plans and I must pay the total balance. I had no idea at the time that I only had to pay one month's interest. Anyway the upshot was that I (god I'm stupid) entered into a payment plan paying back £137.03 per month and have to date paid off £1022.10. I personally think that I've massively overpaid them especially if I'd let them take me to court the likelihood is that I would have only had to pay the principal loan amount and one months interest.

 

I've cancelled the Continuous Payment Authority with both Opos / MiniCredit and also with my bank so they shouldn't be able to take the next amount of £137.03 at the end of the month. However has anyone been in the same situation and tried to recoup the interest back from them? I know it's a long shot but I was suffering with severe depression when I entered into the payment plan and I to be honest I felt pressured into paying the amount. I'm now back to full fitness and want to argue the point with them now.

 

Has your bank confirmed in writing that no further payments will be debited to your account, these automated CPAs have a nasty trick of getting through whatever id done to stop them.

[dragzb]

My bank have told me the following:Thank you for your message. Unfortunately Nationwide is unable to stop these payments from being debited from your account. However, now that we have received notification from you to cancel this payment, going forward if any future payments are debited, please inform us and we will arrange to refund your account. I would recommend that you contact the retailer or company to ensure that they are aware of your intentions to cancel your payments. RegardsSo hopefully I'm covered in respect of Mini Credit or Opos trying to take any more cash. I'm just in the process of writing a letter of complaint to the OFT about them and their ridiculous charges.

[renegadeimp]

Oh dear. The bank is breaking the law.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

My bank have told me the following:Thank you for your message. Unfortunately Nationwide is unable to stop these payments from being debited from your account. However, now that we have received notification from you to cancel this payment, going forward if any future payments are debited, please inform us and we will arrange to refund your account. I would recommend that you contact the retailer or company to ensure that they are aware of your intentions to cancel your payments. RegardsSo hopefully I'm covered in respect of Mini Credit or Opos trying to take any more cash. I'm just in the process of writing a letter of complaint to the OFT about them and their ridiculous charges.

The FSA has stated that banks can and must stop CPAs when instructed to do so by the customer.

[dragzb]

So should I go back to the bank and tell them that they are breaking FSA rules? Nationwide have said that if Opos try to take any monies they will refund the money. My worry is how long would it take them to refund any money?

[renegadeimp]

Yep. Get names and employee numbers too.

[dragzb]

I've just re-read through MiniCredit's terms and conditions and their contract and it states the following

 

Key Information

 

If you break this Agreement, we will charge you if we unsuccessfuly attempt to obtain repayment on the due date for repayment. A fee of £25 will be charged on the date that your missed payment was due. If we unsuccessfully attempt to obtain repayment on the due date, we will attempt to obtain repayment a second time 2 days later, and if we unsuccessfully attempt to obtain repayment on this second occasion we will charge you a further amount of £55. If we unsuccssfuly attempt to obtain repayment we may charge up to £5. If we unsuccessfully attempt to obtain repayment 30 (thirty) days after the due date we may charge further £100 manual debt collection recovery fee.

 

So my question is they've charged me an amount of £635.00 in Attempt fees (£5 per attempt) but their Terms state we may charge up to £5 surely by this they can only charge up to £5 not £5 per attempt or am I reading that wrong?

[renegadeimp]

Thats an unfair term as its a penalty charge and therefore unlawful

[dragzb]

So oposlimited have now decided that 1090 already paid is the full and final figure and I now owe minicredit nothing. I disagree and am lodging a complaint with the Oft and FOS to see if I can claim anything back. I'm obviously not holding my breath I just now want to make their lives difficult.

[dragzb]

And so my saga continues....

 

Opos decided that they have closed the case and referred me back to Minicredit to lodge a formal complaint using their complaints procedure which I have been doing. Minicredit after a month of emails going back and forward decided to offer me a refund of £6.24, I originally thought I'd read that incorrectly and they'd put the decimal place in the wrong place but nope six quid was all they thought that I was due.

 

The way that they worked this out was:-

 

Opos reduced the total outstanding balance by £266.56 and accepted the received payments totalling £1090.24 as the full and final settlement of the account. Kristel Martinson considers that as I paid £151.44 more than was the balance on 23/04/12 and default date of 27/06/12 (£145.20), the only amount refundable would be £6.24. She also provided two breakdowns

 

The balance was £938.80 on 23/04/12 when you made contact with Minicredit which consisted of

Loan principal £220

Interest 1% per day from 31/01/12 to 23/04/12 totalling £184.80

Overdue charge £25 added 29/02/12

Overdue charge £55 added 02/03/12

Debt recorvery charge £100 added 29/03/12

Debit fees totalling £354 (every failed attempt costs up to £5)

The interest added between the 23/04/12 and the default date of 27/06/12 was £143

 

You paid £1090.24 that covered the following

 

Loan principal £220

Interest 1% per day from 31/01/12 to 27/06/12 totalling £327.8

Overdue charge £25 added 29/02/12

Overdue charge £55 added 02/03/12

Debt recorvery charge £100 added 29/03/12

Debit fees totalling £354 added up to 23/04/13

 

Still can't work all of this out especially as the debit fees seemed to have been changed from £635.00 to £354 all of a sudden, but got mightly pee'd off about it so I lodged an offical complaint with the FOS on 4th July. Today Minicredit have attempted to telephone me to discuss my complaint which I have lodged and I quite rightly informed Ms Martinson that I would not discuss any matters over the phone with her but she should put everything in writing.

 

Are we taking bets that she's going to stick to the £6.24 refund or is she going to offer a good will gesture?

 

Oh and I did lodge a complaint with the OFT but they said they didn't look into individual cases

[renegadeimp]

Pretty much all those charges are penalty fees and can be reclaimed. Add them up, reclaim them and really **** them off.

[fletch70]

I would love, just love, someone to make a claim against them and get a CCJ. Kristel Martinson is a (insert suitable adjective here) who is unable to write a coherent well set out letter. I actually wonder if she exists as anyone of her obvious talent would have moved years ago...back to school

[renegadeimp]

People have tried fletch. The problem is that IF any court papers are recieved, they immediately backtrack and settle out of court. This way nobody ever gets to know what went on.

[fletch70]

Renegade, I have experience of this woman . I finally told her to put up or shut up ( I wasn't quite so polite ) after my debt went form 200 to over 1000 in a few weeks. To date I have not heard a thing. I could post the letter up, suffice to say that they accused me of fraud based on the fact that I could not repay. They also accused me of lying because I said I was single on the application and then wrote apologising for not being in touch as my wife had died. How bloody dare she, yes I had been living a single life for 10 years but have never divorced so yes, she was still my wife. Do I need to explain

 

Anyway still waiting and I will fight her every step

[dragzb]

I'm still waiting for Kristel Martinson to write to me to tell me that the FOS have been in touch, shame she's so completely.... well I won't say it. However all documentation going backward and forward between myself and this woman will be forwarded to the FOS on Monday. I'm expecting a partial refund, I know how much I want, and I'm going to stick to it.

 

Fletch70 is quite right in that this woman cannot string a coherent sentence together and she can't get her maths right either!!!!

[dragzb]

Further update on my ongoing saga.

 

As you know my complaint is lodged with the FOS and today I received a further email from Kristel Martinson as follows

 

Dear XX

 

We have received the letter from FOS regarding your complaint. My assistant tried to contact you in order to discuss a reviewed settlement offer.

 

You paid £1090.24 that covered the following

 

1. Loan principal £220.

2. Loan interest 1% per day from 31/01/2012 to 27/06/2012 totalling £327.803.

3. Overdue charge £25 added 29/02/20124

4. Overdue charge £55 added 02/03/20125

5. Debt recovery charge £100 added 29/03/20126.

6. Debit attempt fees totalling £354 added up to 23/04/2013

 

As a gesture of good will, we are willing to refund 50% of the tailed debit attempt fees along with the £6.24. The total amount we are able to refund is £183.54

 

Kind regards

 

Unfortunately for them that's just not good enough. My question is do I wait for the FOS to rule or do I go back to these muppets with a counter negotiation?

[renegadeimp]

See what the fos says. They should be refunding both overdue charges, the debt recovery fee and attempted charges. Theyre having a laugh with their offer.

[dragzb]

Latest from this bunch of clowns

 

 

Dear XXXX

 

Microcredit Ltd has received the complaint you issued with the Financial Ombudsman Service. We appreciate your wish to resolve the matter with your MiniCredit account and acknowledge the reason you have asked help from a third party.

 

We want you to be completely happy with our products and service. That is why we are committed to listening to feedback and resolving your complaints where we can.

 

To help us investigate and resolve the issues and concerns that you have and before we issue the Final Response to you and the Financial Ombudsman Service please provide to us additional information. We consider every complaint separately and come to a solution depending on your specific requests. There are various possibilities to settle the complaint and we would like to come to the one that is mutally agreeable.

 

I have tried to contact you on the phone numbers registered with us and have not been successful. That is the reason why I am currently asking you to contact me by phone on the number 0871 890 3015 from Monday to Friday between 8am and 4pm. Together we can then agree on how to move forward.

 

Kind regards

Kristel Martinson

MiniCredit.co.uk

Head of Customer Support and Claims Department

 

 

Firstly what additional information does this woman want she's had all information and she's getting nothing else and tried to phone me well she hasn't and anyway even if she had I won't deal with this over the phone and she knows it. I've emailed back and told her that as previously stated I'll only deal with this via email.

[sillygirl1]

If she hasn't been in touch then you MUST let the FOS/OFT know - they have only 6 weeks to deal with you before it goes further with the FOS/OFT.

 

Don't let the opportunity slip.

 

I can't believe that somebody has been conned into paying £1080 for a £200 loan - outrageous!

[renegadeimp]

Also they cannot force you into telephone contact. Its hilarious that even when the fos is involved they are still breaking the terms of their licence