Lightning Loan/Valour Finance Payday Loan

Hi,

Approximately 6 months ago my girlfriend took a payday loan from a company called Lightning loans for £200. We were unable to make the repayment and since then dealing with this company has been a total nightmare. (understatement)

I will list all the problems we have had and hopefully someone can give me an idea of how to proceed.

1) The company was issuing £15 charges with letters relating to the debt almost every day. (My girlfriend is a student and they were being sent to her home address and we had no idea of the volume they were sending) In one 7 day period they sent 5 letters relating to the account. (In my opinion that is pretty wrong as they can't even be sure one letter has been received before they issued another) I raised this issue with them on the phone and I was told this was tough and that I needed to read the terms and conditions of the loan as it is within their guidelines apparently. Even after talking to a supervisor I was told the same thing. In total the debt was increased in one month by nearly £200.

2) When we took out the loan, at the end of the first month we sought to extend it by one month when we knew the total payment would not be met. This part payment also 'bounced' as we had no money. In the days that followed I checked online and the interest had been added to the account for the rollover even though it never actually happened and they had added £90 to the account. Therefore charging for a rollover that never even happened.

3) A repayment plan was put in place for £30 a month following all of this and was stuck to until this month. Unlike other months they did not call to take the £30 and instead decided to try and take the full balance. This was at the time approx £350. There was not that much in our bank so they tried to take incrementally lower amounts until they took the only £80 in there. We contacted the bank and they cancelled any recurring payments on all her cards. No continuous authority was ever given to lightning and the card we were using to make the repayments was not the card which was used to take out the loan originally. My question on this is, can they take authority to take these payments if it is never mentioned to the customer and especially if it is on another account from the original can any 'terms' they have in the T&Cs be binding? I have also heard that they need to explain the continuous payments can be cancelled by either them or the bank, this conversation never happened.

4) I contacted the citizens advice bureau and they have instructed us to send a letter detailing the complaints that I have mentioned above in a dated letter to Lightning. I have done this and they have written a letter acknowledging the complaint and have stated they will respond in 8 weeks. Since the confirmation they have now sent a letter of default and have again started to add charges to the account at £15 a letter. They are saying the account is in arrears even though the arrangement was for £30 a month and this month they helped themselves to £80. I called on the phone to dispute whether they can add charges and threaten a default before my complaint has been answered and I was repeatedly told that I need to check their terms and conditions, which I have and this particular situation is not detailed. I asked to speak with someone else (more superior) who can deal with my issues and I was told to await the letter which would be within 8 weeks.

I am not looking forward to them taking 8 weeks to respond while sending out dozens of letters adding charges to this continually growing debt.

My concern is that this company is so unbelievably unprofessional that we have no faith in them acting like any sort of reputable business. This makes me reluctant to make any further payments to them out of fear they will just eventually just take all the money in our bank accounts.

I imagine that they are a relatively small operation as every time I call I end up speaking to the same person. This guy is the most arrogant rude and self righteous person I have EVER dealt with and the supervisor who I have once spoken to is just as bad.

I know I have to await the outcome of the letter of complaint I have sent but I have no doubt that they will not deal with this at all and will insist that they have behaved accordingly and in line with their ridiculous T&Cs. I have asked the citizens advice about the best way we can proceed but they haven't been that helpful and I am sure this is probably down to the volume of complaints they get about this industry and don't have time to help on a one to one basis.

I am very sorry for the length of this and can only hope some of you stuck with it and can give me some advice or even just tell me if anyone else has had dealings with this particular company.

Thanks in advance