Gothia/Red-Have they broken their Code of Practice? 31 August 2008 at 9:57PM in Debt-Free Wannabe 8 replies 4.1K views

BorassicLint

Hi I am a newbie, not sure if i am doing this right or if it is in the right place but have been reading posts for ages and taking on board some of the wonderful advice given here although i haven't quite had my LBM yet I know it has to come very soon. However, I want some advice regarding Gothia/Red to find out if they have broken their code of conduct. My Daughter is currently paying off a debt through them but as she doesn't have a bank account with debit card facility she has been paying with my debit card, with my permission I must add, and when she rings them they usually ask to speak to me to verify that I agree to the payment. However when checking my account via internet banking yesterday I noticed a payment to them has been debited to my account during the last few days. My daughter has not phoned them and they have had no permission from me to do this. Consequently it has taken my account overdrawn and i now have a £30 charge from my bank. My daughter was told previously that they do not keep card details but they obviously do!

stapeley

hi , some of these DCA have no codes of practice ! I would not trust them . You should never give debit card details to these companies . There have been many cases of monies being taken without permission . It will be a waste of time trying to sort it out on the phone . I PERSONALLY , would cancel your card now , so no more payments can be taken .Then write to the complaints department, if they have one , tell them they will be reported to the OFT. They will tell you they can not send a payment book , this is not true , it costs them money, that why they do not like this method.
What is the debt for ? How old is it ? Please give a little back ground , we may be able to advise on how to deal with it .

mitty_2

I would contact your bank by phone & in writing and tell them that you did not authorise the transaction - the bank may try and pass it back to you, but be firm and ask them to mark it as a disputed transaction, if they didn't get your permission to take the money, then It's up to the bank to sort it - in my view.

tallyhoh

I agree with that. Complain to the bank & ask why they paid this out & then charged you £30!!!!!!!!

BorassicLint

Thanks for your replies. My daughter rang Gothia today and spoke to a pig of a man who insisted she had set up a direct debit and she was getting quite angry because she knew she hadn't but he insisted she had. I then spoke to him and asked to speak to his manager, he refused point blank and said that in future no card payments would be accepted by them for the account, I enquired as to how they expect her to pay and he said that she has to get a bank account that allows direct debit, what an ***hole. I put the phone down and rang back and asked for the manager. The lady I spoke to was helpful and said that a request to retain the card details had been put on the account but neither I nor my daughter had authorised this. She said it would be removed and I reported the idiot I first spoke to. Hopefully it is now sorted!

So to my bank - I rang and explained what had happened and after a long and frustrating conversation they deemed to do me a great favour and cancel the £30 charge - as a gesture of goodwill and a once in a lifetime thing only! They are so generous.

The debts are from catalogues and are probably about a year old. One is for approx £350 and the other for about £800. The £800 is being paid at £10 per month and the other one at £5 per month and she had a fight on her hands to get them to accept that but she is on benefits so cannot afford anymore. I received a new debit card last week and the numbers are different so hopefully if they try it again it won't go through anyway!

Deep_In_Debt

Be careful about setting up a direct debit as they can still take what they want. Standing Orders are best as you have control over them.

I have had dealings with Red Castle/Gothia. Some girl who sounded about 5 tried to have a real go at me - won't repeat on here what I said back!

grahamqat

Gothia is a trading style of MCO Capital Ltd, currently at the centre of a fraud investigation. They are listed at Companies House as "Non-Trading" although clearly they are. You will find many references to them on Google, all of them bad. I intend to start a striking off order on them next week, hopefully preventing their illegal operation. You should report any fraud you have suffered to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040. They are a Government organisation who will be able to advise you.

Deep_In_Debt

I've had no contact with them for some while and the debt has been passed back to the original creditor and reading the above post, probably explains why!

I'm quite missing their constant abuse actually as I had a bit of fun with them on phone!

CaptainSmirnoff

grahamqat wrote: »

Gothia is a trading style of MCO Capital Ltd, currently at the centre of a fraud investigation. They are listed at Companies House as "Non-Trading" although clearly they are. You will find many references to them on Google, all of them bad. I intend to start a striking off order on them next week, hopefully preventing their illegal operation. You should report any fraud you have suffered to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040. They are a Government organisation who will be able to advise you.

I'm glad to see that someone is takinging action against these people. I have received a demand from Helploan/MCO Capital Ltd for £454 which is a £300 loan for 20 days which they quote the interest rate as 937% which, for me, makes them guilty before we start. Even if they have been targeted by identity thieves they are just robbers. The letter was dated London 24 th August 2010 and received on the 8th September 2010. In it they make reference to a debt collecting agency which is not in keeping with the Office of Fair Trading guidelines.

I feel that to open hundreds of bank accounts in other people’s names for £300 is totally impractical and I just can't believe that is what has happened. If it hasn't then MCO are at best guilty of gross negligence and need stopping.

Whatever the truth is I feel that there is a good case to claim compensation from them, not only for the time spent dealing with this entire mess but also the upset and stress that has been caused by their irresponsibility. I don’t know how to go about it personally and feel it would be better to do on mass.