Wage Advance Loan

matt8188

Hello,

After Christmas I was very hard up for money and stupidly decided to take out a payday advance loan with a company called 1MonthLoan (also known as Oasis Financial Services). I signed the electronic agreement on the 15th January for a loan of £150, and I needed to pay back the loan + an additional 30% (£45) on my pay date, the 26th January (total £195). I actually received my pay on the 22nd and as it was a very tight month I did not leave sufficient funds in the account for the debit on Monday 26th.

I was contacted by 1MonthLoan via e-mail on the 27th asking me to put the required funds into the account immediately, they also stated they were charging me a £15 admin fee. As I did not have the required funds and did not do this and I was again contacted by e-mail on the 4th February asking me to pay the required sum (now £225) after they added another £15 admin charge for having to write a second e-mail. Obviously I did not want these fees to continue and I was receiving some other money on the 9th Feb, so I agreed to pay the £225 in three instalments (£60 10th Feb, £80 16th and £85 20th). They replied and said this was okay. I went shopping the day before the first payment was due on the 10th and my debit card was declined. I checked my Internet banking and they had took a payment of £45 that was not agreed. I rang them and they said they had a right to keep on attempting to take the money owed as often as they like from my debit card until it was fully paid off, I explained the embarrassment caused at the supermarket and they said too bad.

I rang the bank up and cancelled my debit card so they could not take any more payments. I then received a letter a few days later, dated 15th February, stating that as I had not made the agreed payments they were charging me an additional one months interest (30%) and another £15 admin fee.

Therefore I have been charged £150 (loan) + £45 agreed interest + (£15 admin fee) + (£15 admin fee) - £45 payment + another 1months interest at 30 % (£180 x .30 = £54) + (£15 admin fee) = £249. Therefore they have now charged me £144 interest and fees which is 96% of my loan!

I am not a wealthy man (if I was I wouldn't be taking out these loans with ridiculous APR). I think they are taking advantage by charging so many fees. I understand admin fees were mentioned in the terms and conditions, but I think the extent they have taken it to is really unfair.

Can I do anything about this??

Any help with this would be much appreciated.

RAS

Hi

You may well be able to reclaim the adminsistration fees but charging 30 percent per month for repayment sounds like you need to talk to the OFT.

On a practical note, please get hold of your local credit union who may well loan you enough to repay this and charge you 2% per month.

You also need to talk to a debt charity as if you are using these loans you are in trouble.