MCO Capital loan

geomacl

I have to ask exactly what the role of CRAs is - for the purposes of my being a victim of this MCO fraud, I temporarily joined Experian (trading as CreditExpert. I received an email from them this morning essentially advertising financial products (and energy suppliers) with the following intro:
******************************************************
Find out which credit deals you're most likely to be accepted for, before you apply.

As a previous member of Credit Expert we can find you credit in four easy steps without damaging your credit status. We can help find the best possible rates available to you by assessing your circumstances and recommending the deals you are most likely to be accepted for.
****************************************************
Under this were the logos and links to various LOAN (personal loans, mortgages, credit cards) and to an energy comparison site.
Surely this cannot be acceptable for a CRA to try to align/set up their clients with loans and other financial services - is this not a conflict of interest?????:mad:

WOULD REGULATORS PLEASE NOTE THIS CONCERN AND RESPOND

grahamqat

Hi George, sorry to be negative but if you're waiting for the OFT to do their job and start regulating, you might be waiting a long time. Of course what you've said about the CRA's is absolutely right. They've created their own rules and are running unchecked influencing people's lives, why? because the authorities can't be bothered to do anything about it. I would like to offer some words of comfort, but I don't think there are any; that's why I've changed my stance to trying to get rid of disfunctional Government Qangos. After all, if they're not doing their jobs, why should they take my hard-earned tax payers money?

catherine12345_2

Hi all. Haven't posted on this thread for ages but just wanted to ask you a question regarding the information required by City of London Police. The letter says to "document the brief facts and complete the attached witness statement". What did you all do? Did you complete a separate sheet of paper with a brief outline of all correspondence with MCO etc and attach it to the witness statement or just send back the witness statement?

Cheers

Cath

geomacl

catherine12345 wrote: »

Hi all. Haven't posted on this thread for ages but just wanted to ask you a question regarding the information required by City of London Police. The letter says to "document the brief facts and complete the attached witness statement". What did you all do? Did you complete a separate sheet of paper with a brief outline of all correspondence with MCO etc and attach it to the witness statement or just send back the witness statement?
Cheers
Cath

Hi Cath
NO! I didn't complete a separate sheet - I simply answered the questions on the witness sheet. The main things they need are the date of the letter you received from MCO/Helploan, the amount of money demanded and the "alleged" loan reference number. I believe that they are just looking for basic information from a large number of people rather than lots of data from an small number of people. FYI - for the five dual choice selections, I responded, No,No,N/A,N/A and N/A - hope that's clear?
Hope this helps - keep it simple is my advice.
We would still seem to be getting lots of forum hits - well over 500 per day but very few posts? Hmmmm - too many voyeurs???;)

catherine12345_2

Why thank you very much geomacl. That is very clear and helpful. It's now in the post!!!!

Prudence2_2

geomacl wrote: »

We would still seem to be getting lots of forum hits - well over 500 per day but very few posts? Hmmmm - too many voyeurs???;)

Well if 9000 people were caught up in this, I suppose that a lot of them will have found their way to this forum and will be checking it regularly for advice. It's really helpful to know you're not alone, even if you don't contribute to the forum.

Kim4732

Hi,
Has everyone received letters from the police ? We haven't yet and was wondering if I should query this.
Many Thanks for the great posts here.
Kim.

geomacl

Kim4732 wrote: »

Hi,
Has everyone received letters from the police ? We haven't yet and was wondering if I should query this.
Many Thanks for the great posts here.
Kim.

I received my letter from CoLP over a week ago as did many others on this forum. Maybe a quick call to Action Fraud would help? I assume that took the recommended actions - calling AF to get a Crime number, sent letter and called MCO/Intrum Justitia with this crime #?

geomacl

At long last a reply from the FSA to my email - saying not our responsibility, essentially. Note their relationship to Experian - for general insurance business (Hmmmm - is this not a conflict of interest by Experian??) but not their credit reference business!
(I have already had a response from OFT saying little - see earlier post #1275)

"Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your email dated 11 November 2010.
I understand that you have received a letter from MCO Capital in respect of the repayment of a pay-day loan. You believe that you have not taken such a loan out, and are concerned about how the firm has approved the loan, and also, why the credit reference agencies allowed the loan to go ahead.
I appreciate your concerns and thought it would be helpful to explain the role of the FSA, our relationship with both Experian and MCO Capital Limited, and also your next steps.
The FSA is the independent regulator of financial services in the United Kingdom, and we authorise and regulate the majority of financial services firms in the UK. All the firms we authorise and regulate appear on our public Register, which can be accessed via our website at:
www.fsa.gov.uk/register/firmMainSearch.do
I have searched this Register and can confirm that we authorise Experian for general insurance business, but not for its credit reference business, and we do not authorise MCO Capital. This is because credit reference business and personal loans, including pay-day loans, fall under within the remit of the Consumer Credit Act (CCA). The CCA requires most businesses that lend money to consumers or act as credit reference agencies to be licensed by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The OFT is a government body that ensures that firms are fit to hold licences. As you are concerned about the general business practices of MCO Capital, I suggest that you contact the OFT directly to bring this to their attention. You can contact them at:

Office of Fair Trading
Fleetbank House
2-6 Salisbury Square
London
EC4Y 8JX
Telephone: 08457 224499
Email: [EMAIL="enquiries@oft.gsi.gov.uk"]enquiries@oft.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL]
Website: www.oft.gov.uk
Although the FSA has rules for the firms it authorises, and the OFT for firms with consumer credit licences, neither organisation can intervene in or investigate complaints against firms on behalf of the public; this is the role of a separate and independent body, the Financial Ombudsman Service (the Ombudsman). The Ombudsman can investigate complaints about firms that hold credit licences where the cause for complaint occurred on or after 6 April 2007.

grahamqat

Hi Geomacl - Interesting letter from FSA. Even more interesting is their comment about the OFT

"Although the FSA has rules for the firms it authorises, and the OFT for firms with consumer credit licences, neither organisation can intervene in or investigate complaints against firms on behalf of the public"

This is simply not the case. The OFT themselves have an example on their own web-site as follows:

"OFT takes action against unfair debt recovery practices

122/10 23 November 2010
The OFT has imposed requirements on debt recovery company Aktiv Kapital to secure improvements to its debt collection and communication practices.
An OFT investigation found that Aktiv Kapital had been chasing people for disputed debts without properly investigating the issues in dispute, in breach of the OFT's debt collection guidance. The investigation also found that those being chased felt unreasonably pressurised by Aktiv Kapital.
Although Aktiv Kapital has taken action to address the practices that concerned the OFT, requirements have been imposed to ensure that future conduct of the same or a similar kind does not occur.
The wrong person being pursued for a debt is a common theme in complaints about the debt collection industry received by the OFT. This is often rooted in inaccurate or incomplete data being passed on by the owner of the debt when a debt is sold or its collection is sub-contracted."

How did the OFT find out that the wrong people were being chased? Complaints from the public as it says above.

So the FSA doesn't seem to know what the role of the OFT is, and has sent you a very misleading letter. Am I surprised? Not really