MCO Capital loan

Prudence2_2

piglets3 wrote: »

Today I received a letter fropm Payday UK - more professional looking letter. MEM Consumer Finance for a seperate Loan which I have not taken. Has anyone else received similar?

Hi Piglets, personally I have only received one letter, with Helploan at the top. But as soon as this happened to me I was concerned that my details are in the hands of criminals and this might happen again so I immediately took out Protective Registration with the Fraud Protection Service CIFAS (to find them simply Google CIFAS).

Protective Registration costs about £14 but as far as I'm concerned it's worth every penny for the peace of mind because it means that no further loans can be taken out in your name without much more thorough checks.

Prudence

colinho

piglets3 wrote: »

Hi Guys, Thank you for your reply's to my post last week. I read this forum daily & I know things seem to have gone a bit quiet until I received a letter in the post this morning which is quite concerning. In brief I received a letter from Helploan in Sept which I have followed advice & contacted AF got CRN etc. I have not contacted any CRA because you cannot speak to them unless you are registered & I do not want to give anyone any further info on myself - Credit/debit card info etc. Today I received a letter fropm Payday UK - more professional looking letter. MEM Consumer Finance for a seperate Loan which I have not taken. Has anyone else received similar?

Wouldn't be at all surprised if you are the first in a "second wave", probably many of us won't be far behind you - there had to be more to this scam than has yet shown up. As for advice - you really do need to contact the CRA (probably Experian) and get a Notice of Correction on your account now, you can do it yourself (see earlier posts) or pay for CIFAS to do it. If it troubles you, use your credit or debit card to make the payment, once it's cleared, cancel that card, and get a new number issued. Until then, if this ID Theft involves more problems, you are vulnerable.
Secondly, you have to go through the whole procedure again. Write to Payday UK, recorded delivery, email them, and telephone them, asking for name of person you speak to, and a reference. You also need to alert ActionFraud ASAP. Get your denial in quick. Good luck, hope this is resolved quickly for you.

geomacl

piglets3 wrote: »

Hi Guys, Thank you for your reply's to my post last week. I read this forum daily & I know things seem to have gone a bit quiet until I received a letter in the post this morning which is quite concerning. In brief I received a letter from Helploan in Sept which I have followed advice & contacted AF got CRN etc. I have not contacted any CRA because you cannot speak to them unless you are registered & I do not want to give anyone any further info on myself - Credit/debit card info etc. Today I received a letter fropm Payday UK - more professional looking letter. MEM Consumer Finance for a seperate Loan which I have not taken. Has anyone else received similar?

Hi Piglets3 - this looks like a new angle - yet another party trying the same ploy or is it the same people behind MCO opening a new front. So far as I can recall this is the first mention of "Payday UK" and "MEM Consumer Finance".
I assume, Piglets3, that you have been on the phone to AF and reported this?? This is the first thing that I would do - also I would bite the bullet and request a credit report from Experian. It seems that Experian is the sole CRA appraoched by MCO and it's likely that MEM would use the same CRA. You can always register with Experian for a free 30 day trial? Please keep us all posted as you wrestle with this new lot of shysters!!:mad:

piglets3_2

Thanks everyone for your help. I have rang AF they told me to contact Payday UK. AF have had other complaints relating to Payday UK. Payday UK have logged complaint - their fraud team will contact me in 5 - 6 days! I am going to register with Experian for their 30 day trial, although I am still loathe to do this.

geomacl

Just noticed that MEM Finance is a member of CIFAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Their so called "Payday" loans are very similar to MCO Helploan and Balanceloan. Albeit you repay £375 for a one month £300 payday loan
Interest rate is 1737%APR (less for longer term loans) - who in their right mind would borrow at that rate???????
I wonder who MEM use as their debt collectors - could that be the common link?
Piglets3 Have you tried phoning the telephone number on the letter to see who answers? In fact can you let us have a copy of the words on the letter so we can unleash the hounds?
This calls for more research - where are Elaine and OB when you need them?
Off to change into my Sherlock Holmes outfit!!!!

geomacl

piglets3 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your help. I have rang AF they told me to contact Payday UK. AF have had other complaints relating to Payday UK. Payday UK have logged complaint - their fraud team will contact me in 5 - 6 days! I am going to register with Experian for their 30 day trial, although I am still loathe to do this.

I have registered for 30 day trial period - due to end in 10 days - logged on to my calander!!! May do so sooner as MCO search has been removed (just found out 5 minutes ago by signing in to my account - no notification from Experian!!!!)

This would appear to have happened before to MEM "customers" - 2 years ago!!!! See:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/772221

We need to find more out about MEM - are they a more sustantive company (financially) than MCO?

piglets3_2

Thanks Geomacl, Payday UK told me they use 2 CRA's - Experian & Call Credit, although they weren't quite sure! They said the call back in 5-6 days would be from an 020 number. They are asking for a repayment of £ 500 although they do not mention the loan amount. OOh just noticed they say if my account remains outstanding I will not be eligible for any further loans. Excellent. They say my repayment failed because of one or more of the following: Debit card details have changed. Insufficient funds. Pay date has changed. They are asking me to pay a Barclay's account.

geomacl

piglets3 wrote: »

Thanks Geomacl, Payday UK told me they use 2 CRA's - Experian & Call Credit, although they weren't quite sure! They said the call back in 5-6 days would be from an 020 number. They are asking for a repayment of £ 500 although they do not mention the loan amount. OOh just noticed they say if my account remains outstanding I will not be eligible for any further loans. Excellent. They say my repayment failed because of one or more of the following: Debit card details have changed. Insufficient funds. Pay date has changed. They are asking me to pay a Barclay's account.

If they are asking you for £500 repayment, the initial loan would have been £400 - see their web site:
http://paydayloansnow.co.uk/howitworks1.php

I would urge you to get in touch with experian sap. Yes, it will involve opening an account - but this is free for 30 days - and then have a look for any MEM credit check. If it's there, call up Experian and challenge it as a "victim of fraud" - same if there's an MCO check there on your account as well. I have also logged a Notice of Correction with Experian - essentially had a password added so that anyone asking for a credit check on me would have to quote this password - you would specifically have to provide this to anyone you are entering into a credit agreement with - like for utilities, pay monthly phone, insurance etc., where Direct Debits are invovled (DDs are a form of credit!)

Barclay's Bank is new - MCO/Helploans were to be paid to either HSBC or a Finnish Bank office in London - Nordea Bank!!

geomacl

Prudence2 wrote: »

Hi Piglets, personally I have only received one letter, with Helploan at the top. But as soon as this happened to me I was concerned that my details are in the hands of criminals and this might happen again so I immediately took out Protective Registration with the Fraud Protection Service CIFAS (to find them simply Google CIFAS).

Protective Registration costs about £14 but as far as I'm concerned it's worth every penny for the peace of mind because it means that no further loans can be taken out in your name without much more thorough checks.

Prudence

MEM Consumer Finance is a member of CIFAS - good or bad?

They do seem to be an actual UK based company as opposed to MCO -see:
http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/mem-consumer-finance
They have a list of UK directors and appear to have been trading since 2003!!

piglets3_2

Hi Geomacl, Their accounts at Companies house seem to be up to date. Just realised - in case someone else receives one of these letters they ask you to contact them on their freephone number 0800 280 2666* . Then message at end of letter says "* call charges may apply depending on your telephone number". So please be aware. AF told me to ring them. They answer as "Collections" & are pretty vague. The person I spoke to was not sure who they use for credit checks but said he thought it was Experian & Call Credit. Asked for a contact name & they will only give this when fraud team contact me in 5-6 days. Still havent registered with Experian or Cifas. 30 day trial - they still want Credit/debit card info & I don't want to give it.