Dealing with Payday Loan Companies

saltnvinegar

SASHA11 wrote: »

Hi saltnvinegar,just been reading what u wrote about payday loans.would it not be easier to close down the account and open a new 1.Dont know whether im doing this right,or if u will read this...Not sure what im doing.Im in the same situation as most on here,hope u will reply

Hi Sasha11

You're definately right, this is by far the easiest and best method of dealing with this issue if you have left enough time to set up a new account and to change your details with your employer/benefits office.

You need to ensure that:

1) Your existing current account has no overdraft otherwise they will not let you close the account until the overdraft has cleared

2) You cancel all direct debits to the existing account

3) When you set up your new account go with a bank/building society that has no financial links to any of your creditors

4) You set up standing orders to replace the cancelled direct debits

5) You never again under any circumstances take out more payday loans. The whole point of this exercise is to break the payday loan cycle

6) You do not give your new debit card details, or bank details to your existing payday loan companies or creditors

7) You contact your wages department/benefits department and ensure your wages/benefits are paid into this new account

With the above done you can now start dealing with your debts. Its important to do this otherwise the cycle will start all over again.

Have a read of this sticky as a good place to start:

Where to seek professional impartial advice about your debts

I would recommend speaking to the CCCS or Payplan or alternatively call the national debt line http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/ (do not confuse the FREE National Debt Line with debt management companies who deliberately go by similar names. Never pay for debt management advice or for someone to help you manage your debts, no matter how good they make it sound.

All the best

SnV

SASHA11

Hi snv,

ty for all the info,i dont have any money going into that account now nor dd coming out.This is, i think the only details that they have.
So should i write them a letter explaining my difficulty in paying and how much that i can offer,(do i enclose a form to show what i pay out each month).some1 or u said not to telephone them but write all the time,im just worried that they would call my employers...If they did would they tell them whats going on or would this not be allowed?Also some1 said sign letters digitally,what is this please.(sorry im a bit thick)lol Do they keep writing u letters and calling until they except ur offer or can they take u to court,what is the worst that can happen?I wish i never went down this road but as u can imagine once they take what u owe them,ur mothly wages are gone so u have to keep upping the amount and u havent enough wages to pay it.Do u no the address of wonga that i have to write to or will it be on there homepage.
by the way ty so much againg for all ur help,nice to talk to some1 who knows what there talking about.. ty

saltnvinegar

SASHA11 wrote: »

Hi snv,

ty for all the info,i dont have any money going into that account now nor dd coming out.This is, i think the only details that they have.
So should i write them a letter explaining my difficulty in paying and how much that i can offer,(do i enclose a form to show what i pay out each month).some1 or u said not to telephone them but write all the time,im just worried that they would call my employers...If they did would they tell them whats going on or would this not be allowed?Also some1 said sign letters digitally,what is this please.(sorry im a bit thick)lol Do they keep writing u letters and calling until they except ur offer or can they take u to court,what is the worst that can happen?I wish i never went down this road but as u can imagine once they take what u owe them,ur mothly wages are gone so u have to keep upping the amount and u havent enough wages to pay it.Do u no the address of wonga that i have to write to or will it be on there homepage.
by the way ty so much againg for all ur help,nice to talk to some1 who knows what there talking about.. ty

Hi Sasha

No problem! I'll answer what I can in your post, but I must emphasise what I advised in my earlier post:

I would recommend speaking to the CCCS or Payplan or alternatively call the national debt line www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/

You must get some professional help with dealing with your debts and to help understand why you got into debt in the first place and to prevent you from falling further into debt in the future. Please do this you will not regret it.

So in answer to your questions:

1) Yes write to them with your offer, detailing what you can afford and no more. If you go with an organization like CCCS however they will do this for you so you wouldn't need to stress over this.

2) Yes they may call your employers, though its not that likely. However they should definately not disclose why they are calling to your colleagues. If they start hassling you at work there are ways you can stop this from happening.

3) Sign digitally - Do not physically sign your name on the letters but use a different font on your computer. Or just type your name should be sufficient.

4) Yes they will keep calling you (unless you tell them to stop and send them a letter requesting they cease contacting you via telephone) and they will keep sending you letters. This is standard debt recovery activity. However they will not put in writing what they would be prepared to say to you over the telephone. This is why you keep everything in writing and you do not call them.

Once you are on a dmp though, or other payment arrangement the phone calls and letters should stop.

5) They worst that could happen? They could (highly unlikely) take you to court and you could be awarded a CCJ against you. This is the worst that can happen though, and, if you defend, then a judge is only likely to make you pay what you can afford, nothing more.

They will also likely add interest onto your account for a couple of months unless you get them to agree to stop, so you may find the balance of your loans increase substantially.

This is the worst that can happen though. The best that can happen is they agree to your payment plan and freeze interest. This is why you need to speak to someone like the CCCS if you are not confident handling things yourself.

Wongas website have their postal address, but you can also email them at:

[EMAIL="collections@wonga.com"]collections@wonga.com[/EMAIL],
[EMAIL="balanceoffer@wonga.com"]balanceoffer@wonga.com[/EMAIL],
[EMAIL="debtmanagement@wonga.com"]debtmanagement@wonga.com[/EMAIL]

Sasha - You need to be prepared for them to harrass and intimidate you in an attempt to recover their money. You need to be prepared to badger and harrass them daily to accept your payment proposal.

In my experience firing off one letter is not going to work. You have to be in their face and able to prove that you are not a 'won't pay' but a 'can't pay'. The added benefit to this of course is that you are then able to demonstrate you have made every reasonable effort to come to a payment arrangement if they were to take you to court.

Brings me back to getting that professional advice from the debt charities.

All the best

SnV

saltnvinegar

Hi Mods!

I notice the post from Natasha2010 has been removed. Any reason why?

Cheers
SnV

louie31

hi saltandvineger

firstly i would like to say your advise is really great so glad i had the chance to read it.

Looking some advice here, i have previously posted regarding my payday loans 3 companies, and am going to hopefully set up a repayment plan with them.

My problem is i opened a 2nd account with sandander and all payday loans are connected to my 1st sandander account which has now no money going into it, there is an overdraft of £3000 in use on this account so cant close this account until we have overdraft paid off.

What problems will i have if i stick to my 2nd account with sandander with regards to overdraft or payday loans.

Please note i wish to pay these off sooner rather than later i have no desire to keep this debt.

thanks for any advice

saltnvinegar

louie31 wrote: »

hi saltandvineger

firstly i would like to say your advise is really great so glad i had the chance to read it.

Looking some advice here, i have previously posted regarding my payday loans 3 companies, and am going to hopefully set up a repayment plan with them.

My problem is i opened a 2nd account with sandander and all payday loans are connected to my 1st sandander account which has now no money going into it, there is an overdraft of £3000 in use on this account so cant close this account until we have overdraft paid off.

What problems will i have if i stick to my 2nd account with sandander with regards to overdraft or payday loans.

Please note i wish to pay these off sooner rather than later i have no desire to keep this debt.

thanks for any advice

Hi Louie

Thanks for your post. Your main issue I see is that you have opened a second bank account that is linked to one of your creditors. This may cause you a couple of problems:

1) The first is that Santander can (and most likely will) use a method called 'offsetting' and take your money from account 2 to pay off the overdraft of account 1.

Your overdraft should be treated just like any of your other debts and should be included in any debt management plan.

2) Its rare but I have seen cases where when someone has changed bank accounts but kept the same bank that the bank then honours the recurring payment authority on the new account for the payday loan.

So for either of the above reasons you need to open up a bank account with someone who is not one of your creditors and get your wages paid into this.

You can then get on and deal with your debts.

Best

SnV

bluejeans53

Hiya S n V, I read all your payday loan posts with interest, as I had two. I have managed to clear one but still have one and hoping to clear it soon. Just waiting for my PPI payment to come through, when they decide to pay it ?

I must have fell lucky ? with the companies I got pay day loans from.

payday express
cashchoice

Both take there payments 4 days after my payday? as most of my DD's come out on my payday, they are paid before payday loans are taken.

Is this un unusual, for payday companies ?

I enjoy your posts as there are always very thorough and informative

Thankyou

saltnvinegar

bluejeans53 wrote: »

Hiya S n V, I read all your payday loan posts with interest, as I had two. I have managed to clear one but still have one and hoping to clear it soon. Just waiting for my PPI payment to come through, when they decide to pay it ?

I must have fell lucky ? with the companies I got pay day loans from.

payday express
cashchoice

Both take there payments 4 days after my payday? as most of my DD's come out on my payday, they are paid before payday loans are taken.

Is this un unusual, for payday companies ?

I enjoy your posts as there are always very thorough and informative

Thankyou

Hi Bluejeans

From my experience thats really unusual. Most PDL companies will insist on taking money on your payday.

I don't know much about cashchoice, but Payday Express were one of the first creditors I have to accept my DMP and freeze interest and charges so fair play on them.

Well done on clearing yours though already!

Best

SnV

ailsajayne29

Hi, havent had time to read the thread properly, but thought I'd stick my experinces with PDL companies and DMPs in!

I have PDL's with Wagedayadvance, poundstilpayday, pounds2day and cash genie. WDA and Poundstil payday after some complaining and letters emails etc have settled down and are accepting payment from Payplan. Pounds2day are messing me around, mainly as they seem to have passed thier debt onto a DCA that dont appear to exist (Cornwall collections?).

Massive word of warning about Cash Genie: they hounded my email add with offers of deals if i would only repay them. I had changed bank acc and mob number as soon as I realised I was stuck in the trap... anyway despite my protests that I could not pay (not wouldnt, couldnt) kept offering me these deals to reloan and all sorts. Then passed me onto their atrocious DCA, who flat out refused my DMP's offer of £5 pm, they werent willing to accept less than £20... anyway eventually Cash genie contacted me saying that if i paid them £65 pm for three months on my debit card they would write off the remainder of the loan and call off the DCA (whose name I can't remember!).... all good yeah? got it in writing and everything! Final payment day, every penny (£250) out of my account.... they have returned £121 as a ''goodwill'' gesture, but its left me out of pocket... so be warned! Luckily I was in process of changin bank account anyway so they only had my old (now closed) acc details!
Deals that look good from PDL's collections departments really arent!!

Also this has been going on since Aug/Sept and so far none of them have registered defaults (or any record of the agreement) on my file, none of tham had actually credit searched me in the first place and despite the many many threats so far no court papers. I suspect its that each debt was originally less than £200 so poss not worth it and that if I'm on a DMP with a company they are highly unlikely to be awarded any higher repayments by the court

whatever happens if you really are stuck in a trap its worth putting up with the hassle to get you out of it and back to being able to live off your pay! I just wish I had realised sooner that the mythical day when I could clear my PDL's and not have to borrow more to live was not going to happen after the first three rollovers!

MR_SKINT_3

If you don't manage to change your bank details on time, would it be possible to transfer your wages (via internet banking) to another account before payday loan companies can get at them ?


Thank you