Dealing with Payday Loan Companies

alice87

Just as a quick aside, I wanted to stress the importance of getting your salary redirected. I set up payment plan with 5 pdl companies and lo and behold on Friday (payday) they ALL tried to take the full amount. A few emails later and the texts/phone calls stopped as they realised they really weren't getting it and the plans weren't just for fun. Imagine what would have happened if I hadn't changed my salary!!

Also very important to get any plan agreed in writing as I had to fax letters I'd received agreeing to the plans to 2 companies to get them to stop phoning.

Just because they agree one thing doesn't mean they won't try another. Be warned and be very clear you MUST redirect your salary, constantly check for direct debits, and get everything in writing. If you are thinking of doing this for your next payday send the letters NOW, redirect the salary NOW. I should have done this months ago. It's not as scary as you think!!

MR_SKINT_3

Thanks for that advice.

What can you do if you haven't managed to divert your salary to another account ?

Would it be possible to transfer wages into another bank account (via internet banking) before the payday loan companies get it ?

What time do they request the funds ?

If they request the funds at midnight on payday do they go before you have the chance to transfer them to another account ?


Thank you

alice87

Your best bet is to cancel your debit card & ask that the bank stop all payments from it. Say you left your purse/wallet in a pub toilet, went back & it was gone or something. Cancel your direct debits from
These companies and watch your online banking like a hawk. Wageday Advance reinstate a dd on my old account EVERY DAY despite the fact that I have agreed payments with them. This is the best you will be able to do I'm
Afraid - good luck!!

MR_SKINT_3

Thanks Alice.

I cancelled my old Debit Card but I couldn't stop my salary being paid into my old bank account.

I understand that payday loan companies will still be able to access my funds even though my Debit Card has been cancelled but I was wondering whether I could transfer my wages to another bank account before the payday loans could get at them (by getting up early on my payday and doing an internet banking transfer) ?


Thank you

alice87

It could be worth a try- I have no idea if it would work though unfortunately. Have you written to them explaining the situation? If not drop me a message & I'll send you the forms I used that payplan sent me

saltnvinegar

ailsajayne29 wrote: »

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

Hi Ailsajayne

Thanks for sharing your experience, its always good to hear what these companies get up to so that hopefully others won't fall for their duplicity.

I can only emphasise that you never give your debt card details to a PDL company especially once you have changed your bank details. They will have no qualms about wiping out your account in detriment to you trying to sort out any debt problem you may have.

Best

SnV

saltnvinegar

MR_SKINT wrote: »

Thanks Alice.

I cancelled my old Debit Card but I couldn't stop my salary being paid into my old bank account.

I understand that payday loan companies will still be able to access my funds even though my Debit Card has been cancelled but I was wondering whether I could transfer my wages to another bank account before the payday loans could get at them (by getting up early on my payday and doing an internet banking transfer) ?


Thank you

Hi Mr Skint

The payments are taken as a card payment so there is the possibility that you could get your wages transferred if you got up early enough before they took the card payment.

However there is a possibility that your bank may honour the payments anyway, causing you to go over your overdraft limit and hence then running up over limit charges etc on your bank account.

The positive way to look at this if this happens is that the payday loans are paid off and you only then have your bank to deal with as a creditor.

Best

SnV

saltnvinegar

Well its about time. The OFT have finally recognised this is an issue and have started to take action:

http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2010/142-10

As always if Payday Loan Companies do this to them you must report them to the OFT and TS otherwise they will continue to get away with this dubious practice.

Best

SnV

northerngirl30_2

woo! finally! I sent everything I had for Cash Genie to the OFT, including all the ''offers'' to help get me out of debt and all communication regarding taking all my money! i did get a response saying we are looking into these companies in general so obv this is the outcome!

It shocked me how many people (like myself) didn't know that if you give someone your card details they can take what they want! maybe this will actually help people like me, who ended up in a position where they couldn't repay!

On a different note, I've just found out that one of the others I was dealing with on my DMP have added £250 of charges since october! little b***ards! and when trying to sort this out had their DCA (Clarity) repeatedly asking me why I defaulted on a month loan... grrrr.. sorry rant over :-)

SimIsOnTheUp

Hi guys,

Very stressed here, as it's crunch time.

'SnV' - thanks for your advice in the past regarding my MoneyShop loan.

My loan was for £500 (5x £100 cheques) back in May - paid off in June, and then stupidly ran up again in July.

Since July, I've paid £85 each month to 'extend' the loan, having not been able to pay any of it off.

While I was trying to avoid losing my A&L / Santander bank account (fully Visa card - first normal account in years), I've got to the point where this week I'm stuck and I'm getting so low over this.

This Wednesday 22nd December, MoneyShop are due to present the first £100 cheque to their bank, and then the other cheques are due to be cashed on the 29th, 30th 31st of Dec and the 4th of Jan.

I don't have the money in my Santander account to pay these, and there is no way I can raise it by Wednesday.

Due to having quite a bit of other debt too, I've decided to bite the bullet and go for a Debt Relief Order first thing in January.

Should I cancel my Visa Card / Cheques tomorrow, before the first cheque is due to go through, or instead let the cheques go through (that is *if* the bank honour them) and end up owing the bank the £500 + charges?

I'd obviously rather the latter, as dealing with Santander is probably going to be a lot easier than dealing with MoneyShop. At least if the cheques go through, MoneyShop have been paid and then I can treat the bank debt as a seperate debt to be included in the DRO (as recommended by the CAB a few months back).

I also need to change bank accounts.

Aside from the Santander account, I have another account with the Co-op (Basic, 'Cashminder' account) which I'd rather use for my wages (next due on 31st Dec).

However, I can't remember for sure, but my instinct tells me that I think when I went into MoneyShop originally last May, the guy there took my Co-op Visa Debit Card details as well as the Santander account details (he also made me fill out a 'Direct Debit Mandate' type form for Santander too I think).

So, that rules out my Co-op account for now, as they might try and raid that account too. This is gutting as that account /Co-op's staff were excellent, and it wouldn't let me go overdrawn.

I do have a third bank account, with HBOS (again, a basic CardCash account) which I've had for years, and I could use this for my wages next week.

I'm still waiting on a new PIN (can't remember my old one, as it's been an age since using it, and ordered new PIN a week last Saturday), so hopefully that'll be here soon.

HBOS account only has a Visa Electron 'unembossed' type card, but as much as I'd like to pay the MoneyShop loan off and keep my full, normal bank account with Santander, I just don't have the money and so I'd rather go bust and start again.

I was even thinking of 'starting afresh' with a brand new 'basic, no bells and whistles' bank account, and applying to Lloyds as my friend said they were very good. However, apparently Lloyds are connected to Santander? :-/

This is where an addiction to booze gets you...Due to stupidly falling off the wagon last Fri / Sat, I ended up taking Fri / tonight off work and so now my job could be at risk too.

I can't stop crying, and given that I'm a relatively intelligent 37 year old bloke, I should not have got myself into this mess.

Sorry to witter.

Any advice regarding what on earth I do would be most appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Sim x