Minicredit payday loan- false advertising?

muttley44_2

In sheer desperation I took a payday loan with Minicredit who clearly state on their website

"There are no hidden costs; responsible lending and fully transparent loan conditions are important priciples of our work."

Sounds good however instead of £100 being credited to my bank account they deposited £80. I e-mailed and queried this and this is my reply -

"The amount £19.50 is the payment fee taken by the Banks to put the funds on your account within 5 minutes. The transfer fee is the same with every loan amount you apply for."

Nowhere I can see is there any mention of this on the website - a clear 'hidden charge', and apart from that isn't this a load of *bs*.

Surely they must be in breach of some kind of advertising law?

They also say this -

" We are offering extremely flexible cash loan and payday loan solutions where client can choose amount and repayment date no hidden cost all charges clear upfront."

Is it possible to report this company and if so, to whom? Any info would be great.

Thanks for lettin me ramble on.

BLT_2

muttley44 wrote: »

In sheer desperation I took a payday loan with Minicredit who clearly state on their website

"There are no hidden costs; responsible lending and fully transparent loan conditions are important priciples of our work."

Sounds good however instead of £100 being credited to my bank account they deposited £80. I e-mailed and queried this and this is my reply -

"The amount £19.50 is the payment fee taken by the Banks to put the funds on your account within 5 minutes. The transfer fee is the same with every loan amount you apply for."

Nowhere I can see is there any mention of this on the website - a clear 'hidden charge', and apart from that isn't this a load of *bs*.

Surely they must be in breach of some kind of advertising law?

They also say this -

" We are offering extremely flexible cash loan and payday loan solutions where client can choose amount and repayment date no hidden cost all charges clear upfront." - LIES

Is it possible to report this company and if so, to whom? Any info would be great.

Thanks for lettin me ramble on.

Certainly sounds like a scam to me, I can transfer money to another bank through the faster payments system and it doesn't cost a penny. I just looked at their website out of interest and they are certainly vague with their terms and conditions.

You can see how they make their money with that charge. 100 pounds for 8 days is only 7 pounds interest, which I guess one could say isn't that bad compared with potential bank charges, hiding a 20 pound payment charge however ups the 'interest rate' substantially.

I have never read about any of the other companies doing that one here.

Enfieldian

Hmm.

A couple of years ago most of the PayDay lenders could do a same day transfer at no charge, now a lot of them seem to have an additional charge for this.

I guess if you are desperate enough for a PayDay loan then you want it ASAP so they have used this as a extra money spinner.

I agree, faster payments costs me nothing and the money arrives instantly. Wonga can transfer the money in minutes at no extra charge as well, so why can't the others?

omen666

Not even a CHAPS costs this amount and as mentioned above Faster Payments costs nothing

Apples2

Sounds about right for CHAPS payment.

Lloyds is £30

http://www.lloydstsb.com/rates_and_charges/current_account_charges.asp

CHAPS payment - when you transfer cleared money to accounts held at any other bank on the same day to arrive the same day. This will include an advice to the person you are paying when the payment reaches their bank. £30.

I have only used CHAPS once, when the Icelanders started stealing our money. Tried CHAPS but it failed, took another 6 Months for them to refund my CHAPS Payments as they failed to move my money at all.

This £30 is still better than these clowns who pay £70 for their loan to be Couriered straight to the door?? !!!!!!??

voytovdwiof

This happened to me, here is the loan displayed via nwolb.com (Natwest online banking):



And the account at minicredit.co.uk:



If you check their "precontract" you'll see the following:

Total Price you Will Pay for Our Services
The total price you will pay the first time you borrow from us depends upon the amount
borrowed. The following shows the total price you will pay for the different amounts that
you can borrow what depends of loan amounts:
1) Interest charges: 1% per day of loan amount.
2) Fast Advance Transmission Fee £5.50 - £20.00, repayable in advance (optional).
3) Registration and card validation fee £0.01.
4) Loan request charge £1 if made by text message, online request is free.
The following example shows total price you will pay if the loan amount is £100 and the
loan term is 30 days if requested online:

So they're contractually covered, but it is VERY misleading. If you wanted to take this any further and you're legally able to (I don't know if you can?) I'd be happy to throw my experience in.

omen666

Apples2 wrote: »

Sounds about right for CHAPS payment.

Lloyds is £30

http://www.lloydstsb.com/rates_and_charges/current_account_charges.asp


I have only used CHAPS once, when the Icelanders started stealing our money. Tried CHAPS but it failed, took another 6 Months for them to refund my CHAPS Payments as they failed to move my money at all.

This £30 is still better than these clowns who pay £70 for their loan to be Couriered straight to the door?? !!!!!!??

£20-30 is right for an individual but far far less for a business sometimes at no cost at all

soloimpala

I applied yesterday for the same thing (£100 loan, to be paid back in 10 days) and the same thing happened to me (19.50 charge). Whilst it states in the contract that there is a fee that can range from £5.50 to £19.50 in the pre contractual information it provides three examples of loans taken out for £100 that only occur the cheapest £5.50 charge. It states in the pre contractual information that "The following example shows total price you will pay if the loan amount is £100 and the loan term is 30 days if requested online:" (It then goes on to show a table of how much it will cost with the fast advance transmission fee being only £5.50).

I then emailed them asking what loans do they charge the £5.50 fee on as opposed to the £19.50 they have charged me , to which they replied that "The transfer fee is the same with every loan amount You apply for." Surely there is a case here of some kind, could someone please advise me?

dzug1

omen666 wrote: »

Not even a CHAPS costs this amount and as mentioned above Faster Payments costs nothing

CHAPS costs vary wildly between banks so I wouldn't be too sure that it can't be that.

But yes they should be using faster payments.

Hax

dzug1 wrote: »

But yes they should be using faster payments.

Faster payments aren't always available. For example: With Alliance & Leicester (now Santander) the first payment sent to a new payee goes the "slower payments" way, taking 3 days to reach the account. Subsequent payments then go via faster payments where the receiving bank supports it. Why I don't know - it just seems to be the way they have implemented it!

Also, the support for faster payments varies between banks - they all have different limits for sending/receiving payments and I don't think all banks have signed up for Faster Payments yet.

geoffky

The only way to avoid these charges is by doing what you should be in the first place...avoid these places where you get a plaster to fix a hole in the dam..