Loans Direct UK [text removed by MSE Forum Team] Processing Fee

Pixie5740

cashburner wrote: »

Can I just point out that there's a lot of people who are correct in saying that you should read the Ts&Cs of any website but sometimes this is not of any help to peole who have in reality been ripped off.

Even if people have gone ahead and signed up for the membership without reading the T&Cs it's still a useful bit of information telling them to go back and read them as the T&Cs explain how to claim a refund.

cashburner

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Even if people have gone ahead and signed up for the membership without reading the T&Cs it's still a useful bit of information telling them to go back and read them as the T&Cs explain how to claim a refund.

Agreed.

Even if it does offer the caution to ensure they are not caught out again.

cashburner

As coincidence would have it I have just recieved a call from this lot...

A very nice polite young lady enquiring if I was interested in a £1000 loan.....

I thought I'd have a bit of sport myself.......

"Yes, I could well be" was my enthusiatic reply....

Anway we went through loads of the usual stuff and I responded...

then of course we get to the point where she ask "before I discuss your repayments I need your debit card details just so we have them on file"...

Me: "Before I give you those details I need to see a fully confirmed credit agreement"

Them: "Sorry, it doesnt work like that but if you give me your card details I will be able to discuss the agreement and repayments in full"......

Me: "Hmmmm, I see, are you going to charege me a fee?"

Them: "Nothing will be taken from your account today but will be once your repayments are agreed on your first repayment"

Me: "So are you charging me a fee or not?"

Them: "I just said so, cant you hear me properly"

Me: "No that's not what you said but can you confirm the fee to me please?"

Them: "£89.95":eek:

Me: "Hmmmm, dont think I can pay that without having a signed and sealed credit agreement first I'm afraid"

Them: "It's no worries, as soon as we have a card on file we can release the agreement"

Me: "Just to clarify, you want £89.95 for this loan and you want my card details now, just for your file?"

Them: "Yes, nothing will be debited during this call"

Me: "I'm sorry but I think if that's the case I'll have to pass on this occassion"...

Them: "Ok, then that's up to you"

Me: "Thanks for your time anyway"

Them: "No problem, bye"

To be fair the rep I spoke to was very polite even after I declined to provide the details for a fleecing to be undertaken but having spoken with them I can see how people will be sucked in..... Very cordial, seem professional and to have things in hand.

BEWARE!

db70

Be very careful when looking for a loan, if your search engine takes you to Loans Direct, for example, leave immediately and search for the terms and conditions. Brokers like Loans Direct (beware of brokers) ask for your card details before giving you any information about themselves. Even if you leave halfway through looking into their service, once they have your card details they will complete the necessary forms without your permission and then debit your account £69.95 for the privilege of a service you had already decided you did not want anyway!
Unfortunately, Visa etc can do nothing about it. You can apply to the broker for a refund but they will make you dance for it, nor :eek:does it matter if you do not have the funds in your account, they will send you overdrawn.
Personally, I would stay away from Loans Direct and other brokers similar. Do not give your card details without thinking very carefully first.

Pixie5740

db70 wrote: »

Do not give your card details without thinking very carefully first.

Amen to that :A

anniecel

Victim of loans direct myself just today filling in forms and spent all day contacting them trying to cancel the so called membership and get a refund!! not only did they charge me nearly £70 but they also passed my details to two (possible more) further brokers who then also debited £69 each!! leaving me almost £210 down!! frantically been contacting all of them today trying to get them to refund the money, my bank were very helpful finding out the phone numbers of the companies involved (as i had no idea who they were!) loan-optionsuk.net are "reviewing my refund" loans direct have sent me a form to complete and post back to them, myloan-now.co.uk nothing but rude!!! stating "from your correspondence it is our understanding that you believe it was not you that signed up for membership with us. As you are sighting fraud, it is our policy to report this to Action Fraud. Before we report this you will have needed to report this as fraud and we suggest that you contact your local police" having further explained to this company how the information got to them and the fact that i actually do not have any login details nor recieved any kind of welcome email from them or confirmation of memebership plus the fact that their own website states that "refunds are easy" suddenly they have gone quiet and are no longer replying to me !!!!
Irony is, i never actually applied for any specific loan, was just making an enquiry about financial services!!!
Very expensive lesson !! resulting in not being able to do grocery shopping this week as my account has been emptied and as a parent of three children i honestly dont know how i am going to manage!!

poppasmurf_bewdley

anniecel wrote: »

Irony is, i never actually applied for any specific loan, was just making an enquiry about financial services!!!
Very expensive lesson !! resulting in not being able to do grocery shopping this week as my account has been emptied and as a parent of three children i honestly dont know how i am going to manage!!

What you did is tick that you had read and understood the Terms & Conditions of the website, and you evidently gave them your bank card details. That's why £210 has disappeared into the ether.

Do as we have said hundreds of times on this forum; write recorded delivery demanding your money back as per the T&C of the website concerned. You are within the 14 days to change your mind and get a full refund.

May I ask, if £210 taken from your bank account has left you unable to manage, how do you expect to service a loan should you ever get one?

cockneysean

I have recently had the misfortune of having some dealings with Loan Spotter, a sister company of Loans Direct, although the situation here was a little different for me. I will explain what happened and how it was dealt with as I feel that it may help some people out here.

My Mrs. had been looking for some loans online, and as always happens with these things, once you have provided your phone number you start getting bombarded with huge amounts of text messages and phone calls in relation to loans. She ignored all of the texts as a waste of time, but received a phone call from Loan Spotter at which time I was present when the call was received. She was told that they could offer a £700 loan. This is where things got funky.

She had the phone on loudspeaker, so I could hear all that was going on. The representative on the line said that she had been accepted for the loan and he was talking as though the loan would be coming from them, no mention of being a broker, membership service or anything like that at all. He then said that he needed card details so that the loan could be paid using this method. She gave the details from her card, which is only a Santander cash card with no debit facility. The guy on the phone said that this card was no good and did she have another. I gave her my card and said that she could use it. The guy on the phone said that she could use my card, no problem. Now, once she had given him the details from my card it was only then that he very quickly spouted some nonsense about a £60 fee for arranging the loan, and that she could not possibly be refused the loan as it had all "gone through".

Now, I am wise to this sort of thing and as soon as I heard this I told her to tell him that she was not interested and that she knew it was a con as he did not mention anything about fees until after he had managed to wrangle the card details from her. I wasn't too worried as I did not have any money in this particular account at that time. I only use that card and account for paying bills with to keep my finances organised. Anyway, that's another story, so I digress.

A few days ago we received a letter in the post thanking us for our payment of £54.96 and details of a membership with Loan Spotter. Also included was an "illustration of a loan offer" with Provident, that doorstep lender that seems to be quite popular with some people. At first I thought that it was some kind of mistake as there was no money in my account to take at the time, and I had not noticed any money missing. It was then that I thought I would check my online banking to see if any transactions for this amount had been made.

On the 25th of July, a time when there was still no money in this account, a payment for £54.96 had in fact been taken by this Loan Spotter outfit. Also, a couple of days later on the 27th of July there was another transaction for £9.99 taken by a company called Goldfish Marketing who turned out to be Credit Cleaner! I was more shocked by this one as neither of us had set this up for sure. I was a little perturbed by the fact that my card details, clearly including the CVV security number had been passed on to another seemingly unrelated company so that they could debit money from my account.

No way was I having any of this. If either of us had supplied this information via signing up on a website and supplying card details I would have just taken it on the chin, but like I said I am wise to these tricks and know better than to do this unlike some of the other posters in this thread.

I did not call Loan Spotter, but I did some preliminary investigation on Google and on their own website and saw all about how to claim a refund, and all the problems that come with going down this route. Reading what I had, I did not fancy my chances of getting said refund in full, and seeing as we had genuinely been tricked I thought that a different course of action be taken and a few tricks played by myself with a few white lies thrown in for good measure.

If any of you are trying to get a refund, I suggest you do what I did to get my money back, or a variation thereof. I will now explain what I did to get my money back with great success, and all within the space of a Friday afternoon.

I went to my bank (Barclays, if that helps), and told them that I had charges on my account from companies that I did not recognise, nor had I ever heard with them or dealt with them at any time in the past. They recognised what these charges were, and that they were associated with Pay Day Loan applications. Initially they told me that I would have to take this up with the companies directly if I had in fact been applying for pay day loans as it was not the banks responsibility to deal with these matters. I stuck to my guns and told them that no, these were fraudulent transactions and that I had at no time made any applications to any type of lender whatsoever and that even if I had, I would never consider paying an upfront fee to borrow any amount of money nor would I enter my debit card details into any website for the same or similar purposes. It was then that they accepted this, and that this meant that the transactions came under the banner of fraud and that meant that they could deal with it internally. I was put on the phone to "Debit Card Disputes" to give them the details of the transactions and after a short conversation they reversed the transactions and the money was returned to my account. This is the key here, it's what you have to say and do; make it clear that you have no knowledge of these transactions and that you did not make them. This way it is the bank that has to deal with refunding you the money and they will then charge it back to the dodgy brokers company. It worked for me, and I am sure that in a large percentage of cases it will work for you too. Just don't tell them that you made any applications yourself. On my part, there were a few white lies and half truths, as I had not made any applications myself, nor had I or my partner agreed to any upfront fees of any description due to the way the representative on the phone teased the card details from my other half.

One thing about this whole episode that really did frustrate me was the fact that at the time of the transaction, there was no money in that account at the time as I mentioned in this post previously. I spoke with the bank about this and they told me that they can do this by way of something called "Guaranteed Payment". Sounds dodgy doesn't it? These people can take money from your account even if it is EMPTY so please be warned and do not under any circumstances supply card details even if you think there is no money to be had from your account, as I can just imagine people applying for these loans and happily supplying their card details in the hope of getting a loan and thinking that they are safe because they have no money in their account. They WILL sting you for it and then you will be overdrawn and in a whole other world of hurt with bank charges galore and the overdrawn amount to boot!

And remember me mentioning Goldfish Marketing AKA Credit Cleaner? The bank told me that they had set up a recurring payment of £9.99 to be taken every month. Now if that is not a blatant cheek I don't know what is. This was completely unauthorised and nobody at any time mentioned this company or any charges relating to any type of Credit Reference Agency services.

One thing the bank did say was that there are possibly changes to the law in the pipeline in relation to this guaranteed payment business. They did not go into too much detail, but I remember them saying something about "Responsible Lenders" or something or other.

Neither my partner or I agreed any upfront fees, sought out a membership with any credit/loan brokers, or ticked any T&C's boxes on any websites at all. This was a blatant attempt at scamming by the people at Loan Spotter AKA Loans Direct UK as they purported to need card details so that they could pay out a loan. The moral of the story here though is like many other posters have said in this thread time and time again. NEVER EVER blindly agree to any T&C's on any website, DO NOT tick any boxes agreeing to anything without reading, and ultimately, NEVER consider paying ANY fees whatsoever to borrow money from anywhere. There is no such thing as a guaranteed loan, and any reputable lender would never ask for money up front to enable them to process any loan application.

The type of people that run these "businesses" prey on people that are desperate as they know that when the chips are down some people will agree to just about anything if they are frantically chasing a financial solution and trying to borrow money. At the end of the day, if you have even so much as found yourself so much as looking at these types of website in the pursuit of arranging finance, then unfortunately for you it is time to give up and try and find another solution to your financial problems, as all they will do is lead you into yet more financial problems.

For those of you reading and looking for advice that haven't yet started seeking a refund by other means I highly recommend trying out the method I outlined above to recover your money, but if you can't do that, do as the other posters say and apply to the companies directly IN WRITING BY RECORDED DELIVERY. This is of paramount importance as if you do not use recorded delivery they will simply fob you off and say that they did not receive your letters. Don't bother wasting your time writing your life story, or how disgusting you think they are as it's just providing them something to laugh at and a reason to put your request at the bottom of the pile, if not directly in the bin!

I hope that this post has helped, and will continue to help anyone that finds themselves in this situation whether it is directly their fault or otherwise. I must say I was a little shocked to read some of the unhelpful replies on here. If you can't or do not want to help someone, then why bother replying at all? It's just laying the boot into someone when they are down! It works the other way too, if you are on here looking for advice, listen to it and follow what people are telling you to do. Put your complaint in writing and deal with it properly, it's the only way to do it. No amount of moaning about how you can't feed your dog this week or how you are going to go on a national campaign about dodgy loan brokerages will help your cause.

Gaz83

cockneysean wrote: »

I have recently had the misfortune of having some dealings with Loan Spotter, a sister company of Loans Direct, although the situation here was a little different for me. I will explain what happened and how it was dealt with as I feel that it may help some people out here.

My Mrs. had been looking for some loans online, and as always happens with these things, once you have provided your phone number you start getting bombarded with huge amounts of text messages and phone calls in relation to loans. She ignored all of the texts as a waste of time, but received a phone call from Loan Spotter at which time I was present when the call was received. She was told that they could offer a £700 loan. This is where things got funky.

She had the phone on loudspeaker, so I could hear all that was going on. The representative on the line said that she had been accepted for the loan and he was talking as though the loan would be coming from them, no mention of being a broker, membership service or anything like that at all. He then said that he needed card details so that the loan could be paid using this method. She gave the details from her card, which is only a Santander cash card with no debit facility. The guy on the phone said that this card was no good and did she have another. I gave her my card and said that she could use it. The guy on the phone said that she could use my card, no problem. Now, once she had given him the details from my card it was only then that he very quickly spouted some nonsense about a £60 fee for arranging the loan, and that she could not possibly be refused the loan as it had all "gone through".

Now, I am wise to this sort of thing and as soon as I heard this I told her to tell him that she was not interested and that she knew it was a con as he did not mention anything about fees until after he had managed to wrangle the card details from her. I wasn't too worried as I did not have any money in this particular account at that time. I only use that card and account for paying bills with to keep my finances organised. Anyway, that's another story, so I digress.

A few days ago we received a letter in the post thanking us for our payment of £54.96 and details of a membership with Loan Spotter. Also included was an "illustration of a loan offer" with Provident, that doorstep lender that seems to be quite popular with some people. At first I thought that it was some kind of mistake as there was no money in my account to take at the time, and I had not noticed any money missing. It was then that I thought I would check my online banking to see if any transactions for this amount had been made.

On the 25th of July, a time when there was still no money in this account, a payment for £54.96 had in fact been taken by this Loan Spotter outfit. Also, a couple of days later on the 27th of July there was another transaction for £9.99 taken by a company called Goldfish Marketing who turned out to be Credit Cleaner! I was more shocked by this one as neither of us had set this up for sure. I was a little perturbed by the fact that my card details, clearly including the CVV security number had been passed on to another seemingly unrelated company so that they could debit money from my account.

No way was I having any of this. If either of us had supplied this information via signing up on a website and supplying card details I would have just taken it on the chin, but like I said I am wise to these tricks and know better than to do this unlike some of the other posters in this thread.

I did not call Loan Spotter, but I did some preliminary investigation on Google and on their own website and saw all about how to claim a refund, and all the problems that come with going down this route. Reading what I had, I did not fancy my chances of getting said refund in full, and seeing as we had genuinely been tricked I thought that a different course of action be taken and a few tricks played by myself with a few white lies thrown in for good measure.

If any of you are trying to get a refund, I suggest you do what I did to get my money back, or a variation thereof. I will now explain what I did to get my money back with great success, and all within the space of a Friday afternoon.

I went to my bank (Barclays, if that helps), and told them that I had charges on my account from companies that I did not recognise, nor had I ever heard with them or dealt with them at any time in the past. They recognised what these charges were, and that they were associated with Pay Day Loan applications. Initially they told me that I would have to take this up with the companies directly if I had in fact been applying for pay day loans as it was not the banks responsibility to deal with these matters. I stuck to my guns and told them that no, these were fraudulent transactions and that I had at no time made any applications to any type of lender whatsoever and that even if I had, I would never consider paying an upfront fee to borrow any amount of money nor would I enter my debit card details into any website for the same or similar purposes. It was then that they accepted this, and that this meant that the transactions came under the banner of fraud and that meant that they could deal with it internally. I was put on the phone to "Debit Card Disputes" to give them the details of the transactions and after a short conversation they reversed the transactions and the money was returned to my account. This is the key here, it's what you have to say and do; make it clear that you have no knowledge of these transactions and that you did not make them. This way it is the bank that has to deal with refunding you the money and they will then charge it back to the dodgy brokers company. It worked for me, and I am sure that in a large percentage of cases it will work for you too. Just don't tell them that you made any applications yourself. On my part, there were a few white lies and half truths, as I had not made any applications myself, nor had I or my partner agreed to any upfront fees of any description due to the way the representative on the phone teased the card details from my other half.

One thing about this whole episode that really did frustrate me was the fact that at the time of the transaction, there was no money in that account at the time as I mentioned in this post previously. I spoke with the bank about this and they told me that they can do this by way of something called "Guaranteed Payment". Sounds dodgy doesn't it? These people can take money from your account even if it is EMPTY so please be warned and do not under any circumstances supply card details even if you think there is no money to be had from your account, as I can just imagine people applying for these loans and happily supplying their card details in the hope of getting a loan and thinking that they are safe because they have no money in their account. They WILL sting you for it and then you will be overdrawn and in a whole other world of hurt with bank charges galore and the overdrawn amount to boot!

And remember me mentioning Goldfish Marketing AKA Credit Cleaner? The bank told me that they had set up a recurring payment of £9.99 to be taken every month. Now if that is not a blatant cheek I don't know what is. This was completely unauthorised and nobody at any time mentioned this company or any charges relating to any type of Credit Reference Agency services.

One thing the bank did say was that there are possibly changes to the law in the pipeline in relation to this guaranteed payment business. They did not go into too much detail, but I remember them saying something about "Responsible Lenders" or something or other.

Neither my partner or I agreed any upfront fees, sought out a membership with any credit/loan brokers, or ticked any T&C's boxes on any websites at all. This was a blatant attempt at scamming by the people at Loan Spotter AKA Loans Direct UK as they purported to need card details so that they could pay out a loan. The moral of the story here though is like many other posters have said in this thread time and time again. NEVER EVER blindly agree to any T&C's on any website, DO NOT tick any boxes agreeing to anything without reading, and ultimately, NEVER consider paying ANY fees whatsoever to borrow money from anywhere. There is no such thing as a guaranteed loan, and any reputable lender would never ask for money up front to enable them to process any loan application.

The type of people that run these "businesses" prey on people that are desperate as they know that when the chips are down some people will agree to just about anything if they are frantically chasing a financial solution and trying to borrow money. At the end of the day, if you have even so much as found yourself so much as looking at these types of website in the pursuit of arranging finance, then unfortunately for you it is time to give up and try and find another solution to your financial problems, as all they will do is lead you into yet more financial problems.

For those of you reading and looking for advice that haven't yet started seeking a refund by other means I highly recommend trying out the method I outlined above to recover your money, but if you can't do that, do as the other posters say and apply to the companies directly IN WRITING BY RECORDED DELIVERY. This is of paramount importance as if you do not use recorded delivery they will simply fob you off and say that they did not receive your letters. Don't bother wasting your time writing your life story, or how disgusting you think they are as it's just providing them something to laugh at and a reason to put your request at the bottom of the pile, if not directly in the bin!

I hope that this post has helped, and will continue to help anyone that finds themselves in this situation whether it is directly their fault or otherwise. I must say I was a little shocked to read some of the unhelpful replies on here. If you can't or do not want to help someone, then why bother replying at all? It's just laying the boot into someone when they are down! It works the other way too, if you are on here looking for advice, listen to it and follow what people are telling you to do. Put your complaint in writing and deal with it properly, it's the only way to do it. No amount of moaning about how you can't feed your dog this week or how you are going to go on a national campaign about dodgy loan brokerages will help your cause.

Your last sentence is interesting, if only because you've went on a massive rant to tell us in fact what we've been saying all along.

Don't be an idiot and give your card details willy-nilly over the phone or online. Literally 20 seconds on Google will reveal Loan Spotter to be a broker who charge a fee. If only you'd thought to do this when the phone call was received.

Follow their refund procedure, if they don't respond within 8 weeks, go to the Ombudsman. It's not rocket science.

The only thing you've advised people to do differently is to make up a blatant lie to your bank.

Your story has more holes in it than a good Swiss Cheese, by the way. You were quite happy giving your bank details for an account that you knew didn't have any money in it, but then they were able to deduct a fee? How exactly were they able to do this if you didn't have any money in it?

Folks - ignore this massive rant. Don't be an idiot and give your details to companies. If you do, then write to request a refund, and go to the Ombudsman if they don't reply.

Apples2

I got as far as the point in which you claim the best way to get your money back is by lying through your teeth to the bank.

Deny ever having any dealing with them, even though you did is the best way right?

I find it quite funny you consider yourself too switched on to fall for this type of sculduggery but happily gave your wife your own bank card, for her to use, for her loan application... Did you mention this to your bank at all??