Payday loan took money not owed

Big_Mamma_A

Can anyone please advise me on the following. My husband had a couple of outstanding payday loans and back in June this year following an article he saw on MSE he asked them all to send him an update of what he owed, stop the interest and give him a figure they would settle for we then took a bank loan in my name and paid all the payday loans off. 3 days ago a company called Express payday loans helped themselves to £518 from his account effectively wiping out every penny we had 2 weeks before Christmas.
We have contacted the Express who insist that the payment made in June was not a settlement it was just payment towards the loan and they have of course added an extra 6 months of interest to it.
My husband has an email from them stating quite clearly that his balance had been paid and the account closed.
Lloyds are looking into returning the money to us as it was taken Direct Debit so they think they can bounce it back to us.
We have forwarded the email to Express as proof that they agreed to the settlement payment but haven't heard back from them yet.
Is there someone we can complain to? Some kind of regualtory authority or perhaps the finacial ombudsman.
As I'm sure you can all appreciate it's never a good time to suddenly find yourself £500 out of pocket but 2 weeks till Christmas with a toddler = very bad times

Please help I'm terrified that this will drag on past the holidays and we're in no position to deal with that

Tixy

We have forwarded the email to Express as proof that they agreed to the settlement payment but haven't heard back from them yet.

Did you send this by email? I would follow it up in writing in the post to the pdl with a formal complaint (headed up as such), also enclosing a copy of their email.

Hopefully your bank can get the funds back for you, but in terms of making a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman this cannot be done until you have made a formal complaint and given the lender 8weeks to reply to your complaint (obviously very little help to you in the short term, but why its worth getting your full complaint in early).

worried48

I do hope you get this sorted out.

However why not do yourselves a favour anyway and cancel Christmas? A toddler will have no concept of expecting presents and no doubt you have relatives who will give to him/ her anyway. Don't buy anything else, tell your friends and relatvies that Christmas is cancelled and tell them why, and chances are you might well find you get some gifts of the cash variety anyway, once people realise you are serious.

somethingcorporate

It may have been a genuine error - as long as you get your money back (and you should under the DD guarantee) perhaps let this one slide as there are far more important things to be focusing like giving your toddler a happy MSE Christmas.

worried48

But it isn't remotely important to a child of that age who will have no concept whatsoever of expecting presents!

Janie4Now

Christmas is supposed to be about celebrating the birth of Christ, not about presents. If you are not doing that, then Christmas is not a "belief".

Not being prissy.....I like Christmas as much as the next person....but it is NOT about spending loads of money! A toddler will be just as thrilled with lots of tiny little things wrapped up!

Idiophreak

Janie4Now wrote: »

Christmas is supposed to be about celebrating the birth of Christ, not about presents. If you are not doing that, then Christmas is not a "belief".

Hmm...well I "believe" it's important to spend time with friends and family at Chritmas, to have a great big turkey and sing songs about father Christmas. Sounds like a "belief" to me....?

Not all beliefs are religious.

Janie4Now

Idiophreak wrote: »

Hmm...well I "believe" it's important to spend time with friends and family at Chritmas, to have a great big turkey and sing songs about father Christmas. Sounds like a "belief" to me....?

Not all beliefs are religious.

Sure. Spending time with your loved one's is always good. Doesn't have to be Christmas if you don't believe in Christ. And it doesn't have to include loads of presents or, indeed, that big turkey.

I don't believe in pushing my religious beliefs on anybody, but neither do I believe you should encourage people to spend money they don't have when it doesn't matter.

Moneymash

Ok let's get back on track...

Did you get anything other than an email saying this was full and final payment for the account and the account was settled, zero balance. Have you checked your credit report, you can get it free from Noddle ( bear with the registration process it doesn't always work first time).

It would be quicker to pursue the matter with the bank in the first instance, as pointed out any complaints process would take weeks.

Idiophreak

Janie4Now wrote: »

Sure. Spending time with your loved one's is always good. Doesn't have to be Christmas if you don't believe in Christ. And it doesn't have to include loads of presents or, indeed, that big turkey.

I don't believe in pushing my religious beliefs on anybody, but neither do I believe you should encourage people to spend money they don't have when it doesn't matter.

I wasn't talking about anyone spending anything they *don't have*. In fact, the post to which I responded to explicitly referred to "squandering" what you *do have*. Personally, I think people should be allowed to spend their money on what they want...and if it's what they want, I don't think they should have to put up with people on the internet telling them they're wasting/squandering their money, just because they have different priorities.

And it absolutely *does* have to be Christmas, even though I don't believe in Christ. As far as I can see, Christ has extremely little to do with the modern Christmas...Ask me "what's Christmassy" and I'd say...
Christmas Trees
Father Christmas
Mulled Wine
Mince Pies
Roasted Chestnuts
Turkey Dinner
Christmas Pudding
Christmas cake
Lights
Crackers and silly hats
Family
Singing
Rudolph!
Dundee Cake
Sherry
Those weird sugared oranges and lemons
Holly
Advent Calendars
Stockings
Giving Presents
Snow!
...I'd go on and on, but aside from "Away in a manger" featuring amongst my "singing", it would be a long time before I said anything religious. As much as it's a celebration for Christians, I view Christmas as a wonderful secular holiday. You'll notice, by the way, that "Presents" are quite far down the list, too....

*HalfBaked*

Bravehearted wrote: »

Balls.

It's essentially just another day.

If you stupidly choose to squander what you have in the name of a special day which comes every year, isn't a surprise/emergency, and which your toddler would not remember the next day, then you really have a lot to learn.

Where in the original post does the OP say that they intend to spend that £500 on their toddler?

It's the principle that money has been taken when it apparently was not owed to the company any more.

I may be completely wrong but I did not read it as they need that money for toddlers presents, more for their living costs with a toddler.

And as a side note, if they have that kind of money & can justify spending it on a toddler so what? They have come here for advice on a payment taken that was allegedly not meant to have been taken, not advice on how to spend their money