CFO Lending: Prevention better than cure

Rosey_Future

Hello,
I hope you will be able to assist advise me.

On Tuesday I made an application for a payday loan with CFO Lending (something i am now regretting heavily after reading some of the posts on this forum). They approved my application, took my card details, verified my account and said the money would be in my account after 4.30 pm. At 5 pm it wasnt there, so i called them and 5 minutes later they emailed me to say my application was declined because I have an existing debt with them (which i dont).

After reading through various posts, I am now very worried as I have heard this company have a bad reputation for emptying peoples accounts. I get paid on Tuesday and am petrified that they will try the same with me so i have taken the following course of action (based on posts seen on this site):-

1. Emailed CFO and cancelled the Continuous Payment Authority, stating it was in respect of a loan that was not agreed and should not be used to take any other monies in respect on other disputed loans. Stated on letter than any payments taken after the CPA cancellation would be considered "unauthorised and fraudulent"
2. Asked CFO to provide proof of the other outstanding debt and advised I would contact them to make any payment once the debt was proved
3. Contacted my bank and cancelled and blocked my debit card
4. Contacted my bank with a letter stating that the CPA with CFO lending has been cancelled and no payments should be made to CFO lending or any of their affiliates
5. Sent copy of both letters to Office of Fair trading together with a complaint because since my application on Tuesday, i have been emailed, phoned and text by 32 other companies (I kid you not). CFO Lending have passed my details on to all and sundry.

I am still quite frightened that come Tuesday my account will get emptied. Have I done enough to prevent it or is there more i should do? Should i send the letters to the FSA or someone. Its too late to get my salary paid into another account.

Any advice will be gratefully received.

Tixy

Hi

You appear to have taken the right steps.

Do you have any outstanding debts at all that this could be (perhaps in a different trading name from CFO Lending). Have you had any other disputed payday loans before.

For example CFO lending also trade as
Flexible First, Money Resolve, Paycfo, Payday Advanced, Payday Credit, Payday First.

Did they provide any details of the alleged existing debt?

Rosey_Future

Hi Tixy.

If i am honest, it is possible that I have an unpaid loan debt dating back a few years. I have asked CFO Lending to provide me with details of the debt (with loan agreement, reference number and their payment details). I specifically stated in my letter, that if i do have an outstanding debt I will make arrangement to repay it, but only after details have been provided. Which i think is fair enough.

Based on this I have said that they should not use the payment authority to try and take disputed sums before they had been confirmed.

Rosey_Future

Hi All,

Just to let you know, that after taking the steps above, CFO Lending did not attempt to take any money from my account. They have ceased emailing me and have NOT sent me details of the alleged debt they claim I had with them.

Just goes to show if you fight back against these people, they cant walk all over you.

FireWyrm

Actually, it sounds like you dodged a bullet there. Stay away from PDLs.

Rosey_Future

Thanks FireWyrm.

I am following closely in the news that the OFT are finally taking action against Payday Loan lenders and their dodgy practises.

Yes I regret the day that I ever became involved with them. They have caused a lot of misery in my life. I admit that I borrowed the money and have a responsibility to pay it back, but some of the methods they employ are nothing better than the common loan shark.

I am on a debt management plan to get rid of my payday loan debt but even though I am keeping to my plan, they still bombard me with calls and texts. I am seriously considering getting a consolidation loan to get rid of them once and for all. Even though I will end up paying more in total because of the interest on the consolidation loan, I cannot put a price on peace of mind.

Thanks for responding.

Rosey_Future

Actually, i might start a new thread on this and see what people think....

Thrifty_Pixie

as far as i'm aware you are not allowed to take out any more credit whilst on a DMP.

Rosey_Future

Hi Thrifty. Yes this is true. However, all bar one of the creditors on my DMP are payday loan lenders. I was seriously considering cancelling the DMP and getting a consolidation loan. This would clean my credit file and get the PDL companies out of my life once and for all.

There are two reasons I want to do this:-
1) Even though i am on the DMP, the PDL companies still contact me
2) As I work in banking, I really would like to clean up my credit file because having bad credit with these lenders is not going to help my career. At my next level of promotion, I would have to be credit checked and assessed by the FSA. I dont want to have to stay under the radar of promotion until my DMP is finished.

Its a quandry....

Rosey_Future

Ooh, I see I have already been promoted from a Newbie to a Convert Thanks MSE

FireWyrm

I too have been watching the developments in the media. PDLs are not loan sharks, they are businesses. They make their terms and conditions very obvious and in all cases, the buyer must beware. Headline rates of 4000% are eye catching, but in reality mean little as the lending model is not taken into account.

For instance :

I ask a friend to lend me a tenner for the night. My friend says "sure, buy me a pint". Money advanced £10, Loan Period : 1 day, cost of a pint is £2.20, Amount repayable : £12.20, interest rate 22% per week or 3095% APR.

In reality, you dont borrow a £10 every night and you dont take a year to pay it back - not if you want to keep your friend and neither does he keep asking for pints as interest. The truth is, the same applies to bank overdrafts which are far more usurous than most PDLs with rates topping out in the tens of thousands of percent.

PDLs are not loan sharks because the most they can do is telephone you a bunch of times. They cant break your legs and if you take a few very sensible precautions, they cant empty your bank account either. This is headline grabbing bunkum which diverts interest from the far more real issues of banks monopolising our lives (literally in some cases) and toying with the economy to further their own private interests which is far more dangerous to 60 million people than a few thousand getting into trouble by misadventure.

You were lucky they turned you down....a far more searching question you might ask yourself is why you felt you had to go via the PDL in the first place since you clearly managed to get over the problem somehow.