Kids - who would have them

YourRealName

As you can see from my Forum name, I'm quite good at reading instructions and then purposely interpreted them wrong.

Anyway, Warning story about payday loans and why they are so bad.

First the facts
My step daughter has a job in Tesco and earns about £650 a month but she has a problem holding on to any of it.

About 3 months ago, her Mum accidentally open her bank statement and too her horror sees lots of transaction to poundstopocket, wonga and quickquid. I went through her bank statements and you can see the trail of destruction

June borrowed £100
July borrowed £170 to pay off the £100
August borrows £250 to pay off ....

When we got there she owed £250, and had no money left to survive. We worked out how much money she had to survive after travel and food expenses (not that much) and I paid off the debt with a promise that she would pay me back (No interest charged my me - 0% credit card :-))

Anyway she paid some money back first month
Second month "she couldn't, she had been paid the wrong amount"
December - "I've spent too much on Christmas"

Jan 3rd, we found out the truth
If you are short of money, it's way too easy to borrow more.
The trail of debt starts again - borrow a bit, then a bit more.

That she may have had under control except certain 'loan providers' charge an arrangement fee

MoneyGaga took 2 lots of £39.99
Loans+more took 2 lots £69
Myloans took £38.99
WWW MWSF = £38.96
Merrywood took £69.95

None of them provided her with a loan - £296 gone from her bank account just for applying

Me and her mum could bail her out again but we won't (not yet anyway) - It's too easy for her to get more loans. (A good way to learn ?_

She has been to the CAB today and asked about debt advice.

We have spent this evening writing to the companies listed above, cancelling accounts and asking for money back - I'll update the thread if we get anywhere.

Best advice I have seen on Payday loans and other quick money providers is DO NOT USE THEM.

I do understand that you sometimes need money when you have non but there are better ways of getting it, than sliding down a debt slope.

I must be more cheerful, it's Christmas in 358

Martyn

angelsmomma

You need to stop bailing her out and let her deal with this herself. She will not learn if you always pick up the pieces. Letting her get away with only paying the first payment back then coming up with excuses is not helping her.

Apples2

Cripes! someone WRITING in for a refund, there is hope for us all!!

Good luck with the letters, they will stall and waffle, e.g it's been passed to refund dept or some other nonsense.
Get a FORMAL COMPLAINT letter ready, then take it up to the FOS. It's easy to do but does take a little while.

Under no circumstances should you EVER use your own card to pay her debt off. Give her the money and get her to pay it.
Once your card it assigned to her account (which will happen if you use your card to pay her debt), they will revisit your account in the future and take a payment if she fails to pay.

BillJones

It's nice to see that you seem able to stay level headed about it, and well done for being one of the rare people who understands the terms and so who has actually written for a refund.

Once you get the short-term issues sorted, it sounds like you need to have a long chat with your daughter, to make sure that this is a blip, not the first step down he road to poverty.

opinions4u

Me and her mum could bail her out again but we won't (not yet anyway)

Don't.

You have given this person their one generous break.

They've taken it as a reward for their wreckless and destructive behaviour. Don't repeat it.

poppasmurf_bewdley

There must be a stage on a credit file when even the payday loan sharks refuse to lend money.

Or do they not check in their desperate bids to loan and collect money from fees, fines, etc, etc.

Back in the dark days, I found that having a trashed credit file was the best guard against taking out further loans. Maybe that could apply to your step daughter?

Clive_Woody

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

There must be a stage on a credit file when even the payday loan sharks refuse to lend money.

Or do they not check in their desperate bids to loan and collect money from fees, fines, etc, etc.

Back in the dark days, I found that having a trashed credit file was the best guard against taking out further loans. Maybe that could apply to your step daughter?

I don't think even a trashed credit history would stop the fee charging brokers taking her money, although eventually most of this should be returned.

On a practical note I would suggest the OP's daughter tries to increase her hours at work to try and increase her take home pay if at all possible as it looks like she needs more money to fund her current lifestyle (the possible issue being that her expenditure also increases if her earning do...).

Pixie5740

If you don't already, I'd start charging your daughter rent money. It would teach her that you need to pay for things like the roof over your head and utilities and that you can't fritter all of your pay on !!!!. I speak from personal experience as someone who lived at home in my early 20s rent free yet in debt due to wasting constantly haemorrhaging my money on crap. I am better now.

Poppops

Literally minutes before I read this post I had just had a conversation with my 22 year old son about money. He has a good wage and after a few years of enjoying himself on nights out and exotic holidays he is going to start saving for a deposit for a house. He has no debt. I told him we are transferring his mobile into his own name (he currently pays me as he is using the contract I got for him when he was younger) and going to get him a credit card, not just because he has no credit record yet but also so that he can learn from my many, many, many mistakes before he fends for himself.

I wish someone had taught me a lesson when I was his age. However my parents are still rubbish with money so I suspect that if I hadn't faced my problems, my son would be repeating my mistakes by now.

I agree with the other posters. In my experience, you only wise up when you have to deal with your problems yourself.

Wishing your daughter well

YourRealName

She has had a reply from Myloans saying the money is being returned within 30 days.

She has written to them all with the info the CAB gave her saying stop interest and she will contact them about a repayment plan.
So some steps forward

As to answering your points.

Formal complaint letter - WIP

Repaying her debt - Yes she has her chance, the only reason for us paying it off now is any of the companies refusing to stop interest charges.

She does Pay rent already - Her issue is living within her means, her biggest issue is part time hours and full time expense (transport to from work and lunch leaves her very little money) but in her head she still has lots and spends it! (She has started to look for a full time job)

Paying it off with my credit card - Already learn't that one. I paid the deposit for someones car insurance deposit, which they defaulted on and the insurance company took the full policy amount
from my card - (Got it back in the end)

Thanks for all the advise.

I've read lots on this site and completely agree and support Martin Lewis suggestions for how to control pay day loan companies.

BUT I believe the biggest issue is Rollovers, he was suggesting limiting the number of rollovers. I'm not sure but it seem to be suggesting rollovers with the same company. I think Rollovers with different companies is also a problem (eg month 1 £80 Wonga, month 2 £140 with ... month 3)


Thanks for the advise, I'll update when more happens.

Martyn

YourRealName

opinions4u wrote: »

The biggest issue is lack of self control.

LOL - Yes and no - Some people will get themselves into a corner and have no other choice (I admit it's still a bad choice)

But if it is a proper 'Payday loan' getting more next month makes things worst, and worst the following month.

M