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Loan brokers and low status would-be borrowers - beware!
Found this in a newspaper, and hope that it might just stop a few people from falling into this trap!
"It began with a single online application for a loan. I made it less than a week ago and here’s the score.
Number of spam emails sent to me: 361.
Number of junk text messages received: so many that my phone memory is full.
Amount of money charged to my credit card: £108.
Loans received: zero.
Welcome to the world of online lending, which I tested to see if its notorious reputation was deserved.
I began with Purple Payday, an offshoot of one of the big players, being owned by the Quintessential Finance Group, which made a gross profit last financial year of almost £8million.
By way of a hobby its multi-millionaire director Paul Naden, 45, set up the Carbon Black rally so wannabe playboy drivers could race from the UK to Monaco.
The Purple Payday site promises “A Simple and Fast way to Borrow up to £1,000 Online Today”, yet it never made me a loan offer.
That’s because it is not a lender, it just passes your details to other firms. One of them was 5MinuteMoney, which texted me with the offer of “quick cash within the hour”.
5MinuteMoney is also not a lender and after filling in more online forms I was passed to a third site, theloanline.com. “You have been Approved!” it gushed, requesting my credit card details.
But I was never likely to get a loan given the details I had submitted, which included being on benefits and declined by payday lenders. I had simply been granted access to a so-called members’ area – they really should be called suckers areas – where there was “a host of pre-approved loan offers”.
This was just a list of potential lenders like Wonga that you could get with any internet search and pre-approved, by the way, means “not approved”.
'Approval': But that doesn't necessarily mean a loan is forthcoming
Then came a text from LikeALoan: “Bad Credit OK. Cash in 10 mins. 2 Easy Steps.”
But there was no cash, LikeALoan merely passed my details to yet another operation, Merlinloan.co.uk.
“Andy, you’ve been accepted,” it spouted.
So I’d got a loan?
Er, no. I’d just been allowed into another “members’ area”.
From there I was bounced to loans-directuk.net.
“Andy, you’ve been accepted,” it said – words I was getting used to.
Despite making clear that I was penniless and on benefits, Loans Direct wanted a fee. I didn’t go any further, but that didn’t stop money being taken from me.
Merlin Loan took £49.99 from my credit card and £58.98 was taken by an outfit I’d never heard of, the1loan.co.uk.
I’ve contacted all the companies I’ve named, with one exception.
A spokesman for Quintessential Finance said that customers can opt out of third-party marketing, and added: “It is made absolutely clear that Purple Payday is not a lender on both the home page and prominently on other pages within the site.”
It is true the site states that Purple Payday is not a lender – at the bottom of the home page in small purple letters on a purple background that are a fraction of the size of the text claiming that it is “one of the UK’s leading payday loan websites”.
Merlin Loan manager Laura Daniels agreed that they should state that they’re a broker not a lender on their home page and not just in their terms and conditions.
“I know this is a shady market but we are doing our best to be ethical and if somebody says they really did not understand the site we will refund them,” she said.
No other “lenders” that I contacted responded.
The one company I didn’t contact was the1loan.co.uk, because to access its website you need a password and that’s something I don’t have because, although it’s taken my money, I’ve never heard of it. Which says all you need to know about this industry.
Watchdog is warned
“The financial services industry keeps finding ways of ripping people off and preying on their desperation,” said Damon Gibbons of the Centre for Responsible Credit.
“The Financial Conduct Authority needs to crack down on it.
“It must investigate and expel from the market those companies who aren’t genuinely giving a service to people.
“A lot of people don’t know what they are signing up for, they think they are applying for a loan and are actually signing up for a brokerage service.
“The FCA needs to think very carefully about what an appropriate fee for this service would be.
“Most payday lenders work with lead generation companies so may be making money by gathering personal information and selling it to the loan companies as well as by taking fees from people.”
No loan but money is still missing
Here’s a typical example of the harm this industry causes:
Darren Poulton needed a loan to tide him over and approached a couple of online firms.
As tends to happen, he quickly got lost in the maze of applications being passed from one firm to another.
The result is that he’s got no loan and two firms he says he’s never heard of have taken money from his bank account.
One is Loan Wizard, of Bexhill-on-Sea in West Sussex, the other is Credit Cleaner, which uses a central London mailbox address.
Between them they’ve taken almost £80 from Darren, of Cheshunt, Herts. Neither has replied to my questions.
“I’m self-employed and this has left me destitute and I can’t even put petrol in my car for work,” he said.
Get in Touch
If you’re the victim of sharp practice I want to hear about it. Email me at [EMAIL="investigate@mirror.co.uk"]investigate@mirror.co.uk[/EMAIL] or write to Penman Investigates, Daily Mirror, One Canada Square, London E14 5AP.
I can’t respond to every letter but can promise to read them all. Please, no SAEs or original documents.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/online-loans-special-investigation-being-3676810#ixzz34QEDBdYp
People should not get into these conmen!
Lin
"It began with a single online application for a loan. I made it less than a week ago and here’s the score.
Number of spam emails sent to me: 361.
Number of junk text messages received: so many that my phone memory is full.
Amount of money charged to my credit card: £108.
Loans received: zero.
Welcome to the world of online lending, which I tested to see if its notorious reputation was deserved.
I began with Purple Payday, an offshoot of one of the big players, being owned by the Quintessential Finance Group, which made a gross profit last financial year of almost £8million.
By way of a hobby its multi-millionaire director Paul Naden, 45, set up the Carbon Black rally so wannabe playboy drivers could race from the UK to Monaco.
The Purple Payday site promises “A Simple and Fast way to Borrow up to £1,000 Online Today”, yet it never made me a loan offer.
That’s because it is not a lender, it just passes your details to other firms. One of them was 5MinuteMoney, which texted me with the offer of “quick cash within the hour”.
5MinuteMoney is also not a lender and after filling in more online forms I was passed to a third site, theloanline.com. “You have been Approved!” it gushed, requesting my credit card details.
But I was never likely to get a loan given the details I had submitted, which included being on benefits and declined by payday lenders. I had simply been granted access to a so-called members’ area – they really should be called suckers areas – where there was “a host of pre-approved loan offers”.
This was just a list of potential lenders like Wonga that you could get with any internet search and pre-approved, by the way, means “not approved”.
'Approval': But that doesn't necessarily mean a loan is forthcoming
Then came a text from LikeALoan: “Bad Credit OK. Cash in 10 mins. 2 Easy Steps.”
But there was no cash, LikeALoan merely passed my details to yet another operation, Merlinloan.co.uk.
“Andy, you’ve been accepted,” it spouted.
So I’d got a loan?
Er, no. I’d just been allowed into another “members’ area”.
From there I was bounced to loans-directuk.net.
“Andy, you’ve been accepted,” it said – words I was getting used to.
Despite making clear that I was penniless and on benefits, Loans Direct wanted a fee. I didn’t go any further, but that didn’t stop money being taken from me.
Merlin Loan took £49.99 from my credit card and £58.98 was taken by an outfit I’d never heard of, the1loan.co.uk.
I’ve contacted all the companies I’ve named, with one exception.
A spokesman for Quintessential Finance said that customers can opt out of third-party marketing, and added: “It is made absolutely clear that Purple Payday is not a lender on both the home page and prominently on other pages within the site.”
It is true the site states that Purple Payday is not a lender – at the bottom of the home page in small purple letters on a purple background that are a fraction of the size of the text claiming that it is “one of the UK’s leading payday loan websites”.
Merlin Loan manager Laura Daniels agreed that they should state that they’re a broker not a lender on their home page and not just in their terms and conditions.
“I know this is a shady market but we are doing our best to be ethical and if somebody says they really did not understand the site we will refund them,” she said.
No other “lenders” that I contacted responded.
The one company I didn’t contact was the1loan.co.uk, because to access its website you need a password and that’s something I don’t have because, although it’s taken my money, I’ve never heard of it. Which says all you need to know about this industry.
Watchdog is warned
“The financial services industry keeps finding ways of ripping people off and preying on their desperation,” said Damon Gibbons of the Centre for Responsible Credit.
“The Financial Conduct Authority needs to crack down on it.
“It must investigate and expel from the market those companies who aren’t genuinely giving a service to people.
“A lot of people don’t know what they are signing up for, they think they are applying for a loan and are actually signing up for a brokerage service.
“The FCA needs to think very carefully about what an appropriate fee for this service would be.
“Most payday lenders work with lead generation companies so may be making money by gathering personal information and selling it to the loan companies as well as by taking fees from people.”
No loan but money is still missing
Here’s a typical example of the harm this industry causes:
Darren Poulton needed a loan to tide him over and approached a couple of online firms.
As tends to happen, he quickly got lost in the maze of applications being passed from one firm to another.
The result is that he’s got no loan and two firms he says he’s never heard of have taken money from his bank account.
One is Loan Wizard, of Bexhill-on-Sea in West Sussex, the other is Credit Cleaner, which uses a central London mailbox address.
Between them they’ve taken almost £80 from Darren, of Cheshunt, Herts. Neither has replied to my questions.
“I’m self-employed and this has left me destitute and I can’t even put petrol in my car for work,” he said.
Get in Touch
If you’re the victim of sharp practice I want to hear about it. Email me at [EMAIL="investigate@mirror.co.uk"]investigate@mirror.co.uk[/EMAIL] or write to Penman Investigates, Daily Mirror, One Canada Square, London E14 5AP.
I can’t respond to every letter but can promise to read them all. Please, no SAEs or original documents.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/online-loans-special-investigation-being-3676810#ixzz34QEDBdYp
People should not get into these conmen!
Lin
You can tell a lot about a woman by her hands..........for instance, if they are placed around your throat, she's probably slightly upset.
0
Comments
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These "broker" sites need to be made illegal, shut down and the owners sued for unethical business practices, stripped of any profits made and jailed.
They literally are no better than a 419 advance fee fraudster, and its a national scandal they are allowed to operate in the manner they do.0 -
These sites all say that they are not lenders, that they are brokers. For the love of little green apples, just accept the fact that 'you' are not going to get a loan if you have had adverse history in the past.
Purple Loans are quite correct, they make it quite clear that they are not a lender, but a broker as this screenshot shows.
And why oh why would you keep giving your account details out to perfect strangers on the internet. Seriously, just stop doing it.Debt Free! Long road, but we did it
Meet my best friend : YNAB (you need a budget)
My other best friend is a filofax.
Do or do not, there is no try....Yoda.
[/COLOR]0 -
I hate payday broker sites...
They seemingly serve no other purpose than to take your money and pass your details on to hundreds of lenders who you could either A) approach yourself because they are mainstream (Eg. Wonga, Quickquid, etc) or
total randomers whom nobody has ever heard of before and shouldn't be touched with a barge pole!
Personally, I've never used one having always just used "mainstream" PDL lenders (and never would, why would I pay for someone to do something I can o myself?) but there is a never ending stream of threads on MSE from people having fallen foul...
They normally consist of someone desperate not reading T&C's assuming they had been accepted for a loan while being charged for a slew of lenders to spam them endlessly!
People should stop and think and read their T&C's first (or at least do Crtl+F and search for 'Fee', 'Charge', '£' or 'Refund' but often don't and then lose their money calling the brokers everything under the sun and failing to read T&C's again about the refund process...
Just ban the lot of them and have done with it Grrr...
MB0 -
Hi I have just got my money back from three Loan brokers Loanwizard,Loan opions, Loans Direct and a outfit call credit cleaner, yes I was searching for a loan and only after I had put in my details did I see it was a broker and not a lender. Phoned and emailed them same day and the got back to me and yes they told me to log on to the site and follow refund instructions. Opened my email next day to be told I could only be refunded half my money as there was set up costs and maintenance of my account.
I thought about this and exceped then phoned the ombudsman and explained three days later all my money was returned. checked my bank today to see if all money had been returned and yes it was all there. then I looked again to find a company called MyLoan-Now.co.uk had taken £70 emailed them right away just waiting on a reply but I will be at the bank first thing in the morning to canel my account.0 -
A lesson learned not to put your bank card details into random sites you find on the internet.I used to think that good grammar is important, but now I know that good wine is importanter.0
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Hi i have just stupidly done the same thing like 10mins ago can i contact bank and stop it before they take the £69 out of my bank?0
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Why not, er, contact your bank instead of asking if you can, well, contact your bank?Hi i have just stupidly done the same thing like 10mins ago can i contact bank and stop it before they take the £69 out of my bank?"Facism arrives as your friend. It will restore your honour, make you feel proud, protect your house, give you a job, clean up the neighbourhood, remind you of how great you once were, clear out the venal and the corrupt, remove anything you feel is unlike you... [it] doesn't walk in saying, "our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution."0 -
Not all payday loan broker services are fee charging - I am involved with this market and do know that there are reputable and slightly unethical Company's out there trading in this area.
Also not all broker sites pass on your information providing you read through the T&C'S properly and opt out of marketing, Sometimes the service offered here can be a life saver for certain people and in other cases can assist when a problem arises.
It seems to easy in this day and age with so many online forums and the likes to take a shot at the whole industry but this is like any other one and has the good the bad and the ugly within it, Sometimes people do need to realise that they have to accept the fact that they have either messed up and not bothered to read T&C'S properly or in some cases borrow money with the intention of trying not to pay it back.
I do not condone the fee charging sites out there and would not want to be involved with them, My site is clear and concise as are many others that I know of and a lot of people have been helped by using the service offered.
My thoughts here are that people who need a loan should not rush into anything and sit back read the full T&C'S before agreeing to anything and if you need to borrow money then at least look to an amount that is within your means, If used right a payday loan can be cheaper than missed DD'S and so on, Ie:- £100.00 may only cost £120.00 to pay back where as 2-3 missed DD'S may be between £15- and £25- each.0
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