payday loan problems - ask the ombudsman

kay159

At the time my partner had been seriously ill and about to be diagnosed with hepatitis and it was more about keeping a roof over our heads. In hindsight I was stupid but at the time I needed the money- it seems these companies pray on people like me. Never again !!!

DCFC79

kay159 wrote: »

At the time my partner had been seriously ill and about to be diagnosed with hepatitis and it was more about keeping a roof over our heads. In hindsight I was stupid but at the time I needed the money- it seems these companies pray on people like me. Never again !!!

They don't prey on people like you, they provide a service as there's a demand for it. If people weren't after pay day loans then they wouldn't be in business or not as many lenders.

Kay159_2

Whilst I accept that, the very fact that the FSA has now stepped in to regulate payday lenders and cap rollovers to 3 and interest to 100% maximum would seem to indicate many of these lenders, although not acting outside of guidelines at the time, did not have the best interest of their customers at the forefront of the services offered nor did they operate looking at a full credit search or step in to offer alternative solutions to multiple rollovers. That is why I felt I was preyed upon. Each month I had loans automatically rolled over or repeated emails upping limits. Only one company made it a requirement that some of the principal sum borrowed was paid off along with the interest and one point blank refused to consider a payment plan. Im glad that regulation has tightened the industry to prevent cases such as mine

jonesMUFCforever

Kay159 wrote: »

Whilst I accept that, the very fact that the FSA has now stepped in to regulate payday lenders and cap rollovers to 3 and interest to 100% maximum would seem to indicate many of these lenders, although not acting outside of guidelines at the time, did not have the best interest of their customers at the forefront of the services offered nor did they operate looking at a full credit search or step in to offer alternative solutions to multiple rollovers. That is why I felt I was preyed upon. Each month I had loans automatically rolled over or repeated emails upping limits. Only one company made it a requirement that some of the principal sum borrowed was paid off along with the interest and one point blank refused to consider a payment plan. Im glad that regulation has tightened the industry to prevent cases such as mine

I was going to say something but I'm on a yellow till next month!

financial_ombudsman_representative

kay159 wrote: »

Many thanks for that. Whilst I appreciate it was my own silly fault in some respects for taking out the loans they were only ever intended as short term solutions but life intervened and I ended up taking loans to pay interest on loans
I have complaints in with 6 companies all for similar issues with around 15 rollovers on each - all but one are now settled in full
I heard back from THL today that they will not uphold my claim as their checks were not under FSA guidelines back in 2010 and my salary and loan amounts met their criteria for lending - nothing about any credit checks or looking at my credit history or other borrowing or priority expenses
As such I paid 1275 interest back on a 280 loan. I actually feel that these companies seek out targets for continued borrowing and do not look at the whole credit file or situation like a mainstream lender would
I feel that I was fobbed off and the company is justifying irresponsible lending because they saw one wage slip and looked at nothing else
As for Lending Stream I just wanted someone to confirm the credit score was something they had pulled out of thin air, as I suspected, or was something they had made up under their own criteria. I have now lodged a complaint with FSO regarding THL and am awaiting replies from the others before going down the same route
My question is what does the FSO term irresponsible lending these days so I am clear in what evidence I present and how I word the complaints
Thanks

Hi Kay159

I’m sorry it’s taken a while to reply to you. It sounds like you’re taking the right steps to get the problems looked into.

A lot of people take out payday loans and use them for similar reasons that you explained but it sounds like you’ve had a particularly hard time.

When we look at complaints about affordability our general approach is to consider whether a business has enough information to be happy that you can afford the loan repayments. We’d also look at things like how many loans you had and how much you borrowed.

You wanted to know if the payday loans you took out would be recorded on your credit file.This will be dependent on what each business reports to the credit reference agencies but a business has an obligation to make sure they report accurate information to them.

If you want to have a chat about what’s happened in more detail please send us a private message or call us on 0300 123 9 123.

Kind regards

Amy

Kay159_2

I raised claims due to irresponsible lending with poundstillpayday.co.uk. The company sent a final response stating they would not offer compensation but admitted they hadnt credit checked me as not a requirement at that time. I therefore passed the claim to the FSO who couldnt help as the parent company is registered in Maltaand to contact the FSO equivalent there.
Within 3 days of doing that Ihave had a second letterfrom Northway offering me a gesture of goodwillin that they will write off the balance of £900 including default fees and interest.
The letter states balance outstanding is nil
My question is do I formally have to accept this offerand could it be rescinded if I leave the case open and try to recover a portion of the interest given the company admits no affordability checks were carried out
To put this into context within 3 months my credit limit increased from £300 to £675 and there were 21 immediate reloans each with £200 interest which represented 60% of my salary.
I know many of you may think I should feel pleaaed to have the balance written off but as the company admits no affordability checks were carried out I am wondering if the offer is to ensure the case with the FSO in Malta is dropped
Any advice would be great
Thanks
Andrea

[Deleted User]

Kay159 wrote: »

I know many of you may think I should feel pleaaed to have the balance written off

Yes lady.


I didn't really want to hear it confirmed 2 of the longest used payday lenders were for me really one and the same, day the DRO was put through as the last remaining lender of the payday variety went into the order, I'd just paid 5 off as yep real time reporting just wasn't available back then (technology hey!) and the lender that gave me most time to pay back well was on that order.
I cannot imagine wanting to actually profit on the back of something like this, and neither would I now like to hear how I shouldn't have been given a loan.


You'll understand next time you apply for credit. If you have no need for credit therein also lies your answer.

Kay159_2

A quick question. The ombudsman is looking into my claims atm. I have been asked to.provide my cresit file and bank statements from the time I began to.take out the loans up to when they were all in force
My problem is
Q. I have my credit file but not historically and sevwral ccjs from just prior to 2010 are now no longer showing. There are defaults showing around that time. Will these support the claim that checks were not carried out on my repayment history
2. Halifax closed my account when CPAs withdrww me by £900 and I havent banked with Halifax for over 4 years hence cannot access statmwnts as they were all online. Will not having these mean my case is not upheld. I do have access to wage slips etc
Any advice would be welcome
Andrea

financial_ombudsman_representative

Kay159 wrote: »

A quick question. The ombudsman is looking into my claims atm. I have been asked to.provide my cresit file and bank statements from the time I began to.take out the loans up to when they were all in force
My problem is
Q. I have my credit file but not historically and sevwral ccjs from just prior to 2010 are now no longer showing. There are defaults showing around that time. Will these support the claim that checks were not carried out on my repayment history
2. Halifax closed my account when CPAs withdrww me by £900 and I havent banked with Halifax for over 4 years hence cannot access statmwnts as they were all online. Will not having these mean my case is not upheld. I do have access to wage slips etc
Any advice would be welcome
Andrea

Hi Andrea

Thanks for getting in touch again.

Its good that Northway have made an offer. But if you're unsure about it, you should talk to them or the Maltese Ombudsman. http://mymoneybox.mfsa.com.mt/

It sounds like you're already dealing with one of our adjudicators. I think you should let them know about the problems you're having getting what they've asked for. They might be able to do something to help.

We'd normally ask for a credit file so we can get a clear idea of what's happened. The credit reference agency might be able to help you to get historic information that's no longer showing.

If you cant get this to us, we'd still look at everything else available before giving you our opinion on what's happened.

If you're still unsure then please let your adjudicator know as they'll be able to explain things in more detail.

James

Financial Ombudsman Representative
0300 123 9 123
[EMAIL="complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk"]complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk[/EMAIL]

kay159

Ive received a decision in my favour on a payday loan. The instructions are to repay all interest from a set date plus simple interest on the amounts
The company will not send a full statement showing the fees and charges and as such I dont know an exact figure to accept
I just wanted to check if this will include what the company termed @admin fees' for rollovers at £25 each and also the fees and charges added on default which amounted to an additional £400
I repaid under an arrangement and the company took £470 more than they should have over the next 3 years and held onto it for over a year before I asked for a balance and they admitted the error hence I would like to make sure what is offered is accurate
Any requests for statements are ignored yet I forwarded the Ombudsmans decision and received an immediate response by email stating they are now 'gathering evidence to submit'
Any advice would be helpful
Andrea