Doorstep lenders

LLM

Hi,

Does anyone know if there is any legislation on whether door step lenders should provide receipts to clients for cash payments?

I work in a support based role specifically around finances and household income, and one of my clients has a doorstep loan, she's adamant she pays it weekly without fail as the collector comes to her house, yet when we called the lender, the payments they had received did not tally up with the payments my client says she has been making and needless to say, there are no receipts exchanged and no payment book or anything.

Really concerned for her to be honest and with it being bank holiday, I'm not going to be able to chase the company for a response for a good few days now so wanted to know if anyone on here knows anything.

Thanks

jonesMUFCforever

So who do you believe?

The only way to prove payments have been made is to get a receipt.

What do the head office of the lender say?

-taff

If she ays each week she should have a payment book detailing the amount of loan and amount of weekly payment.
If there is no book or agreement, then there is no proof of loan to start with.....
Ask the Head Office or whoever to send proof that she borrowed money, and what form the repayments take.

LLM

Jones - I appreciate that there's every chance that my client could be being a little frugal with the truth, but when the lender read out the payments and said there was no payment for whichever month, she looked genuinely shocked. She has another loan with a different doorstep lender but was quite upfront that she's not paid them for a while. The lender said they would investigate and call me back next week.

Taff - she has a book but it's really old and never been written in. I've got authority to deal with them now so will speak to them in further detail next week and see what they come up with. Just concerned that on a housing estate, this one person isn't going to be the only one with a door step loan so if payments are going awol, it need sorting. These people in my opinion are easy targets. My client had never asked how much she owes, she's vulnerable and is intimidated by the collector.

Will update when I hear back...

jonesMUFCforever

For now then give her the benefit of the doubt but for her own well being in future if she needs to resort to this type of lending please tell her that she needs to get either a book or a receipt for every penny she gives the lender.
If the representative refuses this get an independent witness to verify this and then report them to the lender.

LLM

I've told her to ask for a receipt but strongly advised her not to hand over another penny until we get to the bottom of this with the lender.