Default Loan & Debt Recovery Dispiute

x32z8

I took out a payday loan with Satsuma Loan during the spring.

With some financial difficulty, I missed a couple of payments and e-mailed them to set up an affordable repayment plan on 31st July 2017.

It took a further five e-mails over the course of two months until before they actually responded (after constantly calling me during work hours despite numerous requests not to).

Eventually, they said they could not communicate via e-mail but would over text message.
We eventually agreed a repayment plan, which they never confirmed back to me in writing or e-mail.

After that they didn't attempt to take the payment at the end of September, nor in October.
I made a nominal payment in October to make sure my account ticking over.

Then in at the beginning of December I was contacted by a debt recovery company regarding this account.

I told them I had no knowledge of this matter and wouldn't speak to them until Satsuma had informed me of such, which in their defence they have obliged with.

I've now noticed on my credit report that they have reported the account in default in December.

I have e-mailed them over the last couple of weeks and the response has been shambolic.

They could not find my account, requested certain personal details to confirm my identity and then demanded that those details were not sufficient (despite them being the ones who asked for them).

They have now informed me that they cannot discuss my account any further because it has been passed on to a debt recovery service.

I have disputed this, as they did not issue me with a default notice, statement of account or notification of the debt being passed on to a certain company.

They have finally come back to me saying they issued a default notice on 6th September 2017, which I did not receive to the best of my knowledge. Either way this was after 6 weeks of not responding to me. 2 Weeks later than the notice, they agreed a repayment plan with me.

I'm after some advice really.

They are now refusing to speak to me over the account, but in my mind:

They have not issued an updated Default Notice.
They didn't issue my with notification of selling my debt on.

So I am right to dispute my account being in default.

I have the money and have offered to pay it all (which is before our arranged repayment in full date) but they will not discuss anything with me.

[Deleted User]

For a start they tried to contact you by phone which you ignored. By choice.

Payment plans agreed verbally are not the same as written ones.

As they didn't take payment in September or October it's safe to assume the plan wasn't set up.

Therefore the account Defaulted and was passed to a agency .

What happened to November and December's payments?

x32z8

The phone calls were two or three times a day when I was at work and couldn't take them!
I e-mailed them numerous times to tell them that and also requested a response via e-mail, which I don't think is unreasonable?

The payments were never taken because they passed it on.

[Deleted User]

OK.

So the question begs why you took the loan when you were already in difficulty

National_Debtline

Hi x32z8 and welcome to the forum


The default registered on your credit file notes the breakdown of the relationship between you and the creditor, which tallies if the debt was passed on to a debt collection agency (DCA) at the same time. It's also usually registered once the arrears are around 3 to 6 months. It's the DCA who has taken over the debt that is expected to contact you and tell you they are dealing with the debt.


When you agreed to the payment plan, was it discussed how the payment was going to be made? If it was confirmed for example that an existing direct debit would take the payment, that may give you grounds to complain. But if it was simply that you should pay £x amount and you didn't make sure they received the money, you may not be able to argue they are at fault.


If you want to make a complaint, including the issues with communicating with Satsuma, you should put this in writing to them. If you are not happy with their response you can take your complaint on to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) www.fos.org.uk.


Susie
@natdebtline

Destabilising

!!! wrote: »

OK.

So the question begs why you took the loan when you were already in difficulty

I really don't feel like asking this has any relevance to the question at hand, and just seems to be a throw off comment to try and put the x32z8 down and wind them up a bit more.

x32z8

!!! wrote: »

OK.

So the question begs why you took the loan when you were already in difficulty

I wasn't in difficulty at the time of taking it out, however afterwards I did encounter some difficulty and tried for 2 months to arrange a repayment plan which was never responded to.

National_Debtline wrote: »

Hi x32z8 and welcome to the forum


The default registered on your credit file notes the breakdown of the relationship between you and the creditor, which tallies if the debt was passed on to a debt collection agency (DCA) at the same time. It's also usually registered once the arrears are around 3 to 6 months. It's the DCA who has taken over the debt that is expected to contact you and tell you they are dealing with the debt.


When you agreed to the payment plan, was it discussed how the payment was going to be made? If it was confirmed for example that an existing direct debit would take the payment, that may give you grounds to complain. But if it was simply that you should pay £x amount and you didn't make sure they received the money, you may not be able to argue they are at fault.


If you want to make a complaint, including the issues with communicating with Satsuma, you should put this in writing to them. If you are not happy with their response you can take your complaint on to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)

Susie
@natdebtline

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, as the arrangement was done via text it was never confirmed about how the payment would be taken. We already had an existing payment details setup so I wrongly assumed it was going to be continued.

Destabilising wrote: »

I really don't feel like asking this has any relevance to the question at hand, and just seems to be a throw off comment to try and put the x32z8 down and wind them up a bit more.

Thanks.

sourcrates

Satsuma is still struggling to get its act together, its parent company is Provident, who are used to taking payments on a weekly basis, the satsuma website is not all it could be, they are basically still trying to catch up with the whole payday loan model, and not doing a very good job of it.

You can go down the written complaint route, but really you should not be relying on texts to set up payment arrangements, there email response is also shabby to say the least, and again, should not be relied upon.

Failure to supply a default notice can be easily remedied by issuing it again, so that point is not worth pursuing.

You may find its easier to just deal with the debt collector in these circumstances.

sourcrates

!!! wrote: »

OK.

So the question begs why you took the loan when you were already in difficulty

The OP was not in difficulty when he took out the loan originally, his circumstances changed.