Student loans and pensions

Beaker29 · 17 July 2020 at 10:20AM

richardadc said:

Beaker29 said:

Hi all- I have a claim in with MyJar who have requested I send them my bank statements and payslips from the time I took the loans out with them. Is this a reasonable request or should I refuse to provide them? I know that if it ended up going to the Ombudsman that I would have to provide them then, but not sure if MyJar themselves should have access?
Thanks in advance, and sorry as I'm sure this has been asked before!

If it helps your case I would at least provide the bank statements. I didn't provide them with my payslips though as my bank statement showed my income and I didn't feel they needed that level of detail. The FOS will not force you to provide them either but once again if it helps your case it makes sense to.

Thanks very much, that's along the lines of what I was thinking

adamp87 · 18 July 2020 at 2:26PM

richardadc said:

It's just that I've already been defaulted by them back in late 2017. Surely it doesn't make sense for the FOS to allow them to remove this default just to give them permission to default me again in 2020. I'm just wondering if there is any guidance or a way of appealing this.

Have other people that have taken their complaint to the FOS had the same result?

Did you get anywhere with this? The default date is the original date, I’d be sending another complaint about that. Unless they’ve opened a new account?

They can’t say X loan in 2012 which defaulted in 2014

is now being defaulted in 2020

richardadc · 18 July 2020 at 6:06PM

adamp87 said:

richardadc said:

It's just that I've already been defaulted by them back in late 2017. Surely it doesn't make sense for the FOS to allow them to remove this default just to give them permission to default me again in 2020. I'm just wondering if there is any guidance or a way of appealing this.

Have other people that have taken their complaint to the FOS had the same result?

Did you get anywhere with this? The default date is the original date, I’d be sending another complaint about that. Unless they’ve opened a new account?

They can’t say X loan in 2012 which defaulted in 2014

is now being defaulted in 2020

I think somewhat is the answer to that. The FOS basically said the final decision can't be changed no matter what. I had a look at previous final decisions and no one seemed to have had a decision similar to mine - with most saying if an outstanding balance remained the negative information would be removed once paid off. Some said that the negative information should be removed but none said only remove negative information before the decision.

In the end a very helpful adjudicator manged to get Lending Stream to agree that they would remove the negative information once I've paid off the balance but in the mean time as per the final decision they'll put me on an Arrangement to Pay or if i miss multiple payments they will default me again. The agreement to remove negative information once I've paid it off however is not legally binding and I would have to open another complaint with the FOS if they don't stick with it. It is also somewhat questionable if the FOS will look at it again - the adjudicator tried to be as helpful as possible but as an Ombudsman has made their decision there wasn't a lot he could do.

I've also spoken to the IOC who somewhat agreed that I shouldn't be defaulted again, so even though the FOS have said that's ok, if they do default me again I may have to bring a complaint with the IOC.

In the end I can certainly see why people complain about the FOS. Even if they make a mistake that is certainly questionable in law and seems to break GDPR their decision is final no matter what. The things said in the final decision also didn't match with what i said e.g. they claimed i said i didn't want to pay back the principle balance, yet in the last email i had sent to the FOS i explicitly said I was happy with that part of the decision.

I suppose it's now a case of wait and see what happens.

Edit: I should add that I've also asked Lending Stream to keep the current default in place and only remove it when I've paid off the balance. I feel this is a more accurate representation of the situation. I've yet to hear back on that though.

Charlie800 · 20 July 2020 at 11:44AM

I got into large debt which spiralled out of control with payday lenders. This was after a divorce and being left to run my home on my own. I had low credit scores at time of taking out the loans and a large number of payday lenders all waiting to be paid on my credit files at the same time. After years of struggling to make repayments, some successful to the end of the loans and some not and borrowing off one lender to pay another, I wrote to them all and put in an ‘affordability complaint’ . A few of the payday lenders came back and said no they didn’t lend to me irresponsibly, I then sent their replies to my complaints on to the Financial Ombudsman who ‘UPHELD’ ‘every’ single complaint. These payday lenders were made to refund me back the interest I had paid (on closed and open loans), plus 8% compensation. Payday lenders such as : Lending Stream, Safety Net Credit, Provident, Quik Quid, many more. I also wrote to Amigo loans, the most bullying and ruthless company I have ever come across. They recently upheld my complaint and gave me back over £4,000 in interest, without having to take it to the FOS. The loan wasn’t yet completed but I had paid off the amount I had borrowed already plus an extra £4 grand. I no longer have that £300 a month now to find. Even if you have filled in the forms & it appears you could afford the repayments, if they haven’t checked your credit files properly and seen other payday lenders, bank charges, loans that you may not have disclosed on the forms then they haven’t done their checks properly and should have not lent you the money. Many of the companies I was with should have seen there was no way I could have afforded the repayments, by they lent to me anyway. At the time I was desperate and it was the only way I could feed my children.

I urge anyone who is in debt and spiralling out of control with payday lenders to contact them with an irresponsible lending complaint and see what happens. You will be surprised at how they should have looked into your finances first properly before lending you the money, especially if you have several loans running at the same time. It has taken nearly 2 years to get all the interest I paid back as they have streams of similar complaints to get through, but it is so worth it. Do it today before the companies go Under. One by one my payday loans have been ended by the FOS for irresponsible lending and any interest due to me was paid back. These people are loan sharks and prey on the most vulnerable people in times of great need. Please anyone in this situation look into it.

*for anyone who wants to reply to me with negative comments about taking payday loans out, I will bypass the comments. I’m here to help and offer advice for people in the terrible situation I got myself in only”

Jojo6 · 23 July 2020 at 7:01PM

Good evening,
I’m looking into paying off my student loan (the old one!) but I’m worried that if I do, my monthly pension contributions will increase. I’m paying it off to see more disposable income per month and so I don’t want to do it if this is the case. I’m in the Teachers Pensions Scheme. Does anyone know whether I’d have to pay more towards my pension?

Thank you 😊