Creditor requesting access to Bank Account

pfas

Good evening

Looking for some advice, I defaulted on a debt and the creditor has advised that they want to take it down the CCJ route without even discussing repayment plans etc.

I've raised a complaint and offered to pay back £20 a month of a debit of £499 and they rejected the repayment. 

I got an email today which they advised the following:  If the complaint is regarding an outstanding balance on your account which you are not able to pay, we would need to assess your claim of being in the financial difficulty as per the FCA requirements. This entails an active bank connection to your app. This is documented in the agreed T&Cs. Once the connection is re-established, we would investigate that claim and make any reasonable adjustments on a case by case basis. If the connection is not re-established, we will not be able to confirm your claims in regards to the financial difficulty and would be required to proceed with the collections process.

I'm not sure how I stand if I've offered them a repayment amount (they rejected saying it needed to be paid within 3 months and at £100+ a month.

Do I legally have to give them access to my bank account regardless of their terms and conditions.

I also quoted the following in my complaint:

8G01/04/2014RP

An example of where a firm is likely to contravene Principle 6 and CONC 7.3.4 R is where the firm does not allow for alternative, affordable payment amounts to repay the debt due in full, where the customer is in default or arrears difficulties and the customer makes a reasonable proposal for repaying the debt or a debt counsellor or another person acting on the customer'sbehalf makes such a proposal.

[Note: paragraphs 7.16 of ILG and 3.7j of DCG]

CONC 7.3.9R01/04/2014RP

A firm must not operate a policy of refusing to negotiate with a customer who is developing a repayment plan.

[Note: paragraph 3.9d (box) of DCG]

CONC 7.3.10R01/04/2014RP

A firm must not pressurise a customer:

(1)

to pay a debt in one single or very few repayments or in unreasonably large amounts, when to do so would have an adverse impact on the customer's financial circumstances;

[Note: paragraph 7.18 of ILG]

(2)

to pay a debt within an unreasonably short period of time

gizmo111

Absolutely do not give them any access to your bank account.
What is the debt for and who is the creditor/debt collection agaency?

pfas

It's with a company called SteadPay (you give them access to your bank account and they offer a top up if you get paid less) they are threatening the CCJ themselves rather than using a collection agency.

[Deleted User]

SteadyPay? After checking them out they look slightly like a pay day loan company only they loan you when you get paid less...?

gizmo111

pfas said:

It's with a company called SteadPay (you give them access to your bank account and they offer a top up if you get paid less) they are threatening the CCJ themselves rather than using a collection agency.

So you owe them money?  How much and from when?
Where are they threatening to take you to court?  They can collect outstanding debts themselves but they have to follow a process, including letter before action in prescribed format before they can issue proceedings and also they should be accepting your offer of £20 per month.

pfas

So I wrote a complaint to the company as i didn't feel they were complying with FCA or Pre-Action Protocol and got the following response:

Summary of your complaint
Starting off and ensuring we’ve got your concerns covered, we believe that your main concerns with SteadyPay are:

• Issue 1: Pre-action Protocol

• Issue 2: FCA breach

• Issue 3: Repayment offer

Our response:

1. Pre-action Protocol

The email received on the 5th of January by my now former colleague Daniel was not meant to be taken as an LBA. It was an email to reach out and establish contact and should be taken as a warning of legal actions. As stated in the email when we urged you to contact us, further court actions are avoidable. Ultimately our goal is to be able to work with you in clearing out the outstanding balance.
But touching on the points that you have raised in regards to what is required before any court actions, I believe most if not all of them have been supplied already, both my email and by mail mid December to which you never responded - until now. I have attached the pdf file again for your reference.
2. FCA breach
You have mentioned that you are currently in financial difficulty but failed to provide any evidence to support that claim and refuse to reconnect your bank account in order for us to validate and determine an affordable repayment plan. 
We would like to point out that this amount does not include any fees or interest, it is simply what you borrowed. Not only that but we have yet to communicate the default to the Credit Bureau, which means your credit file has not have the negative marks added. Since you mentioned you worked in the industry, we would urge you to take a second and think about what that means for you, the consumer to not have to pay anything on top of what you got and not see the consequences of months of arrears on your credit file. We believe that is beyond treating our customer fair and ties in perfectly with forbearance example (1). 
3. Repayment offer
You have made an offer of £20 then £40 and then threaten to do the minimum of £1 and mentioned this is in line with your affordability and are unwilling to commit to more down the line or provide evidence of your affordability by leaving your bank account connected as per our Terms and Conditions. 
Your original repayment, to which you have agreed prior to receiving the top-ups was £170/month. We have accepted to reduce that to £100/month purely based on your statements. Any lower would require further evidence on your part.
What we’ve done to resolve your concerns
Now we’ve covered off our investigation and the causes why your concerns arose, we’ve carefully taken our time to consider what the most appropriate resolution to your concerns are. In resolving your complaint we’ve taken into account several factors, which includes the background to your concerns, the information we’ve been able to obtain, the root cause of the concerns. We’ve also outlined what our outcome is of our investigation.
Resolution [Pre-action Protocol]
The communication provided so far was was intended to be a warning of legal actions (pre-LBA).
Outcome: Not upheld
Resolution [FCA breach]
Based on the limited information you have provided, on the fact that the amount borrowed has remained the same and has not been inflated with interest or fees over time as it would normally with other lenders, despite being in arrears for months, and on the fact that the repayment plan offer was a reduction of almost 60% in the monthly instalment than what you have originally agreed to - we believe that we believe that we have not breached FCA rules relating to the Consumer Credit and have treated you, the consumer, fairly.  
Outcome: Not upheld
Resolution [Repayment Offer]
We have put together the following options, please let me know which one you would like to proceed with.
a. £100/month with no subscription fees - and we will not add any negative marks to your credit file such as the default
b. £45/month with subscription up to date - this will show goodwill gesture on your part and as such will allow us to extend the recovery time and we will also not add any negative marks to your credit file such as the default
c. £20/month - we will continue with the default but will not pursue the CCJ as long as the payments are kept
Outcome: Not upheld

Would anyone have any advice on how to proceed. Would you accept the £40 offer or take the £20 and lump the default?

I am considering still taking it to the FOS. I can post my original complaint if its useful.

sourcrates

Ignore the fools completley, never allow anyone access to your financial accounts, should they pursue a CCJ, follow the legal process, its there for everyones protection, this is utter rubbish they are spouting.

Never feel you must comply with stupid requests, they have no legal or any other power over you or anyone, you are free to refuse.