Old payday loan debt - should I pay it all off?

DS2022

Hi all,

I got in to some trouble around 2017 with payday loans, usual story... 
I managed to get most of them written off and even got my interest back.

One that slipped through the net, which was totally my fault was a loan with Lending Stream (debt being recovered by ACI) - I missed the chance to take them to the Ombudsman as I didn't get in touch with them within the allotted time.
I made a payment agreement with them and have been paying them £25 a month back, before I was paying them back I was often offered a deal where I'd only pay a much smaller amount back but that would show on my credit file as only partially paid, so I thought I'd continue and pay the full amount.
They're now updating my credit file every month with a default notice and my rating is dropping rapidly, annoying as my score is still at 'fair' as the rest of my finances are respectable. 

I read somewhere recently (possibly on here) about someone that had made a deal with ACI, where they only paid back half of what they owed and ACI had agreed to remove any trace of the loans and defaults from their credit score. ACI had apparently not been keen on this and it took a while to get it in writing that they'd remove the loan details but according to the poster, this happened.

I guess I'm wondering whether I should stop paying them the monthly £25 and wait for them to get in touch offering me a deal and then request similar to the above. the default was places April 2018. Seems I've nothing to lose and if they don't take the loans off my credit file I'll at least have saved some money with not paying the full amount back. Looks like I'm lumbered with the defaults for another 2.5 years anyway.

I owe around £350

Many thanks for any help

 

[Deleted User]

They have no reason to remove the default as it's an accurate representation. If you breach the payment agreement they may come knocking for the full amount so not really a good idea

Ignore your score, no lender ever sees it. Your rating will already be trashed from the pay day loan, default and payment plan, whatever fictitious numbers the CRAs give you, your rating on lender's internal systems will be poor regardless

DS2022

Deleted_User said:

They have no reason to remove the default as it's an accurate representation. If you breach the payment agreement they may come knocking for the full amount so not really a good idea

Ignore your score, no lender ever sees it. Your rating will already be trashed from the pay day loan, default and payment plan, whatever fictitious numbers the CRAs give you, your rating on lender's internal systems will be poor regardless

"They have no reason to remove the default as it's an accurate representation" - seems the person in the thread I was talking about above wasn't paying anything back, they replied to the offers ACI were making to them (pay 50% back) saying they'd pay this and could pay today if ACI agreed to remove them defaults... and it supposedly worked 

MalMonroe

There is some very helpful info about complaining about payday lenders in the following link from Citizens Advice -

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/borrowing-money/types-of-borrowing/loans/payday-loans/payday-loans-reasons-to-complain-about-your-lender/

And I would complain. Payday loans are not supposed to be dragging on for almost four years. The idea is that they are small loans for short periods of time. You can still complain, please do. 

You say "They're now updating my credit file every month with a default notice and my rating is dropping rapidly, annoying as my score is still at 'fair' as the rest of my finances are respectable."

But the rest of your finances can't be respectable since there's this payday nonsense hanging around. Your credit score is never seen by anyone else but you, it's your credit history that's the important thing and your credit history, sadly, is poor right now.

Please do get on to starting your complaint. It appears that you should not have been given a payday loan in the first place.

DS2022

MalMonroe said:

There is some very helpful info about complaining about payday lenders in the following link from Citizens Advice 

And I would complain. Payday loans are not supposed to be dragging on for almost four years. The idea is that they are small loans for short periods of time. You can still complain, please do. 

You say "They're now updating my credit file every month with a default notice and my rating is dropping rapidly, annoying as my score is still at 'fair' as the rest of my finances are respectable."

But the rest of your finances can't be respectable since there's this payday nonsense hanging around. Your credit score is never seen by anyone else but you, it's your credit history that's the important thing and your credit history, sadly, is poor right now.

Please do get on to starting your complaint. It appears that you should not have been given a payday loan in the first place.

Thanks for the reply, this one slipped through the net and I missed the opportunity to complain to the Ombudsman. I complained and had the complaints upheld on my others which resulted in me getting the interest I'd paid on all loans back. 

sourcrates

You can consider making a full and final offer to them to partially settle the debt.

The default won`t be removed, but you may be able to save some money.

National Debtline covers it here -

Sample Letter - Settlement offer | Sample letter | National Debtline | National Debtline

If you haven`t yet made a complaint about this debt, you can still do so.
FOS time limits apply to individual complaints, not as a whole.

[Deleted User]

DS2022 said:

Deleted_User said:

They have no reason to remove the default as it's an accurate representation. If you breach the payment agreement they may come knocking for the full amount so not really a good idea

Ignore your score, no lender ever sees it. Your rating will already be trashed from the pay day loan, default and payment plan, whatever fictitious numbers the CRAs give you, your rating on lender's internal systems will be poor regardless

"They have no reason to remove the default as it's an accurate representation" - seems the person in the thread I was talking about above wasn't paying anything back, they replied to the offers ACI were making to them (pay 50% back) saying they'd pay this and could pay today if ACI agreed to remove them defaults... and it supposedly worked 

I wouldn't take the word of some anonymous person on a forum over the likely reality. The fact is, you (and they) defaulted on your payments and the lender is obliged to record this as an accurate representation of credit history. The original default by the lender (if sold to a debt collector) will still be there as well, with the account marked as closed and ACI wouldn't have any power to remove that.

DS2022

Deleted_User said:

DS2022 said:

Deleted_User said:

They have no reason to remove the default as it's an accurate representation. If you breach the payment agreement they may come knocking for the full amount so not really a good idea

Ignore your score, no lender ever sees it. Your rating will already be trashed from the pay day loan, default and payment plan, whatever fictitious numbers the CRAs give you, your rating on lender's internal systems will be poor regardless

"They have no reason to remove the default as it's an accurate representation" - seems the person in the thread I was talking about above wasn't paying anything back, they replied to the offers ACI were making to them (pay 50% back) saying they'd pay this and could pay today if ACI agreed to remove them defaults... and it supposedly worked 

I wouldn't take the word of some anonymous person on a forum over the likely reality. The fact is, you (and they) defaulted on your payments and the lender is obliged to record this as an accurate representation of credit history. The original default by the lender (if sold to a debt collector) will still be there as well, with the account marked as closed and ACI wouldn't have any power to remove that.

Yes, of course. Perhaps I should stop paying the £25 a month and wait for them to chase and offer a deal, seems I'm stuck with the default for another 2.5 years, may as well not pay the whole amount back?

[Deleted User]

DS2022 said:

Deleted_User said:

DS2022 said:

Deleted_User said:

They have no reason to remove the default as it's an accurate representation. If you breach the payment agreement they may come knocking for the full amount so not really a good idea

Ignore your score, no lender ever sees it. Your rating will already be trashed from the pay day loan, default and payment plan, whatever fictitious numbers the CRAs give you, your rating on lender's internal systems will be poor regardless

"They have no reason to remove the default as it's an accurate representation" - seems the person in the thread I was talking about above wasn't paying anything back, they replied to the offers ACI were making to them (pay 50% back) saying they'd pay this and could pay today if ACI agreed to remove them defaults... and it supposedly worked 

I wouldn't take the word of some anonymous person on a forum over the likely reality. The fact is, you (and they) defaulted on your payments and the lender is obliged to record this as an accurate representation of credit history. The original default by the lender (if sold to a debt collector) will still be there as well, with the account marked as closed and ACI wouldn't have any power to remove that.

Yes, of course. Perhaps I should stop paying the £25 a month and wait for them to chase and offer a deal, seems I'm stuck with the default for another 2.5 years, may as well not pay the whole amount back?

Or their "deal" is that they demand the whole lot immediately and/or get a CCJ which starts a new 6 year clock ticking, up to you really. When you're on token repayment things, unless you have the money to give them a full and final settlement of some fixed % of the debt, they have no reason to cut you a deal

PaulW922

You say the default date is 2018? If you can show that the agreement was breached earlier than that, and you suggest 2017, then you could perhaps ask for the date to be changed. That means it would drop off your file earlier. Some debt agencies are very good at creating new default dates (and sometime brand new defaults) based on the date the case is referred to them, rather than the date the loan actually defaulted. 

macman

At £25 per month on a £350 debt, you'll have cleared it in 14 months. Where are you getting 2.5 years from?