Please help me - Cash genie took all my money..

Jamez1988 · 20 February 2010 at 12:33PM

Hey guys

Can anybody offer me any help or advice?

I took out a cash genie payday loan before christmas.

I was then laid off so could not afford to pay them.

I have been paying them £20 a month to make it roll over.

I was going to pay them again today as I knew I was receiving a lot of backdated JSA.

They then took it ALL £250 out of my account.

I am now broke and cannot afford anything...

Is there anything I can do?

I never said they could do this

Please help

Lennon_25 · 20 February 2010 at 12:57PM

wow.................

surely if you have a written agreement to pay back £20 they cant do that. if not, its their money that you agreed to pay back ages ago so i doubt you will get it back.

Tixy · 20 February 2010 at 1:44PM

By what form have they taken it from your bank account?

Did you write a postdated cheque originally or did you give them your bank details?

What does your original agreement say about you paying or failing to pay?

immoral_angeluk · 20 February 2010 at 1:46PM

We need to know how you originally paid, but it's a general rule that creditors are not allowed to take benefit money without your prior agreement. You need to check your agreement to see if this is mentioned anywhere. If it is then there's not a lot you can do but argue it, but if it isn't you need to get in contact with them ASAP and complain stating if they don't return your BENEFIT money asap you'll report them to the FSA/OFT or words to that effect.

Jamez1988 · 20 February 2010 at 2:08PM

Hey

They have taken it by card payment as they made me give them my card details a month ago to take £20.

I was again going to pay them £20 as soon as I got my payment.

This has left me with 0 pounds to eat for 2 weeks as I was waiting for the JSA to come through

I rang my bank who said it is nothing to do with them (Barclays) and they will not do anything

immoral_angeluk · 20 February 2010 at 2:11PM

Jamez1988 wrote: »

Hey

They have taken it by card payment as they made me give them my card details a month ago to take £20.

I was again going to pay them £20 as soon as I got my payment.

This has left me with 0 pounds to eat for 2 weeks as I was waiting for the JSA to come through

I rang my bank who said it is nothing to do with them (Barclays) and they will not do anything

No barclays won't do anything asby giving them your card details you've essentially given them permission. You need to argue it with the payday loan people

sulkisu · 20 February 2010 at 2:13PM

It might not be that simple. I have just had a quick look at the Cash Genie website, terms and conditions. When you apply for a loan, you are asked to confirm several things, including that you are employed, not under threat of redundancy and have no intention of leaving your current employment. In another thread you say that you were employed as a Christmas temp in M&S from October to Janaury. So I assume that you did not tell Cash Genie when you took out the loan at Christmas, that your current employment was only a short-term temporary contract and was due to end shortly? In your post, you say that you were unable to repay the loan because you were laid off, but that isn't strictly true - you had a fixed term contract which came to an end. If I was the FSA/OFT I would be asking how did you intend to repay the loan, knowing that you would be out of work within week? They are unlikely to be sympathetic.

If you did disclose this information then you have nothing to worry about, but if you didn't and considering the fact that Cash Genie threaten to involve the police with any fraudulent applications (they might consider applying for a loan without disclosing/or lying about pertintent facts, as fraudulent), you might be better off leaving well alone.

Edit: I'm not having a go BTW, you did what you felt that you needed to do. But in the long run, it might be better to beg and borrow whatever you need to see you through the next two weeks, instead of opening a can of worms and possibly making things worse for yourself.

Jamez1988 · 20 February 2010 at 2:15PM

sulkisu wrote: »

It might not be that simple. I have just had a quick look at the Cash Genie website, terms and conditions. When you apply for a loan, you are asked to confirm several things, including that you are employed, not under threat of redundancy and have no intention of leaving your current employment. In another thread you say that you were employed as a Christmas temp in M&S. So I assume that you did not tell Cash Genie when you took out the loan at Christmas, that your current employment was only a short-term temporary contract. In your post, you say that you were unable to repay the loan becasue you were laid off, but that isn't strictly true - you had a fised term contract which came to an end. If I was the FSA/OFT I would be asking how did you intend to repay the loan, knowing that you would be out of work within week?

If you did disclose this information then you have nothing to worry about, but if you didn't and considering the fact that Cash Genie threaten to involve the police with any fraudulent applications (they might consider applying for a loan without disclosing/or lying about pertintent facts fraudulent), you might be better off leaving well alone.

I took out the loan In October, and they new that the contract (work) was 'Seasonal' as that was what I put in the box. I was going to pay them in November but my bank took half my wages in Fees.

So I have been paying £20 a month, last month £60 actually, as they were hassling me

GeorgeUK · 20 February 2010 at 2:44PM

Surely the bank should be treating this as an unathorised transaction?

Jamez1988 · 20 February 2010 at 2:48PM

GeorgeUK wrote: »

Surely the bank should be treating this as an unathorised transaction?

Thats exactly what I said but they told me because I have given them my card details 'They can take what they like' - Exact words.

GeorgeUK · 20 February 2010 at 3:22PM

If this was not on a credit card, then they did not have continuous payment authority. I would phone up the bank again and if the same ahppens, ask to be put through to their fraud department. I'm not sure if you will need a police crime number, but will try to find some of the other threads where this has happened and see what they did.

Please help me - Cash genie took all my money..

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