Poundstillpayday

[Ocelot0411]

Hi

I hope I am OK to post this here as this is more of a 'cautionary tale' rather than a request for advise / assitance (although any helpful tips or hints will alway be appreciated).

I will try to keep this very sorry story short and sweet, here goes. The above company 'poundstillpayday' aka Northway Financial Brokers, Sonic Payday and goodness knows what else (they have various names in the US and Canada) are, just as it says on the tin, a payday loan company. Now before you all go 'oh foolish girl, these people are awful and charge ridiculous interest rates', yes you are preaching to the converted but there is an old saying about horses bolting and stable doors if you know what I mean. So we are where we are.

Anyhow, I stupidly got a loan from them and was paying it off until last month I had a major 'blip' in my finances and was unable to pay them back (you have to pay off the whole lot each month and then reloan). So I wrote to them before the payment was due to explain, offer them what I could afford that month and also said that I hoped it would be a temporary situation which I would resolve as soon as I was able.

Well since then I have been bombared with agressive and abusive calls from the states, they have threatened to contact my employer and told me thet will take the money out of my salary (which I know is illegal and they can't do, also I work for a law firm so if they did contact them they would get short shrift) refused to communicate with me in writing and have basically said that they will continue to harrass me by phone at work, home and on my mobile untill I pay the lot and the interest / charges (which are huge and I won't pay - I am aware of the unfair contract regulations).

I have been quite shocked and appalled at this as I have never come across such behaviour in all my days, so I decided to do a bit of reseach and googled their various company names. Well, oh my lord, I was aghast. There are some awful horror stories about these people and their bullying / intimidation techniques.

So to get to the crux of the matter, I am now on top of my finances again and these people are the only people I have an outstanding issue with. I have however taken extreme umberage to their bully boy tactics and have decided to go in all guns blazing, as fortunately, I am not easily spooked and know my rights, but they have made other peoples lives a hell and I don't think they shoudl be allowed to get away with it.

So I have done the internal complaints bit (they ignored my letter of complaint and continued to call me), so last night and today, I have reported them to the Office of Fair Trading, the Financial Ombudsman, and the Consumer Credit Trade Association. I have emailed them copies of my letters to each of these associations and as yet no response.

So the point of this post is as follows, to anyone who has been a victim of this company or who is currently being harrassed by them, stand firm. I will NOT be bullied and neither should you! If anyone has a legitimate complaint about this company, now is the time to make it. Also I now have accumulated rather a lot of info about them so if I can be of any assistance to anyone else, please pm me and I will assist in any way I can.

[mich7k]

Hi there well i have had to leave my job and my final salary was not where near enough to pay off my loan to ptp. i have told them i will pay nxt month 25/4/08 can they enforce the loan? As my only income is now benefits?

Any advice would be well appreciated

[Conniff]

No mich, in the generic meaning of the word 'enforce' they cannot send collectors to your door or get bailiffs to take your possessions or take your benefits
.
Their choices are to harrass you with threatening phone calls and letters hoping you pay, ask a debt collection agency to try and get it for them or issue a court summons.

The harrassment is illegal, the debt collectors can only do as ptp can and that is harrass. The third way, a ccj, if they win, will mean they will probably get less per month than they would hope for as the court would want to see your income and expenditure and set a payment you could afford.

You should write to them and explain your situation and hope they see sense and work out an agreement with you that you can afford.

Whatever happens, do not agree to make payments that you know that you will not be able to meet. If they will not come to any agreement, send them what you can afford each week.

If you start to get phone calls, I would refuse to answer them unless you can tape the call.

[mich7k]

thank you for that, i asked them to wait until the 25 but they have been calling me this week even though they agreed to it. Do we have a uk address for them so i can write and make an offer in writing?

[Mrs_Ryan]

I had a load of grief with them which, to cut a long story short, was ENTIRELY their fault.

I threatened to blow their cover and basically expose them and they sent me the most brilliant grovelling, bum-licking email I have ever seen (I like to complain so I have seen several but none as brilliant as this) to add to the extreme bum-licking they gave me on the phone... just threaten that youre going to blow their cover and just sit back and watch

[Conniff]

wrong address.

[Conniff]

edited.

[Mrs_Ryan]

Hi Conniff, Payday UK are a totally separate company from this shower...

This is the only address they have I think

Northway Broker Limited
trading as Pounds Till Payday
Level 8 Suite 3,
Plaza Commercial Center,
Bisazza Street,
Sliema
SLM15, Malta

Phone:

08000 32 76 55

Fax:

08000 66 45 27

Email:

customercare@poundstillpa yday.co.uk

That doesnt actually sound like such a bad idea... it was a while ago I threatened to do it in which time they have upped my loan limit (hmmm... coincidence???) may just do it if I have any more grief with them!!! Daresnt tell them I've changed my name cos God knows what sort of mess they would make of it would probably be end up being known as Minnie Mouse or Wilma Flintstone

[Conniff]

Your right Mrs R. I clicked on the pounds till payday that came up in google but didn't notice when the site opened it was a diff com. Will edit it out.
Thks.

[Mrs_Ryan]

No problem

[Ocelot0411]

They do indeed have a UK address which is:-

Suite 39, Unit 4, Old Down Business Park, Emborough, Radstock BA3 4FG

Although I suspect this is more of a post box simply for the purposes of getting a UK credit licence. Mind you the Malta address is exactly the same because they are actually a Canadian company and only have a few staff in the Malta office. They farm out their 'customer service' to a company in Dublin which is who you get if you call the customer care line on the website, but the threatening calls come from either Canada or free lancers in the US.

Re enforcability, their credit agreement is a joke and they do not want to be bothered with taking you to court, its much easier to bully you by phone. After reporting them to the Financial Ombudsman they 'disappeared' and have never contacted me since. The trick is though to email the ombudman using the address on the website and cc them in so they can see a) that you have done it b) exactly what you have said.

OP if you want a copy of what I sent to the ombudsman I will forward it to you, I still have all of the email addresses, credit agreement etc. So if there is anything else I can do to help give me a shout. Despite their bully boy tactics they are actually pretty easy to get shot of if you go about it the right way. So relax

[borisbeaver]

Originally Posted by Ocelot0411

Suite 39, Unit 4, Old Down Business Park, Emborough, Radstock BA3 4FG

Care4mail Ltd
Old Down Business Park
Emborough
RADSTOCK
BA3 4FG

It's a mailbox.

If these people are offering credit, then surely then they cannot use a po box or <sarcastic mode=on>Suite<sarcastic mode=off>

[vickylm]

Hi all,
I am having similar problems with pounds till payday. They added a £69 charge to the account for late payment, when they did not try to get my repayment in the first place ( i had the funds in the account on the date due). I have explained to them that i cant afford to repay in full but will pay what i can afford, and they have refused to let me do this. They consistently called me at home, at work, and on my mobile, and left threatening answer phone messages on all of these numbers.

Since i contacted the Ombudsman (by email cc ptp in) they have offered to remove the charge but still insist that I pay the amount in full. They have, however, stopped ringing me. Any advice? I really dont know what to do -

Should i pay the amount in full? (which will leave me with little money) Should i proceed to ask the Ombudsman to investigate - and if so, can PTP pass the account to debt collectors if the Ombudsman is investigating?
Do you think they will resume persuing me for this money? (heard nothing for two or three weeks from them)?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Vicky

[Mrs_Ryan]

It never fails to amaze me the lengths this lot go to. The first time I made the mistake of getting tangled up with them they needed some info I didnt have on me, so I said I would call them back when I laid my hands on it.

Then my mum's brother died suddenly so I had to go back home, and they rung me the next day, somewhat rudely demanding the information! i was like hang on a minute, Ive not even had a loan from you yet, I dont owe you any money so why do you have to be so rude??? I then said that Im sorry, Ive had a family bereavement so please dont ring me till next week, they apologised and I gave them a date and time that would be best to call.

Lo and behold... they called the next day! i cut them off so they rang again...when I rang them back I was livid, saying I had very good reason to ask them not to call me and they ignored this and did anyway! If theyre like this when you dont owe them a penny, I really feel sorry for those of you who have had run-ins with them when you do owe money!

[mich7k]

hi all sorry i havent got back to you all just reading your emails, just checking which address to write to.

[mich7k]

hey ocelotto411 could you post what you sent to then pls much appreciated

[Ocelot0411]

Originally Posted by vickylm

Hi all,
Should i pay the amount in full? (which will leave me with little money) Should i proceed to ask the Ombudsman to investigate - and if so, can PTP pass the account to debt collectors if the Ombudsman is investigating?

Do you think they will resume persuing me for this money? (heard nothing for two or three weeks from them)?

Vicky

I wouldn't give them squat. Yes ask the Ombudsman to investigate, I have so that will be two strikes against them. I would strongly suspect they will not pursue you any further, as their agreement is more than likely unenforceable anyway. Either way though, let them make the next move. This may just take a bit of nerve but I am sure you will be victorious!

Re the mailbox thing, as I suspected! I will be passing this info on to the ombudsman.