I have a loan with greenwoods personal credit i pay £40.60 a week and it is leaving me with nothing i have to borrow money from family to buy food and things for my son then when i get my benefits i have to pay my family back and greenwoods again and again i have nothing i have really fell behind and don't know what to do! My agent will be here on friday and again i will have to give her £40.60 which again means i will need to borrow from someone else to get electricy and gas! I really wish i never took the loans in the first place, I am currently on income support and dla, Is there anything i can do i feel really bad

Contact Greenwoods direct and tell them you just cannot afford the repayments at this level and can they work with you to reduce them to an affordable level.

If you can't afford it you can't afford it and tell the agent that. He/she will give you some old toffee that if you don't pay, they don't get paid and that they will send the bailiff in, its all crap, they can't do anything without going to court first, and they will not do that, Greenwoods are Provident, legalised loan sharks, who steer well clear of the courts as they don't want their exstortionate interest rate aired in a public court.

Don't let them bully you in to paying what you can't afford or taking out a further loan to cover this one.

They prey on good people like yourself who have no access to mainstream lending.

Please don't let them intimidate you.

I just feel really bad and ashamed! The provident manager actually phoned me last week saying she was doing a promotion and offering all greenwoods customers a loan with them she offered me £300 saying she could bring it round the day after! I told her i would just leave it and she phoned again today! It's just a new greenwoods agent i've got and she was a bit huffy when i only offered £30 2 weeks ago! I can only imagine how she will react if i can't pay what i owe! It's the thought of her coming to my house , I really hate this but i honestly can't afford it and i know it's my own fault

Do not feel ashamed or guilty, we have all been in your position at some point, thats why were on here.

Nobody on here will judge you.

If you can't face the agent, go out or don't answer the door.

If you feel threatened in any way by the agents manner when they visit, call the Police.

You can't pay what you haven't got and your family and priority debts come first. THE PROVI is NOT a priority debt.

You will not get a criminal record and you will not be sent to prision, these are thing I have heard these agents tell customer that can't pay on the night.

Look after number one, these parasites need closing down permanately.

Even if they were stupid enough to go to court, they would have to win the case first and even then a Judge wouldn't award them more than a £1 a month if your on Income Support. Your DLA is not taken in to account, that is for your disability and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Did you even sign anything when you first got this loan?

Yes i signed paperwork, I think i'll go to my mums on friday cause i really don't think i speak to the agent! Would i need to phone the main office? Do you think it would be ok for my mum to contact them for me? Cause i get upset really easily i suffer severe anxiety and when trying to explain myself i get in a bit of a state so it's not easy for me to speak to people thats why i'm really worried about the agent , My mum doesn't know how much i owe and will probably be quite upset to that i've been leaving myself with nothing!

Call them on 0800 068 7761

You will have to initiate the call as they will do security checks, they may if you explain your health issues allow your mother to speak on your behalf if you give your permission, but this is at their descresion.

There is nothing to fear in calling them, you are simply ringing to reach a solution ammicable to both parties.

They will usually arrange for a manager to visit you, where you can come to some sort of arrangement. try and have someone sit in with you so they have heard everything that is said and agreed to.

They usual play ball, but don't agree to an amount you can not keep up with on a regular basis. Remember unlike other lenders there are no penalty charges for late/none or reduced payment. You usually pay this to their ****pot solicitors CK Edrupt. As long as you keep up the reduced payments you will have no more hassle.

If you get an unfavorable response to your request then pay a visit to the CAB, who will contact them on your behalf.

Whatever you choose to do is your call, but don't be bullied or intimidated by this company or its agents, some agents are very very helpful other are just tossers, like any other walk of life.

If a £1 a week is all you have to offer, thats all they get, but make sure you pay it every week. They will not like it but they have no option, take £1 a week off you or go to court and get £1 a month if the case isn't thrown out. Judges don't look favourably on creditors that waste the courts time, when payment has been offered or made. You see the picture here.

Stand your ground, once they have spouted the companies policies on non payment, they then start to listen. If you don't like what they say, just tell them you are going to seek advice from the CAB.

One final thing DONT PAY THEM £40.60 a week if you don't have it, no matter what they tell you is going to happen if you don't pay.

IT IS ALL CRAP - THEY CAN DO NOTHING - TAKE NOTHING - OR REMOVE ANY GOODS

DO NOT WORRY. Before you pay them a single penny make sure you've bought food, gas, electricity etc... your priority bills. If that leaves you with 50p, pay them 50p. The good thing about these loans is that usually they don't charge for late payments, so it really doesn't matter how long you take to pay it off. Don't be tempted by their offers to lend you more to pay it off and give you that little bit spare, it will ALWAYS make the situation worse.

Don't worry about your agent - tell her straight you can't pay this week or all you can pay is £2.00 or whatever, believe me - she'll be used to it.

Any more questions or worries, just post up, but don't feel the slightest bit guilty. They knew full well what they were doing when they lent you the money to start with.

if the agent did not carry out a full appraisal of your ability to make the repayments- that is his/her hard cheese

offer them token payments and tell them you do not want any further help from them

ask for an address to send payments to and tell them you do not want them calling at your home again for payments.

report them to the police if they ignore your request

also report them to the OFT and tell them that they keep offering you more money when you have already told them you cant afford it

DD, I'm not disagreeing with you, but having been in this situation I would say it depends how well you know you're personal agent. Ours lived just up the road in our local village and has become a family friend. If we ever got into difficulty she always covered for us, even at times negotiating six month payment breaks for us, then when we resumed paying just 25% of what we had been (and were supposed to be) paying.

then that's different obviously- it was just general advice

I appreciate that - and it was good advice. Often in smaller communities the people who have the loans know the collector quite well though, so in these cases it can be best to work with them.

Hi Tingy

Empathy with the enemy or agents of the enemy is dangerous to the OP in dire straights.

I think I'm merely disagreeing with your choice of language.

x

v

Not at all Vic, I agree. Only the OP knows how well they know their agent. In smaller communities they're often well known, in larger places obviously not. My wife still has a Provident loan (Saint Tingy has paid his - smug grin!!!!!!) and the collector knows us very well. She will do everything she can to help us if we need her to. The last one was similar to a female dog (a b1tch) and coulld not be trusted at all. It's a fine call and you're right to point this out. Thank you Madame Obiquitous!xxxxx

Hi Tingy

Notwithstanding a possible misinterpretation of the use of terminology as misogyny; for the avoidance of doubt, I still love you.

v

PS I went to a lecture on Shariah banking (backed by HSBC and Lloyds) today (events in Middle East etc) and a scholar put it thus; if there are 100 tons of gold in the world and you borrow it all at 10% pa, where does the extra 10 tons of gold come from when you repay it? I think this is comment on fiat currency (and I don't mean Fix It Again Tony). Anyway, back to the Prozac.

Oops! Messed that up didn't I! Love you too! xxx:-)

Soz T

Crossed timing.

Or put crudely as my A level Economics teacher did, if everybody in the world was to go and draw their money out of the bank, there wouldn't be enough money!