Hi,

I havent visited the forum for a while and hope you dont mind me "hijacking your thread" but as you are in the same boat as me I recieved the following email in regards to offering them a payment plan. Im assuming it isnt true what they are saying on the email in regards to the door step collections or Penalty charges??

Hi Craig,

Unfortunately we are unable to set up a payment plan for you, but you do need to make payments towards the account of what you can afford to help bring the balance down. Due to late payment you have to expect to pay some kind of penalty whether you have advised us of your situation or not but if you co-operate with me I am willing to negotiate about some of the fines on your account but I need your commitment and a payment to enable me to do this.

In regards to door to door collections, they are eligible to visit your address and do not need any permission or warrant to do this. We are able to use our door to door collections team and they are more than eligible to try and recover the full balance for us, and add on their own additional fees for making the visit. It is up to you if you want to co-operate. You have provided your work number as a contact number and we are eligible to attempt to contact you daily on all numbers you have provided to try and recover your debt. As you have an outstanding balance with us we have every right to do so and until an arrangement is made that is suitable for both of us or we receive the minimum payment (Interest) we will continue to contact you on all numbers provided as part of collections process.

Kind Regards

Nicola Coleman

Nicola Coleman

Get that email to the OFT and Trading Standards IMMEDIATELY, they are grossly inflating the debt, they CANNOT let the doorstep collectors charge 'their own level of fees' and they CANNOT send them round at will, completely breaches the OFT guidelines on debt collection.

Get the complaint in pronto.... they are way way out of line here, you have been trying to negotiate with them but they do not want to know.

COMPLAIN COMPLAIN COMPLAIN

Thanks, I shall get that sent to them tomorrow. My orignal debt was £270 which i owed them, since none payment it has gone to over £550, ive never once ignored the debt as im sure a lot of people havent, they just dont respond to emails, are they allowed to add such high fees, or penaltys as they call it??

My initial loan was 268, now its 500. 20 a month is all theyre getting. They can pass it to who they want.....Door to door collection, if they can get past the dog in one piece ill pay the full amount .

They are by miles the worse , everyone else is prepared to do some sort of negotiating.

Technically they are NOT allowed to add charge on charge on charge, they are SUPPOSED to allow you to negotiate, and based on the original loan amount plus one months interest seems more than fair considering the intended short term nature of the original loan.

They do like to try court now and again but are getting stung now people know how to defend themselves, (I've done several defences for PDL companies now and work on the basis of flawed particulars of claim, the loan history, their ultra high interest rate and charges and a plea for mediation - they do NOT want to explain their charges and interest rates in front of a judge). There is no real merit in going down the default notice route as it is not always advisable and some judges will automatically give judgement to the claimant if they see 'Default Notice' at the top of a defence. I also don't put in a lot of legal arguement as the person defending won't remember thecounter case law in court (some companies DO hire an expensive lawyer but fail on the basic arguement, high interest rate, short term nature of loan and unjust charges, not to mention onerous terms and conditions....

Thanks for your helpful comment, as I said this thread wasn't started by me so I don't want to turn it all about me but I'm assuming everyone is in the same boat and receiving the same lack of communication, should I start making a standing order for what I can afford to pay them (£30 a month starting 1st May) or should I wait? As I dont want to pay this if all there going to do Is cancel out my payments with charges, also do I just pay off the original balance in the region of £300 I think or will I now have to pay £550 with all there penaltys and charges?

The ;'rule of thumb' which has been succesful in court cases is the ORIGINAL LOAN AMOUNT plus ONE MONTHS INTEREST - any more is extortion. Just because their onerous terms and conditions state this and that does not mean that they are just. The ultra high interest rates alone do not justify all the additional charges.