Hope this is in the right place

Has anyone dealt with this company?

A family friend signed up with Loan-Options.net recently and had £64.75 debited from his bank account.

(£34.75 registration fee and £30 (£1 per day for 30 days) membership fees.

They appear to offer access to payday loans and other services but deny they are Credit Brokers or intermediaries.

Immediately this was discovered we emailed the company and cancelled the "membership" and asked for a refund.

The company refused a full refund and only offered a refund of the 30 day membership fee.

I phoned the company and spoke to "Megan".

I stated that as we were cancelling within their 14 day cooling off period we wanted a full refund less the maximum £5 they were allowed to take under Regulation 155 of the Consumer Credit Act.

Megan denied that they offered a 14 day cooling off period and didn't comment when I pointed out that I had a copy of their T&C's in front of me which clearly states:-

"Cancellation Rights

Being as this contract is a service contract for a membership scheme We offer a 14 day ‘cooling off’ period during which time You may cancel the agreement: Services are provided immediately following signup meaning cancellation within 14 days will result in a reasonable service charge being applied.

Refunds are calculated on a pro-rata basis depending on the number of days membership used - £34.76 Setup Fee plus £1.00 per day of membership".

I asked to speak to someone higher up the tree and was put through to "Josh" an accounts manager.

This account manager in response to my attempts to get a refund responded as follows,

"We are not brokers and therefore not covered by the Consumer Credit act.

Therefore we do not have to comply with Section 155 of the Act.

Our refund policy is as stated in our T&C's."

I pointed out that surely the point of a cooling off period is that the customer can change his mind within that period and receive a refund.

He offered a further £5.

I asked for his surname

He replied that he doesn't divulge that information.

I suggested that they may not be brokers but they were credit intermediaries and therefore must be covered by the CCA.

(I think that they should have a least a Category C license)

He replied "No"

Their website home page gives a consumer credit license number so surely they must abide by the CCA and give a full refund less £5?

Any advice on how to proceed to get a full refund appreciated

Finally what do you make of this extract from their T&C's?

"In the event that any of these terms (each of which is severable) is for any reason illegal, invalid or unenforceable, such provision is to be deemed modified sufficiently to render it enforceable, legal and valid and of similar effect as We intended. Apart from provisions expressly covering associate companies, nothing in these terms is enforceable by anyone who is not a party to them."

in regards to loan options and most other companies ,

there is a way to get round their fee charges ,

now most of these companies don't make it clear on the website ,

that there will be a fee taken , but it can take up to 62 days to take their fees from your account,

all these companies are are brokers ,

they will send you links like shopacheck and sunny and so on ,

but its just as easy for you to do it yourself ,

rather than ring up ranting to the customer advisor how u have had all your money taken

from your accounts because of the fees charged ,

just go straight to your bank and do a chargeback ,

dont mention fraudulent activity because 95% of the time it really does not help you ,

just go straight in with a chargeback for an unauthorised payment taken,

that way u will get all your money back ,

not have to wait and go through a procedure to get it ,

and it finally makes the company look bad if all these chargebacks are going to their company

what i suggested earlier is this - only go for the chargeback if u have just noticed the funds taken from your account , dont mention to ur bank u have applied on line for a loan , as they will tell you that i need to follow the procedures of the company to get it bk , and therefore u will incur adminicon fees and charges from the company for so called keeping the account open ( its a delay tactic really on there part) even if u rung up to complain to the company tell them u are going straight to ur bank to do a chargeback and 99% of the time they will refund u within 7 days with a full refund to it works