Hi there!

Looking for some urgent help,

while in a financial mess my partner took out a payday loan from Clear Account about 3months ago, for £120.

When unable to pay it back he didnt cancel the CPA (I did tell him to!) but he just made sure all of his wages weren't available for them to take.

This morning, he didnt manage it, and they have completely emptied his bank account for over £500,

the bank have been totally unhelpful, even though I would say this payment as being unauthorised

(they have not contacted him in any way apart from a few texts to say they coudlnt take the money this time)

, and has left us in total financial ruin for the rest of the month, we don't even have the money to pay our rent.

Clear Account have also NOT at any time told him he now owes £500, if this is even correct. Please help!!

The first step (as you probably already know) is to cancel the CPA and withdraw your consent for anymore payments to this company.

My understanding is that, even though the payments to this company may still be taken out of your account,

because you have withdrawn your consent the bank must refund you immediately.

So at least you shouldn't be left out of pocket for the whole month.

Trying to get back the money already taken will probably be more difficult. I think technically, the payment is NOT unauthorised because you partner consented to the payment presumably by giving this company the details of his card and he then didn't withdraw his consent in time.

I don't think you can put the bank at fault for this either. There is no easy way to say this, but if your partner (and possibly yourself) takes some responsibility for this then maybe you can start to address these financial issues. It could be worth creating a thread on one of the debt subforums as I'm sure somebody will be helpfully in identifying ways for you to save some extra money each month.

Also, what do you mean by when you that the bank texted to say "they coudlnt take the money this time"?

EDIT: Either I'm going crazy or somebody has helpfully moved this thread to the debt forums because I'm sure it wasn't here to begin with. I also think somebody else is subtly editing my posts :S

GENERAL NOTES ON CHARGEBACK & CPA

.....

We have been telling people to put a letter into their bank instructing them not to make any payments under any circumstances to these companie

.

http://whatconsumer.co.uk/visa-debit-chargeback/- it works!

.

banks MUST follow written intructions from their customers !

.

This fsa guide has now been updated:

.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/consumer_...ghts_guide.pdf

.

Here's the text:

.

Cancelling a regular

card payment:

.

When you give your credit or debit card details to a company and authorise them to take regular payments from your account,

such as for a gym membership or magazine subscription,

it is known as a ‘recurring transaction’ or ‘continuous payment authority’.

.

These are often confused with direct debits, but do not offer the same guarantee if the amount or date of the payment changes.

.

In most cases, regular payments can be cancelled by telling the company taking the payments.

.

However,

y.ou have the right to cancel them directly with your bank or card issuer by telling it that you have stopped permission for the payments.

Your bank or card issuer must then stop them – it has no right to insist that you agree this first with the company taking the payments.

.

Be aware, though, that you will still be responsible for paying any money that you owe.

.

see: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?336569-How-to-remove-a-lender-s-continuous-payment-authority(2-Viewing)-nbsp

.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/consumerinformation/product_news/banking/know_your_rights/solving/index.shtml

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http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/feb/24/continuous-payments-authority-know-your-rights?newsfeed=true

..

.

New june 2013

.

Regulator orders Banks and mutuals to review complaints about not cancelling recurring payments from November 2009.

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Consumers who have set up a regular payment from their account will now be able to successfully cancel that arrangement

by contacting their card provider, the Financial Conduct Authority said.

.

The FCA has been examining how easy it is for customers to cancel Continuous Payment Authorities (CPAs)

due either to payday lendersicon or for other regular payments such as subscriptions or gymicon memberships.

.

CPAs, which are also commonly called recurring transactions or recurring payments,

are relatively easy to set up but can be hard to cancel, causing problems for consumers trying to manage their finances,the FCA said.

.

Now, following the FCA review of how the largest high street banks and mutuals process requests to cancel CPAs, they have agreed that they will ensure that when a customer asks for a recurring payment to end, that will be sufficient to cancel the arrangement. They have also confirmed that should a payment go through by mistake following cancellation by a customer the customer will be refunded immediately.

.

In addition to securing this commitment, the largest banks and mutuals have agreed to review every individual complaint they have received about the non-cancellation of a CPA and to pay redress where payments have continued to be made despite the customer cancelling the arrangement. This applies to all complaints since November 2009 when the Financial Services Authority, the FCA’s predecessor, began regulating banking conduct.

.

Clive Adamson, the FCA’s director of supervision, said: “It’s important that consumers are confident that banks are meeting their everyday banking needs. Today customers can be confident that when they ask for a Continuous Payment Authority to be cancelled – it will be cancelled - and that it can be done easily.

.

“We recognise that historically this is an area where some customers have struggled but the banks and mutuals have responded positively to our work on this issue. From now on we expect them to be getting this right. In addition, they have committed to review past complaints.”

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http://www.ftadviser.com/2013/06/28/regulation/regulators/fca-banks-have-to-cancel-recurring-payments-if-requested-UxbeHUuYQIy0SEYbGRE4tJ/article.html

.

Also mentioned your displeasure that as whomever took your money had obviously attempted this many times

probably activating your banks own anti fraud software - nobody had the decency to inform my you this was going on.?

.In the FSA's own words:

.

..

What should I do about a

payment from my account

that I didn’t authorise?

.

Your bank must refund an unauthorised

transaction. Money can only be

taken from your account if you have

authorised the transaction or if your

bank can prove you were at fault –

see below.

Contact your bank immediately if you

notice an unauthorised payment from

your account. If you are sure you did not

authorise the payment, you can claim

a refund. However, your bank does not

have to refund you if you do not tell it

about the payment until 13 months or

more after the date it left your account.

.

Your bank must refund an unauthorised transaction

.

------------------

.

Your bank may only refuse a refund

for an unauthorised transaction if:

.

? it can prove you authorised the

transaction – though your bank

cannot simply say that use of your

password, card and PIN proves you

authorised a payment; or

? it can prove you are at fault because

you acted fraudulently, or because

you deliberately, or with gross

negligence, failed to protect the

details of your card, PIN or password

in a way that allowed the transaction

.

-----------------------

.

How quickly must my

bank refund me for an

unauthorised transaction?

.

The bank must make the refund

immediately unless it has evidence

that one of the above reasons applies.

Your bank may ask you to answer

some questions and fill out a form

confirming what has happened, but it

cannot delay your refund while it waits

for you to return the form. If the bank has

evidence that one of the above reasons

for refusing a refund applies, it may

investigate before making a refund but

must look into it as quickly as possible.

If your bank rejects your claim for a

refund it should explain why.

If the transaction was on a credit

card, the refund may not happen

immediately. But the card issuer

cannot charge interesticon or ask for

repayment of the amount unless it can

prove you are liable to pay

[/b]

These are your statutory rights under FSA regulations. They are not guidance.

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies, really helpful.

Sorry, I mean on the numerous times they have attempted to collect payment

when they have failed they sedt a message to say 'We have been unable to collect payment'.

They also state in their T's&C's they will never take money from your account without telling you first,

and as I mentioned before he is unaware how they can possibly be saying the amount due was as much as over £500,

the loan was £120 about 3 months ago,

they have made no contact with him other than the failed payment texts

- and the interest is £1 a day per £100!

On this basis, do you reckon he is justified in instructing a chargeback?

I don't want him to do it and be refunded for the bank to take the money back next month, we would be as well to lose out now!Thank you

If the transaction is unauthorised then yes. A full chargeback should be given immediately.

I think clear account are slightly different though because you have to give them direct access to your online banking account, so I'm not sure it would be a CPA?

you DONT!! never ever do that.

dx

Hi lucysmummyx,

Your account isn't open to PMs - I came across this and wanted to get your advice on something with your experience of clearaccount, could you message me? Thanks

Keep it to the main forum if you need advice. No need to pm people. Especially when you are a brand neww poster.

Besides, you wouldn't be able to send pms anyway.