I have 9 outstanding payday loans totaling £4000 (stupid yes) I have been juggling them all successfully for about a year. Then christmas wiped me out and I've juggled just about until this month when I thought enough is enough. I have managed to contact them all, with some accepting a repayment plan and 2 have not replied, but mini credit blatantly refuse to set up a payment plan:

If You do not have the funds to make a full repayment on the due date, please use the roll-over possibility on Your Minicredit.co.uk online account. You can apply for the roll-over soonest 3 days before the due date and latest on the due date.

We do provide the option to make partly payments of any amount on Your MiniCredit.co.uk online account 24/7 starting from the 3rd day overdue. We accept all payments You make on Your MiniCredit.co.uk account, but we do not set up payment plans because the option to make partly payments is provided 24/7. All the overdue charges and interest  will be added daily until full repayment, we do not have the option to freeze the balance according to the Loan agreement and the Loan should be cleared by the 90th day overdue to avoid Legal action.

All payments have to be made by a debit card according to the Loan Agreement. The possibility to make payments using a different debit card once only is provided on Your MiniCredit.co.uk account. If You do not have a debit card to use to make the payments please learn more about the option how to use Ukash vouchers on Your MiniCredit.co.uk online account.

Kind regards

MiniCredit.co.uk

Client Support Team

I do not have a debit card as it was "lost" which is why they have added that to their reply. I told them I would be making a complaint to the FOS and OFT and they told me to use their complaints part of the website which I did explaining that

1. I had informed them before I missed a payment

2. Offered a resonable amount of £50pcm to pay off a £250 loan plus one months interest, a fair sum.

3. Informed them my card was lost so did not have a debit facility

4 Offered to pay the amount immediatly on the due date via faster payment bank transfer if they would provide me with their bank details (as other payday loan companies have willingly done for me).

5. Explained as I work long hours I do not have time to do this Ukash thing they are asking for to make a payment.

6 Requested all interest and charges be frozen

7 I am a loyal customer and have been for the past year and have always paid on time and either in full or the rollover payment.

8 I feel I am being treated unfairly

I have put it better than that but I just thought I'd bullet point it as it's a bit longer. I have sent it to the complaints department at minicredit [email protected]

and they will get back to me within 5 days they say. Looking at the threads on here I dont hold out much hope.

I dont know what else to do, do I send a copy of my complaint to the OFT and FOS?

PS I have copied and pasted the response in itallic from minicredit, they aren't my spelling and grammar mistakes (which I make plenty of) however for a company dealing in money I would have hoped they knew that it's partial payment, not partly payment. Surely with all they money they make they could afford to have spell check on their emails.

They have now sent me a default notice. Will that appear on my credit file. I will go mental if it does.

Minicredits response to my complaint:

The Following Final Response is being sent to You according to the Formal Complaints Procedure described in the pre-Contract.

Microcredit Ltd provides short term payday loans. The Customer chooses the due date him/herself and it is also possible to apply for the roll-over latest on the due date and keep the loan for another period of time if the credit check result allows You to. The Loan Agreement was signed by Yourself and sent to the e-mail address You entered on our webpage during the registration. According to the Loan Agreement You have to make all payments with a debit card and the only possibility to make payments is available on Your MiniCredit.co.uk online account.

We accept all payments You make and may provide You up to 90 days from the due date to clear the balance before Legal action is started. All the overdue charges and interest have been added to the balance according to the Loan Agreement and will be added until full repayment.

The following information has been taken from the Loan Agreement:

KEY INFORMATION

If you break this Agreement, we will charge you if we unsuccessfully attempt to obtain repayment on the due date for repayment. A fee of GBP25 will be charged on the day that your missed payment was due. If we unsuccessfully attempt to obtain repayment on the due date, we will attempt to obtain repayment a second time 2 days later, and if we unsuccessfully attempt to obtain repayment on this second occasion we will charge you a further amount of GBP55.

Interest on any sum in arrears will be charged at the contractual rate, both before and after judgment, until payment. Also, you must pay us all other reasonable costs and expenses we incur (including any legal costs on a full indemnity basis) in tracing you, or enforcing, or attempting to enforce, our rights under this Agreement.

Repayment, Default and Recovery

8. You agree to make all payments to us under this Agreement at the proper time. We will collect payments by debiting your bank account using the debit card details you have registered with us up to three times per day. You authorise us to debit your bank account to collect payments due under this Agreement. If we are unsuccessful in collecting payment, we may try to debit your bank account again at a later stage until we have successfully collected payment. If you have provided us with details of a second debit card and we are unsuccessful in collecting payment from the first debit card, you authorise us to seek payment via the second debit card in the same way as you authorise us to seek payment via the first debit card. You must give us new valid debit card details when you cancel, lose or your debit card(s) registered with us become(s) invalid when you have unpaid loan with us.

You may find the partly repayment possibility on Your MiniCredit.co.uk online account 24/7 and use it for payments of any amount from the 3rd overdue day. You accepted the Loan Agreement and therefore also the charges that have been added according to it.

As You are asking for the possibility for being able to make partly payments we would like to refer You to the "Repayment" possibility on Your on-line account.

Microcredit Ltd does not forward Your account to a third party collection agency within 90 days from the due date and our own Debt Recovery department will deal with the issue instead. On the 90th day overdue we will start Legal proceedings against You.

Please read more about Your responsibility to make sure that the debit card details are up to date from Your Loan Agreement that is available on Your MiniCredit.co.uk account. The partly payments can also be made with Ukash vouchers.

We are also willing to consider the possibility of a settlement figure if it is reasonable and paid in full. Please contact our Customer Support on the number 08718903015 when You have funds available to offer as full and final settlement. If the settlement is agreed, the payment has to be made with a debit card immediately.

We hope this response has sufficiently answered your questions. If not, please do not send another email. Instead, reply to this email.

Kind regards,

Minicredit Claims Department

My response from the OFT, I did tell them I was only reporting them and was putting my complaint to FOS as well. Bless them they got the date wrong, I sent the email on 29th Feb 2012, but easy done lol.

Thank you for your email received on 29 February 2011.

I can confirm that the business you mention holds a consumer credit licence. Under the Consumer Credit Act, holders of consumer credit licences must be fit and competent to do so and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has a duty to monitor the fitness and conduct of all traders who hold such a licence.

The OFT has issued guidance to consumer credit licence holders engaged in the debt collection industry. The guidance is intended to ensure that debt collectors treat individuals fairly. Non-compliance with this guidance will call into question the fitness of licence holders and applicants. You can view our guidance at:www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/cca/debt-collection

We have therefore recorded the details of your complaint, and we will consider this alongside any other complaints we have received with a view to any consumer credit licensing or other action we may decide to take. If we do take any action against this trader we may need to contact you again in the future. Unfortunately, we cannot disclose any details about any action we may take, due to legal restrictions on the OFT relating to disclosure of information.

While we are very sorry to hear about the difficulties you have been experiencing, the OFT has no authority to become involved in individual disputes between consumers and traders so we cannot advise you directly in this matter.

The Financial Ombudsman Servicecan help with most complaints about consumer credit products and servicesif the consumer has failed to satisfactorily resolve the matter directly with the consumer credit licensee itself.The Financial Ombudsman Service can be contacted at:

The Financial Ombudsman Service

SouthQuay Plaza

183 Marsh Wall

London

E14 9SR

Telephone: 0800 0234 567

The OFT has published a consumer guide about debt collection which you may find helpful. The guide can be viewed on the OFT’s website: http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/consumer_leaflets/credit/oft1299.pdf

Well I did warn Minicredit I'd report them.

Even after all this pants with the OFT and Minicredits pathetic reply to the Beeb, Minicredit still refuse to reply to my letters and my emails.

Jelly 1001, Following yoru complaint to OFT, have you complained to FOS yet? Likewise, BrownEggs?

Yes I have complained to the fos but I've only had an acknowledgment so far.

I made a full and final settlement offer to minicredit, I recently got money from my employer from an unfair pay case. Anyway I offered them the amount borrowed plus one months interest. They refused. I paid it to them anyway online. The loan was 13 days late and they have added 200 in charges. They refuse to acknowledge it as a full and final settlement and I am now going to ignore them. They want me to ring their number and negotiate a settlement figure. I have now refused this as I have already paid what I owe and have told them I refuse to pay their unfair charges.

Mini credit said I had to phone their hotline to arrange a full and final settlement. I emailed them back to say the amount has been paid and I will not phone them. They wrote back saying they would not consider anything until I phoned them. So I called the number they provided, they said they would reduce the fees to £175 (for now being 19 days late) I said how much is it with out the charges, they said I had to pay the charges. I asked if I had paid the amount owed. They said I had paid £255 of the £250 loan, I said what about the payment befre that of £50, she said nothing. I said I wouldn't talk to her anymore and hung up. I then emailed minicredit back and told them i had settled in full as far as I was concerned and I would not be paying them anything else. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what they do from here. I am also writting to their CEO to make a complaint.

Jelly1001,

Well played hanging up, did you record the call? If not, i'd suggest in future you do so as it's clear these cowboys have the ability to "forget" calls being made. Good call writing to the CEO, ensure you keep the OFT, FOS and Trading Standards informed of their refusal to deal with you in writing also.

Well Mini credit are now writting to me:

Amount overdue £312.81

Debt recovery costs £100.00

TOTAL BALANCE DUE £412.81

Despite all our efforts you have chosen not to settle our above outstanding account.

We have no alternative but to escalate the matter. If full payment is not made by close of business on

the 9th April 2012 the matter will be referred to our doorstep collection agent to recover this debt

as they see fit.

To avoid further unnecessary costs please ensure payment is senrby return.

NB! To repay your loan by card please log in to Your www.minicredit.co.uk account.

Repay your loan by cash! -Read more www.minicredit.co.uk

Yours faithfully

Minicredit.co.uk

Debt Recovery

0871 890 3015

www.minicredit.co.uk/contact

I am furious with them. I have now emailed them a copy of this letter with the following:

Dear Sir/Madam

Please find attached a copy of your letter and note my response.

Please be advised that I will only communicate with you in writing. I have noted your repeated attempts to contact me by telephone over the past few weeks/months and these have been duly logged by time and date.

Furthermore, should it be your intention to arrange a “doorstep call”, please be advised that under OFT rules, you can only visit me at my home if you make an appointment and I have no wish to make such an appointment with you.

There is only an implied license under English Common Law for people to be able to visit me on my property without express permission; the postman and people asking for directions etc (Armstrong v Sheppard & Short Ltd [1959] 2 QB 384. per Lord Evershed M.R.). Therefore take note that I revoke license under Common Law for you, or your representatives to visit me at my property and, if you do so, you will be liable to damages for a tort of trespass and action will be taken, including but not limited to, police attendance.

The debt has been paid in full. I have repaid the outstanding balance and 1 months interest. I refuse to pay the charges you have applied to my account as these charges are unfair, excessive and causing financial hardship. I paid the balance within 14 days of missing the payment date. To then add on £412.81 in charges is rediculous.

I await your court papers should you wish to prove your charges are enforceable in a court of law. Anything other than court papers will be ignored. If the debt is passed to a debt collection agency these will be replied to in the same manor. If a negative mark is applied to my credit file I shall serve court papers against you of my own. I hope you now agree the account is settled in full and I shall have no further letters from yourselves.

regards

They are literally driving me insane. I paid them, I was 2 weeks late. I tried everything to arrange a payment plan and they just charge me daily interest. I'm so angry I want to go there and scream in their faces

You're falling into their trap. They are trying to bully and harass you into paying more money. The good thing is IF they take you to court, you can easily submit a simple defense, the PDL will get scared and try and settle out of court. If that happens, make sure to force them to send a representative to the court and demand your time in front of a judge.

You have done everything right so far. Minicredit however are simply pushing their luck.

Thank you renegadeimp, this company is insane, I had a few payday loans and these were the only ones who are a nightmare

To be honest, if i was in your shoes, i would let them take me to court, and i would submit a full defense against the entire charge. That way, you are forcing the PDL into court to explain the extortionate charges, and the lack of cooperation under OFT and FOS regulations, along with the bullying and harassing threats of sending someone to your house.

The reason i say this is because when i was in debt a few years ago, i had a full defense against 3 companies in court and 2 companies had to send someone from scotland and cornwall. The others simply didnt appear and i won by default. The DCA's that did turn up had one hell of a time explaining the charges and as such, pretty much all charges were wiped from the debt and i was only told to pay the initial debt at a rate of £15 a month. That was much better than the £125 the DCA was trying to demand. After a few months, the DCA got fed up and told me to pay £50 - £100 to consider the debt fully closed. ( i still had close to £500 to pay on them)

I have just sent the FOS a further 18 pages of emails back and fore with minicredit, I have emailed their CEO and I think i will just wait and see what they do now. I cant believe a company can do business this way.

As ive said before. They exploit a loophole in the law to exist. The OFT/FOS and an MP is currently investigating them in hopes to close all the loopholes in the law.