I took a payday loan from Capital Finance One Ltd in July 2011. The loan was £200 and the total repayment was agreed at £278. I did not wish to pay £15 for same day 'faster payment' so the loan finally credited my account 2 days after being issued. The loan was issued on 4th July 2011 and I initially agreed to repay on 29th July 2011 when my salary was paid. On 21st July 2011, I emailed CFO to ask to change the repayment date from 29th July to 4th August 2011. I explained that I had paid interest for a full month and repayment on 4th August 2011 would, therefore, still be within the agreed 'one month' time limit. CFO did not respond until 29th July 2011 when they emailed a 3 lined message to tell me that I had 'defaulted' on the agreement. I immediately replied with a full explanation that I had not defaulted. CFO emailed the same message on 3rd August 2011 and on 4th August 2011, when I fully expected CFO to debit £278 and close the agreement, CFO took £128 which they said was 'charges for 3 defaults'. Emails were traded back and forth. I disputed these charges and even pointed out that the notices they sent me to notify of my alleged 'defaults' were completely invalid and did not comply with the Consumer Credit Act stipulations. I ordered CFO not to take any further monies until we had resolved the dispute. I also gave written cancellation for any authorisation CFO may have had to 'CPA' my account. ie not to debit what they wanted - when they wanted - without the need to inform me or seek my approval. CFO then debited 3 x £25's from my bank without my approval or authorisation. I wrote to CFO to say that they had now taken £203 and had taken £75 unlawfully. I told them that the agreement was in my opinion 'settled and closed'. CFO wrote to me once more to state that I still owed them £200 (how they calculated this figure, I don't know...) and that they would report to credit agencies that I was 'in default'. In April 2014, I made a payday loan application for £200 from CFO Lending Limited. I didn't know that Capital Finance One Ltd had changed their name in 2012, but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have a pretty good idea that they were one and the same company! However, I was skint and had repaid £203 for the £200 loan in 2011. My application was rejected immediately. I had 'ticked' the box which denied CFO Lending to keep for themselves or pass on my personal details. I had submitted details of my new Nationwide Building Society (set up in 2013) account as part of the loan application. I had to give my debit card details so that, if successful, the loan could be collected from a named account. When rejected, these details should have instantly been erased by CFO Lending. However, CFO Lending waited until 11th June 2014 and made 5 separate debits from my bank for a total of £495.65. It took me a day to put the pieces together with the help of my bank 'visa dispute' team. I could not believe that CFO Lending had used information (which had only been submitted as part of a failed loan application and should have been deleted) to take £495.65 from my bank account without any authorisation, approval or even notification. I spoke at length to Ms Susie McKenzie in CFO Collections who said she would get back to me quickly. I had to wait nearly a week before I received a formal response. CFO stated that all of the debited money was to repay the outstanding loan from July 2011. CFO Lending had already taken £203 from my account in 2011. The last email they sent in 2011 told me that I 'still owed £200' (which I disputed completely). CFO had taken a further £495.65 on 11th June 2014. Therefore, CFO claimed that my £200 payday loan cost £698.65 to repay! CFO Lending claimed that the bank details which I had submitted as part of a rejected loan application to them in April 2014 could be used by them to recover any monies relating to the agreement we had in July 2011. They claimed that the Continuous Payment Authority set out in the 2011 contract justified this. I spent hours in collecting every email and document relating to my dealings with CFO from 2011 onwards. My response included a copy of the vital email which I sent to CFO on 24th August 2011 in which I ordered them to 'stop taking any further money from my account until the dispute is resolved satisfactorily. Any authority which Capital Finance One may have had is cancelled with immediate effect. You (CFO) have taken much more money than we agreed. Do not debit any more money from my bank'. I also set out why their defaults were invalid and why these huge charges could not be applied as they were never discussed or explained at the outset. I have a very strong and complete argument as to why CFO's actions are unlawful and why they must return all monies taken AFTER I cancelled the CPA and ordered that they make no more transactions on my account. CFO has failed to respond to this letter or any of the 6 I have sent them since. I sent a 'Final Demand' and they have not met the requirements within. Nationwide Building Society is investigating these transactions as 'fraudulent'. I have been able to make a formal complaint to 'Action Fraud'. Nationwide has advised me that THEY will report to the Police as this is their responsibility. I must now make a claim for the money using the CCMCC (county court money claims centre). I am determined to make the most of this opportunity to show the public just how payday lenders work. My case is very strong and legally sound. However, I am afraid that I will slip up in its execution by making an administrative or process error. Thus enabling CFO Lending's solicitors to have the claim 'dismissed' on a technical point. I have been 100% honest and open in my account of this matter. I have had to use a payday loan company because my credit history is not great. I did know that they have a reputation for difficulties. I repaid £203 for the £200 loan in 2011. I know that I should have patiently resolved the dispute then and paid off the remaining £75. CFO Lending still doesn't have the right to treat any customer like this. This 'CPA' justification is wrong and is completely unfair and dangerous. I want to make payday lenders change their working practices with this claim. I am not pretending to be Florence Nightingale. I have credit problems but I should not have to repay £700 for a loan of £200 - this is wrong. So, if anyone out there could please offer practical or legal advice which will help me make my claim more effective, then please get in touch. If you need any further information, let me know.

Hi I'm looking for some clear advise on how to deal with the Cheque Centre. I have a lot of debt and I've recently been in touch with Pay Plan and I'm going on a DMP to deal with this but Cheque Centre seem to be more complicated than that.I got a text that said my account had been passed to the Sheriff Court to be raised for legal action an should I wish to avoid this I should call them. Which I have done. Now when I first started trying to get my finances in order, I emailed them and offered £10.00 a month to start with as I have very little money, they said no to this and then asked why I was unable to pay them back all of a sudden because I'd been a good customer for a long time. I emailed back and told them about splitting up with my partner etc and then I never got another email from them again.I just got the text yesterday and spoke to a member of the legal team today. He bombarded me with a lot of information about, being served papers to attend court at my workplace, how my employer would proabably dicpline me for this and lots of other information I'm unsre about. He said Pay Plan can't help because of the legal action that's being started and that if I made a token payment, he could stop the legal action for a couple of weeks until I sent him an expenditure form back that he's going to send me. Now I've told a couple of lies to him which I'm a little worried about. 1) I've moved house since I took out my loan with them and I haven't told them this as I'm terrified they'll come to my new address and 2) I have two bank accounts now and I gave him payment of £1 from the one I no longer use, because I don't want them arresting my wages but I told him it was my main account, again all due to fear I'm afraid. Now I'm worried that I won't get the expenditure form to send back to them now as he's sending it to my old address (I did ask him to send it to my work but he refused) and it's all going to get worse. Sorry for being a big moan, just not very good with all this money stuff, especially when it all starts to get legal. I've been a fool but I will never be again!!

Hi All, I'm new on here and I am really pleased I have found the site...I have got into problems with payday loans and other debts and I am in the process of doing the right thing and setting up a debt management plan with the consumer credit counselling service, however one of the payday lenders - 1st stop pay day - are saying I signed up saying I would not enter a debt management plan. I just wondered where I stood with this, can the enforce this? I could understand if it was with one of the shark like debt management companies but this is a charity and they don't take fees so they will get all the money I can afford to pay? Just wondered if anyone had come across this any help would be really really appreciated!

Hi all, I've been a long time reader of this site and similar sites regarding the effects payday loan companies have had on us all and I just want to add my story. My problems with payday loans all started about 16 months ago when I needed an operation and was put on sick leave from work. Going from a decent salary (£1500pm) to sick pay totalling about £300pm altogether meant I struggled to cope for a long time financially and resorted to pay day loans just to cover my rent and food bills. Eventually things spiralled out of control with me needing to take more and more loans out to cover the repayments until I had 8 loans out totalling £2300 on just the capital alone, with interest on these loans coming up to circa £700! I struggled to defer these loans for as long as possible to keep my pride and avoid defaulting but in the end it just became too much of a burden and I made the decision 9 months ago to default on all loans. I changed my bank accounts, cancelled my cards and made the calls to arrange payment plans with all of the companies I had loans with. It was a struggle, and some companies were more willing than others to accept payment plans but I eventually got them all to agree. I've had to live off the basics for these past few months, and almost have a non-existant social life, but I've managed to turn my life around and in three months all my debts to these companies will be clear!! This is just a message to say that even when things look tough you can find the strength to sort out your finances and now I'm looking forward to a brighter future, and will make sure I never make the same mistakes again when it comes to my finances. Thank you.