more payday loan help please!!! ***

[mjc007.5]

Hello Petal9 and welcome to CAG

 

T2 is way to kind to me - although the bit about being a thoroughly nice cagger is 100% correct!

 

Already some good advice from Mrs Weatherwax and plum fairy - if any of what follows duplicates my apologies.

 

(1) As has already been said - do not beat yourself up about it. Very easy to say, but this is absolutely the best place to start (you will think far more clearly and their tactics will have less of an impact on you). I have been to a very dark place indeed with these firms but once I had the lightbulb moment and accepted that I could not change past actions, that I was doing the right thing (for both myself and these sharks!) by refusing to continue to pay the "extension/roll over/income stream...." and attempting to repay what was legally owed instead, I have got on the path to sorting it all out!

 

Even if we suspend reality for a moment (which these firms are all good at ) and accept that you owe Wonga £1300 the total in your post if none of it were challenged in any way and was all completely enforceable, would be £2248. They will all huff and puff, try and make this amount seem 100 times bigger, threaten all kinds of dark things but in the absolute majority of cases this will be exactly that - hot air and threats designed to either intimidate you into doing what you are told or prevent you from standing up for yourself.

 

(2) Most important first practical step is a parachute account - preferably with a completely different banking group to that which you have now (in order to guard against any bank related debts and the impact they have to a "right of offset"). If you do not do this they will drain your salary as soon as it arrives - many or all of those in this sector have a proven track record of this (Hopefully you have already done this as per the post from Mrs Weatherwax).

 

(3) Next you will need to report your debit card as lost or stolen. Best to replace with simple debit card (ie no cheque guarantee facility) if possible. There are many perfectly serviceable accounts out there. These firms will try any and all devious means you can think of (and some that you cannot) to access your account and drain funds. The banking system will allow them to do this!!!

 

(4) Again agree with Mrs Weathewax. Sit down and work out realistic repayment offer to each that you can afford. You sound like you have already had some success with this, if not already aware then use the info on any of the debt charity sites (nationaldebtline, payplan or cccs). If you can work out complete I & E (even with their help) and pro-rata offers then this is what the courts would offer to them if it ever got that far. (There is another way to handle these firms which involves snowballing - so if I take your first post correctly you have x4 outstanding debts of this kind and £40 per month each to pay them of so £160 in total. This approach basically involves paying all the larger three as little as possible with the majority going to the smallest so you pay it off in the shortest time. Using this route you could be rid of PTPs £198 within two months or so, then you move the money up to Payday express and so on. This did not work for me as I was to heavily exposed to these firms but it can work in some cases)

 

(5) Now prepare for the forthcoming barrage of harrassing calls - and they will come. If you can pre-empt them with either a second line into the house that is only yours or a VOIP type service like SKYPE then all the better, If not send them the telephone harrassment letter from this site (I have thrown this together with the "doorstep visit" template for debt collection agencies) - link already kindly provided by Mrs Weatherwax. For your mobile number, set them all up with recognisable ring tone and proceed to ignore (I have the imperial death march from Star Wars, amend to suit)

 

(6) Send your harrassment letter (I would recommend merging the telephone and doorstep visit templates to suit, one letter for the main two concerns most of us have and they play on ) together with offer letter to each of them. Your offer letter should also request that charges/interest are at suspended (you can challenge this together with alleged balances at a later point). If by post, recorded delivery. If you have email contacts then this is okay.

 

(7) Whatever follows stick to what you have offered - as you have worked this out to be genuinely affordable they would not get more with court action and eventually most will see this to be true and fall into line

 

(8) Those that you agree a plan with, including a level of balance and charges that you are comfortable with, continue repayments and all is well.

 

(9) Those that you cannot agree a plan with and/or pass to DCA. Depends on your personal preference and available time (there is no one size fits all solution unfortunately!). It will be worth going on the offensive with these firms - CCA request, complaints (OFT, consumer direct, companies house if liscensing or other issues - ignore BCCA or FLA, they are pointless). Depending on debt level if CCA request not effective then move to Subject Access Request.

 

There are many folk here who are going through this and a whole lot more who can offer you all the advice you ever need. General principle for me having stabilised a very wobbly ship is to focus on resolving oustanding legally owed debt whilst standing up for yourself - this will along the way bring many trials and tribulations but equally will help you to reduce your debt more quickly.

 

All the best, keep folk posted and ask away if you need anything more at all give a shout out and there will be someone along to help

Edited October 2, 2009 by mjc007.5
Apalling grammar!

[mjc007.5]

Hiya Petal9,

 

Sorry you have been unwell, hope you are feeling a little better now

 

If it all seems a little daunting then best to break it down into small steps and prioritise - do the most important bits first as you feel able and then go from there.

 

In almost all cases this will be taking steps to protect your next monthly/weekly income before it is due and if you have not already you must do this first. It will feel a whole lot worse if they get their hands on it first but equally if you are able to ensure it is out of their reach you have the first steps to feeling empowered and sorting things out.

 

I can see you are worried about the calls to work. Now the rules of this game are supposed to state that if you tell them not to call on certain numbers they cannot and even when they do it should not be more detailed than "calling you on a personal matter". However as you say more often or not they will not play by the rules. You can of course report them but more pressing is to try and stop them calling work. Now again, depending your personal choice and how quickly you can get to them you can try and simply tell them to take the work number off your contact details. This can work but where it does not (which is more frequently than not) you can try giving an alternate number (anything that is less of a threat for you - I knew of one brave soul who gave the speaking clock, another gave an 0906 "virtual" number - do it under the "guise" of updating your work contact details).

 

Now take a breath, come back to the next steps when you feel able

 

This is a messy "market" (even when it "works") and the path out of it is not and easy one but with determination, a realistically costed plan and the help of the good folk here you can get there. I have had some very, very dark nights and thoughts at the height of my nightmares in payday loan land and whilst we have some way to go yet I am on my way back from the dark side - if I can do it most anyone can!

 

Keep going, you will be able to do it

[mjc007.5]

Hiya Petal,

 

Hang on in there with it, you will be okay if you follow the advice of the good folk here and stick to your plan.

 

As well as the sound advice already here Sillygirl1 has now posted on your thread and she also seems to have a raft of experience dealing with these firms (apologies if I have this wrong, your posts have helped me along the way ) and I think is further along the journey to sorting them out than me (in fact may have got there!). You have a number of experienced folk already looking in and we will all try and help as much as we can.

 

Main concern is that in your last post you say you have changed your bank card but would seem to imply you have the same bank account? I do hope we are all wrong but this is often not enough . You are going to have to be very directive with your bank to ensure these firms do not just help themselves - it is very bank dependent but general feels seems to be that most will not be helpful

 

Keep going, one small step at a time. Ultimately you must do what fits your circumstances and time best, but as others have said post back and we will all try to help out as much as we can.

 

Best of luck