Capital Finance One!!

[lingylulu]

Hello All,

 

I was hoping somebody could give me some advice on what happened to me recently.

 

I had a payday loan with Capital Finance one and could not pay it all off (I would like to state I have had a few and paid them off in full previously). I basically contacted them and after them ignoring my e-mails for a few weeks they finally got back to me and set up a payment plan. I paid the first amount on my payday as stated.

 

Yesterday I went onto my online banking and checked my account (I only had £35.00 in there) to see I could not withdraw any money, I called the bank and they told me that CF1 had indeed took £430.00 form my account !! I am absolutely furious about this. I understand I should have canceled my card and I also know what Cowboys they are but surely since I have the most basic Easycash account (i.e no overdraft and not possible to get an overdraft) the bank should not have processed this?? Anyhoo, to make matters worse although I changed my wages to another account I did not change my Tax Credits which will be going into an overdrawn account and will get totally swallowed leaving me with no money for food for myself and my 8 year old daughter over Christmas and in fact up to January 10th.

 

I have contacted both parties and CF1 stated that it was my banks problem and they would not revoke the authority on the transaction and my bank seem to think that there was nothing I could do. They said I can not open a dispute for 28 days and i could not anyway due to it not being for goods not delivered..... They have unfortunately left me in a terrible predicament. They will not even accept me paying £50.00 when the tax credits come in so I have money to live on!!

 

Any Ideas whether the bank should correct due to them putting through the transaction when the funds were not available and therefore already deciding what my funds should be spent on ??

 

Any help would be massively appreciated!!

 

Thanks x

 

p.s sorry for the rant!

[lingylulu]

Sorry, I didn't make it overly clear above that they have sent me £400 O/D with no overdraft! Thanks.

[sillygirl1]

Report them to the police for theft, and get the bank to reverse the transaction as you had not authorised them to do so, this is atrocious behaviour.

 

What you now need to do is get the Tax Credit people to use your new account, let them know that fraud is taking place on your old account and you will be in actual hardship should the money go into your old account.

 

Get back to us when you have tried this and we will come back with more advice.

 

It is appalling that the bank pass the buck back to these companies, it is YOUR money the bank have and they have failed to keep it 'safe' and used appropriately. You have a claim for negligence against the bank if anything else!

[lingylulu]

Thanks Silly Girl! I have been to the Tax Credits people and changed the bank details but they informed me yesterday that they could not recall the funds after I explained my predicament!! Isn't it funny that under any other circumstance the bank would not put money through without the funds being in there but it sods law that this time they did! I'm thinking of going to Halifax and camping out in there until they agree something with me not sure it would work though! I don't think any of them want to help!

[mightyroyals]

Hi halifax are nasty to deal with i had a basic account with them with a standard visa electron card and i was told i could not go overdrawn but i had the same problem as you and halifax allowed 350 pounds to go and leave me overdreawn they are nasty and will not help you just the same as capital finance one

[MsWeatherwax]

LingyLuLu, have you checked your account today? When you go overdrawn through a direct debit, a lot of banks let the funds go through 'til close of business (I think to give you a chance to pay the money in), then return it overnight. I would be absolutely STAGGERED if this wasn't reversed overnight.

 

The issue that you might still have is that the bank will want to charge you for going overdrawn, but I would tell them in no uncertain terms that this was a fraudulent transaction and you won't be accepting any charges due to it. Write a letter to your bank telling them that in future, no direct debit instructions should be set up for this particular company.

 

Are you with Natwest by any chance? I had to cancel my card over the last Christmas period and they very kindly sent my new one registered delivery so I got it the next day. It was possibly the only helpful thing they ever did for me.

 

Let us know if the money isn't reversed back into your account too - I'm sure there must be something about unauthorised lending on basic bank accounts that will get you round this. The whole point of them is that you CAN'T go £400 overdrawn.

[lingylulu]

Shockingly I was on the phone to Halifax for an hour at lunch time and they will not budge an inch!! I have e-mails from Capital One saying it was a "system error" there side but they still will not send an amendment fax! I expect this from Capital Finance one but halifax I am astounded with! I have stressed that I cannot feed my daughter untill 10th of Jan if they do not do something about this but they are just saying the money is gone and there is nothing they can do. I thought with Visa Electron you could not spend funds that were not in the account?

 

Anyhow I have asked Barry Silver from CF1 for his bosses contact details and he is refusing to give them to me! Surely this will not go down well with the Ombudsman... I have them agreeing amounts that I can repay in writing and them telling me about the system error but refusing to give the money back and then they are refusing to give me their bosses details?

 

Could this get them in trouble or am I flogging a dead horse?

 

i would like to make a big fuss about this with both companies but I am unsure of which route to go.....

[MsWeatherwax]

That the Halifax would allow that level of unauthorised borrowing on a basic bank account astounds me. Anyone struggling for credit this Christmas, get on down the Halifax - apparently it's a free-for-all. Talk about making it up as they go along.

 

I'm going with SillyGirl on this - go to the police, get a crime number then take it into the Halifax and make them reverse the transaction.

[lingylulu]

But if I do still owe the company the money (which I do) (actually, now Halifax has decided to pay it, did) can I go down that route?

[MsWeatherwax]

I don't see why not - they've taken one payment of an agreed payment plan, which they obviously accepted, then made an unauthorised transaction for £430!

 

Also have a look on your local council website and see if they have a "Money Lending" action team. I think they'd be interested to hear about this lot, and they may be able to advise. They seem to have an awful lot of system errors that result in people having large sums of money taken out of their account.

[sillygirl1]

I forgot about the Moneylending Team, some police forces have them too... about time these shark companies are reported for their 'admin errors'.

 

My salary goes into a different account to the one I pay people from, which protects it from unwanted 'attention'... the banks are their own worst enemies and side with these sharks saying 'you owe them money, we have the money (or not) and will pay them as we are 'administrating' your money..'

 

Maybe all these payday loan companies should be reigstered with the Ministry of Justice and be closed down for these 'errors'.

[lingylulu]

And if I get a crime number do the Banks have to reverse the transaction? If this is the case I am going to phone up my local station tonight....

[alex2258867]

Hi,

 

Appalling situation to be in...so sorry that you have this drama with Halifax.

 

Just a thought, but as you didn't have anywhere near the amount of money in your account that was taken, hasn't the company that made off with the £430.00 actually taken the money from the bank and not you?

 

Shouldn't Halifax be reporting the transfer of funds to the police? Afterall, its their money that has been taken...not yours

 

I truly hope you manage to get sorted...go to the local press, they love a story such as yours. Tell Halifax you intend to speak to your local paper..single parent, left destitute over christmas, no food for children etc. You never know, with the bad press they are getting surrently...they may have second thoughts and sort out the mess they have created.

 

All the best x

[lingylulu]

I have asked for a direct line to the bosses office or a direct e-mail address and Barry Silver of CF1 will not give it to me, I have stated that what their "system error" has done is put me into massive financial hard ship, that I have a young child and need to buy food and that I will report them to the police as theft, this is how Barry responded:

 

Please note that if we took more that the amount owed, then it may be classed as theft.

We also have a signed agreement in place,that was broken,stating that you would pay the amount back on 15/12/09.

Although we accepted your terms, a system error beyond my control did this and as such could not have been avoided.

At present we have not added on any late fees or interest to the account, that has been settled.

kindly address all correspondence to "The Director" of the company.

 

If they have been made aware of the situation I am in and they know it is an error surely they can be forced to put the money back, would this be correct? And I am positive they should at least give me contact details to his boss, the fact that he won't makes me think he may not know the way he conducts his accounts?? Well I can only hope there is someone honest in the company!

[MsWeatherwax]

I have asked for a direct line to the bosses office or a direct e-mail address and Barry Silver of CF1 will not give it to me, I have stated that what their "system error" has done is put me into massive financial hard ship, that I have a young child and need to buy food and that I will report them to the police as theft, this is how Barry responded:

 

Please note that if we took more that the amount owed, then it may be classed as theft.

We also have a signed agreement in place,that was broken,stating that you would pay the amount back on 15/12/09.

Although we accepted your terms, a system error beyond my control did this and as such could not have been avoided.

At present we have not added on any late fees or interest to the account, that has been settled.

kindly address all correspondence to "The Director" of the company.

 

If they have been made aware of the situation I am in and they know it is an error surely they can be forced to put the money back, would this be correct? And I am positive they should at least give me contact details to his boss, the fact that he won't makes me think he may not know the way he conducts his accounts?? Well I can only hope there is someone honest in the company!

 

Yes, well it's not beyond his control to put it back, is it?

 

If you take a look, there is this wonderful thing now called "Faster Payments" - with it, if he chooses to do so, he can replace the money in your bank account tomorrow and it will clear the same day.

 

He's now put it in writing that he accepted your repayment plan. If he refuses to replace the money, I should take a print out of the email to your local police station, pointing out that you were attempting to repay the debt, they had accepted the repayment plan and taken the first payment and have now deducted the whole amount from your account. It may be an accident that it was taken, but it's not an accident if they don't put it back.

 

Incidentally, the last time I checked, the MD of this company was James Keeble. I don't think knowing his name will help much, TBH.

[mightyroyals]

I know this is a bit off topic but have you had many phone calls from Cf1, as i still have a balance outstanding with these and i get a unavailable number ring me at 1am and 3am that just plays music and i know i have answered witheld numbers that play music and then these cowboys come on the phone,

[nonymouse]

 

Incidentally, the last time I checked, the MD of this company was James Keeble. I don't think knowing his name will help much, TBH.

 

This is his email address (or, at least, this is the address he used to email me personally to tell me how disappointed he was that I'd not paid back my debt, and offering to act as an 'agent' to help me pay back other payday loans... : [email protected]

 

[Ell-enn]

I can't understand why the bank allowed the payment to go through - if you tried to buy something at £400 with your card and only had £35 in your account the payment would be refused. Also, if you have an account which doesn't have an overdraft facility then Halifax are placing you in a position of hardship. I think you need to contact the Halifax head office and kick up an incredible stink - as said above tell them you are contacting the media.

[lingylulu]

I was on the phone to Halifax for 1 hour today in my lunch, I was trying to be calm but ended up telling them I was going to chain myself to something in the bank and call the press Unfortunately I got told by 7 different people there was nothing they could do, they will NOT take the card Transaction of my account and they put things like this through if they have a good relationship with their customers (which is a laugh as they wouldn't give me a proper bank account or an overdraft). I was stressing that I would not be able to buy food for myself or my daughter or gas/electric etc. but all they could say was there was nothing they could do.... I honestly don't know where to start now, I am getting the same answers from both companies - I pointed out that it was not because they could not do anything but they would not do anything about the situation!! I am incredibly shocked with halifax!

[MsWeatherwax]

I can't understand why the bank allowed the payment to go through - if you tried to buy something at £400 with your card and only had £35 in your account the payment would be refused. Also, if you have an account which doesn't have an overdraft facility then Halifax are placing you in a position of hardship. I think you need to contact the Halifax head office and kick up an incredible stink - as said above tell them you are contacting the media.

 

I find it very, very weird as well. They'd usually rather snap off a limb than hand out an overdraft on a basic bank account. It's very worrying - if they start doing this routinely, there's going to be people getting their benefit payments swallowed for months paying them off. It smacks of very targeted profiteering off people on low incomes, who might have less financial/legal savvy than someone with a mortgage/credit cards and all the rest. DO.NOT.LIKE. :?

[robjam1969]

Hopefully this a 'one off' - No consolation when your the one though.

 

This is one more danger of these companies having your bank details. Even more freedom to to take what they want without authorisation. Doesn't bear thinking about

[sara_jane_2010]

Hopefully this a 'one off' - No consolation when your the one though.

 

This is one more danger of these companies having your bank details. Even more freedom to to take what they want without authorisation. Doesn't bear thinking about

 

yes your right, these sort of companies will take what they want when they want....get the standing order in place

[garysonjack]

Companies can only take what's on your card at that time. Get a standing order set up or you'll get stung like i did.