Money Shop Accessing New Account Without Details?

[DebtDissolver]

Evening everyone!

 

I've been reading through the 20-odd pages of payday loan threads, lots more to go, but yet to find this exact problem and really need some specific advice please?

 

I'm posting for a friend (yes, really! lol) who's had a few of these payday loans with various companies and after a few months could not pay or roll over the debts. So she reported her cheque book as stolen, paid her overdraft and closed her bank account. She then opened a new one with the same bank. This was end of May. She heard from the companies in June and we've written letters in July to attempt to deal with this. (She suffers from mental health problems and was very ill in February hence a lot of the mess).

 

Well to cut a long story short, the Money Shop have somehow taken the money they claim she owes (£325 on a £125 loan) from her NEW bank account with NEW details. The bank claimed originally that it was an in-branch payment. Now they've back-tracked but we're not yet sure how MS got this money.

 

We're not disputing there's a debt, but £325 is a huge amount from her wages, leaving £200 to cover all her expenses. It appears the bank have just said 'o its a closed account, lets find her new one'. Can they do that?

 

It just begs the question: if you owe companies/DCAs money, and they have your bank details, can they all just start taking all your money? I'm only just learning how payday loans work. Incidentally, MS's t&cs page on their website won't work...

 

What I really need to know, sorry to ramble on, is: bank has been informed this is fraud. If they don't refund the money, does my friend have a leg to stand on? If she doesn't get this money back, she can't pay her travel to work, food, rent, and car maintenance that she really has to pay this month. Can she chase MS for the funds? A lot of it appears to be made of charges, and I'm temptes to send off a CCA request for her.

 

Does anyone have any clear advice for us please? I'm hoping to help her deal with all this as its already making her ill again. I really need to give her a clear plan of action asap, even if it's 'you'll have to live on the £200, defer rent (again), go without lunch/drinks at work unless you make a packed lunch, leave the car until next month and have to defer the extra payments due on rent etc etc'. I think if she knows what she's facing, she *might* cope a bit better.

 

Thanks for reading and any advice given! From a very desperate debt dissolver & her friend!

[jellycubes]

Hi Debt dissolver, it is very unlikely that you would be able to get this refunded as its a debt owed. They have some strange ways of obtaining new details and are calculated in the manners they obtain them. I do hope that the bank will see that the cheques have the old account number on however if they were written before the change of account and have a card assigned to them you may stumble to recover all monies . Best to survive on whats left and put them down to a bad smelly experience and never ever deal with them again. If possible your friend could open an account with another bank, now this would prevent others trying the same tricks if cheques are involved. If the other debts are via a debit card they should be safe now. Know this is nt the most positive news but your friend will survive this x

[DebtDissolver]

Hello jellycubes!

 

the bank did refuse the refund, and MS have since taken even more money, which it appears is not even owed to them! My friend's been suicidal this weekend but had some good advice from another friend and she's turning a corner (again).

 

She's considering bankruptcy now. She has an HSBC basic account which she plans to use to have her wages paid into.

 

Sadly the £200 she has/had left to live on is just not manageable, although it needs to be. I have offered to lend her money she needs and she can repay small affordable amounts back each month.

 

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Will post again when we know what MS are up to with these amounts (afterall, they wrote to say the debt was paid off, balance £325, THEN took the money, then took more (we're awaiting the bank's systems to update again as amount(s) couldn't be seen on Friday!!

[jellycubes]

A dreadful situation for your friend. Helping her out is one of the nicest things. Going bankrupt is nt an easy option, however as your friend has other mounting debts is is an option but there are others depending on size of debt etc, can help out if know the figures etc. There are a number of people on here who have had to make that choice and should your friend need advice please post for that. As for the robbing vulchers still helping themselves to your friends account get down to the cashpoint and withdraw the lot pronto and do this as soon as money goes into that account. Also if your friend has notification to say the debt was paid and yet they ve helped themselves to more money now thats a different subject and you can do something about that ! Its hell being in this situation and it can take its toll on peoples mental health and welfare. Look after your friend as you are and keep the support there as she will need you more than ever right now. Keep me posted on progress x

[cornetgirl]

The Money Shop are very devious - they did that to me too but as it was a loan I could pay off I just put it down to bad luck and moved on! Keep us posted with your friend's progress!

x

[DebtDissolver]

Well 'A' is making an appt to see someone at the CAB to get more details on bankruptcy. She's under the impression that she'll have to go on a DMP after 12 months though, which isn't right I'm sure!

 

She has already emptied her bank account, and is now faced with all the bank charges mounting up. I advised her to make her account a zero balance (she was just over £7 overdrawn on Friday) but I don't think she has and just thinks 'O it'll go away when I go BR!'. I'm just worried - if she doesn't go BR she'll be faced with more issues on this.

 

Will see if she'll tell me what MS have taken since the debt was paid. Would really love to SAR them, see what their charges were, what this extra money taken is, and then take them to the cleaners! I just don't know how much, if anything, 'A' still wants me to do.

 

Will likely post a new thread specifically for BR advice on here in next few days. Thanks for your replies!