Shoacheck

[baz123]

My partner took out a couple of small loans off of Shopacheck before I met her 6 years ago and for some reason still owes them over £500! anway the guy who collected would turn up when ever he wanted even though my partner told him to turn up on a certain day only. He stopped tunring up completely about 3 weeks ago, and the next thing she recieved three red letters from a debt collection company demading all the money to be paid in full.

 

Can they do this without any warning, it's not our fault if he can't be bothered to collect surely?

 

Can anyone advise?

Edited November 18, 2010 by baz123

[alfwithhair]

Contact the creditor Shopacheck and tell them nobody has been collecting the payments and ask them why you are receiving letters from debt collectors?

 

Who is the debt collection company?

How much were these loans for?

Your partner has been paying them for over 6 years, but there is still over £500 outstanding?

 

Loan from this company are usually small amounts on short terms, so cant see how she still owes this amount if she has been paying for 6 years

[Bazooka Boo]

Hmm Shopacheck....

399.7% APR Typical could well be the reason why 6 years on it is still £500.....

[baz123]

The debt collection company is Lewis Debt Recovery. Looking at her payment book there is no information on what was borrowed or at what interest rate it would be paid back, just the total amount that has to be paid back.

 

She took out some loan in 2004 with a total of £286 to pay back and another one in 2005 with a toal to pay back of £238. at some point in 2005 money was tight so she made an agreement to pay £3 to £5 a week back on these loans, and it looks like they gave her a third loan with a total of £397 to pay back. She says she only remebers ever recieving money for two loans so I'm guessing the 3rd was some kind of deal as to reduce the first 2 loans payments??

 

Personaly I think they have had her over good and proper, as she was a single parent at the time and I know these t***S pray on people who are struggling.

[Bazooka Boo]

It is all very very dubious, a little like the company, someone who I wouldn't trust as far as I could P.

I have had dealings with them back in the 90's, and they were well above their station then! God only knows what they are like now?

 

Do you know whether lewis OWN the debt or are simply acting on behalf of their 'clown clients'?

[baz123]

It says ' we are acting on behalf of our clients as you have failed to cooperate with previous efforts to resolve this metter '

 

What pervious efforts??

 

The guy just stopped turning up.

[Bazooka Boo]

Absolutely nothing to worry about, these fools have been passed an alleged debt which they will have zero knowledge about, so I guarantee that whatevr this Lewis idiots.inc spout out about any legal or court/bailiff action is purely a figment of their immature imagination.

The "efforts" are purely down to their computer theratogramme, as they do not know of when or how many letters their computer has spat outm this is simply the first letter they can prodice in their first line of empty childish threats..

[alfwithhair]

well said Baz, couldn't agree more

[Bazooka Boo]

I might have been a little bit tipsy at that time of the morning!

[baz123]

Ok thanks for the help.

 

I have decided they are not getting a penny more, as imo they have had more than enough. At some point if I keep ignoring these red letters no doubt somone will turn up at my door, what do I do then?

 

I would also like to point out, that these debts were taken on by my partner before I met her and most of the items of value belong to myself, are they allowed by law to take things?

 

Sorry but never had this issue before so don't know what my rights are.

[alfwithhair]

They can take nothing. Only Bailiffs can do that.

 

For this to happen shopacrook would have to take you to court, WIN and then you would have to default on the terms of the judgement in order for this to happen.

 

The chances of them trying the CCJ route is slim as these kind of companies don't like their lending practices aired in a public court, the judges don't look on their extortionate interest rates favorably.

 

But be warned Lewis's and their bum chum solicitors Howard Cohens will try it on.

 

Have you moved house in the last few years?

Their trick is to serve the court papers to the previous address, you never get them so don't defend and they get judgement by default.

 

If a shopacrook agent turns up at the your door tell him to go forth, they have no powers whatsoever to do or take anything

[baz123]

Ok thanks. I have moved house about a year ago, so I'm wondering if this could be why they have stopped sending their collector round and sent the debt letters as this never happened in all the 5 years at the old address. Probably hoping I'll ignore the red letters so they can go down this route to get there money quicker.

[Bazooka Boo]

OOh 5 Years eh!

If nothing has been paid to or acknowledged on this account, then it is very near to being Statute Barred!

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?410-LETTER-USED-WHEN-A-DCA-THREATENS-A-DOORSTEP-VISIT

Print the link above off, and keep it by your front door, and IF anybody is foolish enough to ring your bell (ooh matron!) then hand them that and shut the door.

[baz123]

OOh 5 Years eh!

If nothing has been paid to or acknowledged on this account, then it is very near to being Statute Barred!

Print the link above off, and keep it by your front door, and IF anybody is foolish enough to ring your bell (ooh matron!) then hand them that and shut the door.

No I meant when we lived at the previous property they were turning up weekly to collect the money owed, and were turning up here for about 8 months, then just stopped, then came these red letters.

 

Thanks a lot for the link though as that will getting printed out for when the do turn up like they've threatened.

[Bazooka Boo]

Right gotcha, lets wait and see what their next move is..

[Super Bean]

I think a few things here need to be cleared up as there are a few anomalies in what you are saying. There is a lot of mention here relating to 'interest'. Shopacheck do not charge interest on their loans, they add on a fixed charge. Therefore the amount you pay does not vary no matter how long you take to pay. Hence if you borrow £100 and the charge is £40 then you will pay in total £140, whether you pay over the contracted period of (say) 60 weeks or if you take 80 weeks to pay, you will still pay the £140. Compare this to 'interest' which is a %age of the outstanding balance...therefore if you were to reduce payments and pay £100 over 80 weeks with interest then you could end up paying more, despite the %age looking very attractive. This is a mistake a lot of people fail to recognise.

 

Secondly, the doorstep lending business is aimed at creating a personal relationship with the customer. Unfortunately Baz, it sounds like your agent wasn't doing the necessary. There is an onus on the branch to ensure this, but equally, your other half could have got in touch with the branch and made a complaint about the agent...this meant you would have been able to avoid the trouble you are experiencing now.

 

Another thing I'd like to mention, is that commonly in this business, when a customer is close to completing the payments on one loan, the agent (as it is business) will try to encourage a loyal customer to take out a new loan which will probably include a part settlement on the existing one. For example, you have £30 to pay on an existing loan, you wish to borrow another £100. The agent would arrange a loan for £130 + charges but the customer would only see £100 in their hand as £30 has settled the previous loan. It sounds like your other half maybe did some sort of loan consoliation i.e. had 3 loans in totality but one of them was to settle a previous one, hence leaving her with 2 active.

 

Given the type of business this is, and that the agents (good ones) like to create a relationship with their customers, agreements are often arranged at branch levels to reduce payments. It is NOT in the agent's interest to have a debt written off as they will only get paid when they collect money from you! If the debt is written off then they lose a loyal customer AND future income.

 

Just for the record (and I've worked the Finance industry a fair bit), this type of business typically writes off 50% of the original income it records for each loan AND the majority of customers will take at least double their agreed term to pay the money back. Selling to the debt recovery outfit is a final cause only when all other avenues are normally exhausted.

 

Can you imagine a bank doing that?

[Bazooka Boo]

A valid point succinctly made SB.

One that I shall reference for later, but the OP has failed to come back with an update, which I would like to read, but very valid point my man...

[Super Bean]

Thank you hon Am not a bloke though

 

Caught something on tv the other day commenting that some of the regular bank's charges can equate to high APRs if you actually work them out. But for some reason, banks seem to be allowed to call them 'charges' and hence they get away with not showing the APR equivalent...so they get away with charging the poor customers on an equivalent or more extortionate rate than the doorstep/payday loans people.

 

Example: Provident or Shopacheck (and this is only an example, I don't actually know this), may charge a customer £40 for borrowing £100 over say 30 weeks. That equates roughly to £69 for a year (although I believe in reality you would only get charged the £40 if you pay something regularly even if it's a lower amount), hence £69% interest (or 40% actually in reality - I'm not best with interest so bear with me).

 

Take, as an example, a Halifax overdraft who could charge their £1 per day (but that's a charge not interest lol). If you were overdrawn, (i.e. borrowed) £100 that would equate to £210 charges over 30 weeks, £365 for a year. And that's an AGREED amount! If it's unauthorised (£5 per day), then that's £1,050 charges and £1,825 for 30 weeks/a year respectively...assuming I've got my sums right.

 

Calculating the %age, that would be 1825% for a year. Nice.

 

So...doorstep lending (whilst it's not to everyone's taste) might not seem so silly now. The high street banks seem to be able to get away with hiding extortionate rates under the disguise of 'charges' rather than interest so the man on the street doesn't always do the sums and compare.

 

And yes that would mean the pay day loans people look a lot more attractive now.

 

People just don't do the maths and that's where the bandits at the high street banks luck out.