Mini Credit Advice **

[LostSoul01]

Hi All.

 

Had a loan from these sharks over two months ago of £110.00p but come the date agreed could not afford to repay the loan back due to unforeseen circumstances. The interest and charges soon started rolling in and come the next payday you guessed it i could not afford to repay there extraordinary charges in a matter of a month for a £110.00p loan which i received £85.00p after there so called service charge i logged onto the account to find that it stands at £347.00p which i could not afford in one payment i was asking for a repayment arrangement in which i basically got told i had more chance winning the lottery. Today the balance stands at over £500.00p which i cannot repay. However i logged on to my account a week ago and my status read 'DEBT RECOVERY' and the balance then was £450.00p now what i would like to ask a more experienced member is that do these crooks have the right to add on more daily fees once the status has reached Debt Recovery status and hence has passed or sold the debt to another company? Your advice would be most appreciative.

[LostSoul01]

Anyone who has a idea on my original question? Please help me out.

[nic73]

hi

my experience with these crowd are like yours they wont accept repayment offers, my advice to you cancel the card you gave them they will try to take money from your account, they took £50 from mine without authorisation, and are now threatening me with court action, just a waiting game now to see their next move, so cancel card

[asmilecostsnothing]

Hi there

 

Drawing from my own experience with other lenders, I'm not sure how you stop them adding charges this certainly won't stop them trying neither, but, refuse to pay such outrageous sums - you only owe what you borrowed plus the one months interest

 

I hope they are now under investigation.. they got to be amongst one of the worst 'legalised' sharks - I've never heard of anyone setting up a payment plan to be honest but apparently they will accept token payments of whatever you can afford to give - give your case strength and teeth by making a payment and don't be afraid to let it go to court, IF it gets that far, then a judge does the deciding

 

I'm sure there are loads on here suffering at the hands of Mini Credit - take a look back at threads so you know what to expect because knowledge is power with these delusional payday lenders (I think I must be having a good day!! cause I'm nearly there with paying another one of my creditors of!)

[LostSoul01]

Hi Guys thanks for the replies.

 

What i am trying to get at here is that for example my account reads 'DEBT RECOVERY' and the balance on this account reads say £786.90p on the 12-12-2011. And then two weeks later reads £1189.00p on the 01-01-2012. Am i right in thinking that the company cannot do this as the debt in there words has been passed on to debt recovery agents and therefore the loan has been sold or passed on to debt recovery agents on or before the 12-12-2011. I for one find this as a serious breakthrough if i am correct for people in the same boat as me by being crippled and crushed by these sharks. As this proves that this company is telling lies and would not stand a chance in a court of law would like silly girls view on this please as i believe i have found a glitch in there Armour. Thanks for the replies once again all god bless.

[asmilecostsnothing]

hmmm.. not sure best let Sillygirl take a look then

 

I don't know they can get round not keeping user accounts online up to date - recently had a prob in this respect with another (Lending Stream) stopped updating the online a/c when I had been making payments under some utter rubbish I was paying a third party - their very own debt collection team !

[LostSoul01]

Hi asmilecostsnothing thanks for the reply.

 

Ah yes they can claim this but if that is the case how comes the price goes up automatically every day?

I would urge all in the same boat to do what i do and take a picture or print copies on a daily basis.

[indebt00]

hiya. I have had a loan with minicredit and was in a similiar as ur own. They shouldnt really be adding on so much interest and all you have to pay is the original amount borrowed and one months interest and THATS ALL.

 

Dont worry abt the extra charges.it does say debt recovery but they take time giving your account to a dca.if they do it will most likely be Fredricksons.

 

Minicredit do not accept repayment plans so its maybe best to wait till they pass onto a DCA as they will most likely accept repayment plans. Then you can only pay the amount borrowed and one months interest,

 

hope that helped x

[LostSoul01]

Hi asmilecostsnothing thanks for the reply.

 

Ah yes they can claim this but if that is the case how comes the price goes up automatically every day?

I would urge all in the same boat to do what i do and take a picture or print copies on a daily basis.

[indebt00]

asmilecostsnothing is right, dont be worried if it goes to court etc and only pay what you can afford x

[LostSoul01]

All i am pointing out is that i believe it classes as 'False and Misleading' and 'unethical' for the point being made above. I realize that you owe them 1 month plus the original loan amount but surely the point i raise is a valid one of that.

[Oh ffs]

They add on charges as follows:

 

£25 first default charge, then a further £55 3 days later.

1% fixed interest a day (on the original loan amount)

£3 every day for failed attempts to collect repayment

£100 doorstep collector fee

[LostSoul01]

Hi oh ffsI think people are missing the point i am trying to make here. The point is that once your status reads 'DEBT RECOVERY' as it states on their website then no further charges or fees should be added to the balance as the debt has been passed on or sold to a third party debt recovery service. Does anyone understand the point i am trying to make here?

[Oh ffs]

I'd be very surprised if the debt has been passed on at this stage. Mine has stated 'debt recovery' for about 2 months yet MC are the ones I've been dealing with.

 

The point I was making is that the balance keeps going up due to charges levied which aren't fair or reasonable, regardless of when these were applied.

 

MC have invited me to make an offer for full and final settlement (as long as this is 'reasonable') by the end of the month which I will be doing. Previously I have made them what I think were 2 reasonable offers which they have flat out refused (I won't be offering more than previously).

 

Basically they threatened legal action by letter and I sent them an email which stated I would report them to the OFT and I would defend any CCJ which may be forthcoming. I have made clear I would like to pay the debt but I am disputing the balance and I shall not be paying any more whilst the balance is in dispute. The majority of correspondence by me has been done in writing, or when I have phoned up, I've followed this with an email summarising the call. This is my record of exactly what has happened.

 

Their correspondence is poorly written, any offers I have made for full settlement have been refused but these can be given as 'partly payment' but they will still apply their ridiculous charges until fully paid. Last I checked my £250 loan is now over £1k according to them.

 

Sillygirl1 has been very very kind and very helpful with any of my questions. Don't get bullied by MC, report them to the OFT if you can and communicate in writing by using this email which they do read and respond to:

 

[email protected]

 

I will keep you updated of what happens at the end of the month. I suspect they won't accept my offer of full and final settlement but I'm not paying their unfair charges.

[LostSoul01]

Hi Again oh ffs

 

Just want to pick you up on this.

 

I'd be very surprised if the debt has been passed on at this stage. Mine has stated 'debt recovery' for about 2 months yet MC are the ones I've been dealing with.

 

This is the exact point i am trying to make is that once your status on their website reads 'Debt Recovery'. This means that they have either sold or passed on your

account/file to a third party in order to recover the money owed and therefore have no right to add more charges or fees as the account/file has been sold/Passed

onto a debt recovery service. It is not our fault if they cannot be quick enough to instruct a debt recovery service to peruse the debt but once Mini Credit deems your account to debt recovery as stated on the site then all charges owing to that account should cease from the point/day that they state your account is now with debt recovery services. Do you follow? All the best.

[Oh ffs]

Hi Again oh ffs

 

Just want to pick you up on this.

 

I'd be very surprised if the debt has been passed on at this stage. Mine has stated 'debt recovery' for about 2 months yet MC are the ones I've been dealing with.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

This is the exact point i am trying to make is that once your status on their website reads 'Debt Recovery'. This means that they have either sold or passed on your

account/file to a third party in order to recover the money owed and therefore have no right to add more charges or fees as the account/file has been sold/Passed

onto a debt recovery service. It is not our fault if they cannot be quick enough to instruct a debt recovery service to peruse the debt but once Mini Credit deems your account to debt recovery as stated on the site then all charges owing to that account should cease from the point/day that they state your account is now with debt recovery services. Do you follow? All the best.

 

I haven't had any indication from another party that they have picked up the debt, all letters and phone calls since have come direct from MC. I'm sure the 'debt recovery' status is just scare tactics, just like the doorstep collector they've charged me for but never showed.

[sillygirl1]

The £3 daily charge is extortionate and breaches the original contract completley, this alone is grounds to get them thrown out of court, they are having a laugh and being very inventive here, you need to complain to the following organisations who are aware of their activities

 

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk for the OFT

 

Get complaining now, yours could be the complaint that gets them closed down.

[LostSoul01]

Hi oh ffs.

 

Scare tactics or not what they are doing is wrong as they clearly state the account is in the hands of Debt Recovery and therefore should add no further interest or fees as the account has been brought or passed on. Proof? Try printing a daily sheet of your added fees after the account reads debt recovery and tell them to explain this to a judge.

 

Hi sillyGirl1 hope your well.

 

Your advice would be much appreciated if i can put this point across. Mini Credit sent out letters for example Mr Jones and there is two Mr Jones residing at the same address. Am i well within my rights to complain to Mini Credit that i wish for my first initial to be put on when sending postal letters to my address for example again Mr H Jones. Would appreciate your advice on this please as i wish to keep my debt personal. Thanks Again.

[sillygirl1]

You can email them stating that you want all correspondence via EMAIL only - due to the confusion of people with the same name at the same address - this is a reasonable request. I know they won't comply but you can't complain further unless you give them a chance first.

 

You need to read the OFT Guidelines on Debt Collecting which have been recently updated and mark each breach they make, give them a chance to put it right and then complain to the OFT. They deem that 5 days is adequate for most breaches to be remided (and that includes weekends, how many times do you get a letter on a Friday giving you 3 days to deal with something, especially over bank holiday weekends!).

 

They are in breach of the Data Protection Act which is a more serious offence, a complaint to the Information Commissioners office might bring about some action.

 

As for them continually adding charges and interest, they can't do that, the contract has been breached and any interest now (theoretically) is STATUTORY interest of 8%, which is what a court would allow. They are taking the proverbial.

 

What you need to do with the daily printouts of your account is send those to the OFT, stating that they are trying to unjustly enrich themselves and are not communicationg clearly or properly with you - you want to resolve the issue but they are having a laugh. If the alleged debt goes above £750 they could theoretically bankrupt you - which would be a completely disproportionate action due to the low level of the orginal debt and the amount that may have already been repaid.