Help! Got this off Minicredit?

[baggybreeches]

I have offered them original loan plus one month interest, less payments to date (I only made 2 payments because they were charging £5.50 for each part payment:jaw:)

They have responded to me just now with this:

A MiniCredit Claims Department member has replied to your claim, #389284 with the following response:

 

The Following Response is being sent to You according to the Formal Complaints Procedure.

 

The total outstanding balance GBP1066.00 from the date of issuing (31st of March 2012) until the default on the 23rd of August 2012 consists of the following:

 

1. Loan principal GBP100.00

2. Interest in total GBP146.00 (1% of the Principal per day)

3. Overdue penalty GBP25 (was added on the 1st day overdue)

4. Overdue penalty GBP55 (was added on the 3rd day overdue)

5. Debit Attempt fees in total GBP640.00 (every unsuccessful attempt to receive the repayment costs up to GBP5)

6. Debt Recovery fee GBP100 (was added on the 30th day overdue)

 

Microcredit Ltd has received payments from Your debit card towards the outstanding balance in total of GBP20.50 between the 12th and the 28th of June 2012. The mentioned partly payments did not cover the full repayment but have been deducted from the outstanding balance. The current outstanding balance that is GBP 1045.5

 

Microcredit Ltd received the loan application for GBP100.00 on the 31st of March 2012 which was approved and the funds were made available on that day. The due date of the loan was chosen to be the 25th of April in the amount of GBP125.00. Microcredit Ltd received the first correspondence from You regarding the loan on the 18th of June 2012. (54 days after the due date) when You contacted our Customer support. Although since the due date we sent out more than 15 TEXT messages to the registered mobile phone number, e-mail notifications to the registered e-mail address, automated voicemail messages to the registered mobile phone number and by that time two letters via post. Until the first contact is made by the Customer, all the overdue charges are justified.

 

Microcredit Ltd provides short term payday loans. The Customer chooses the due date him/herself and it is also possible to apply for the roll-over latest on the due date and keep the loan for another period of time if the credit check result allows You to. The Loan Agreement was signed by Yourself and sent to the e-mail address You entered on our webpage during the registration. According to the Loan Agreement You have to make all payments with a debit card and the only possibility to make payments is available on Your MiniCredit.co.uk online account.

 

We accept all payments You make and may provide You up to 120 days from the due date to clear the balance before Legal action is started. All the overdue charges and interest have been added to the balance according to the Loan Agreement and will be added until full repayment.

 

The following information has been taken from the Loan Agreement:

 

KEY INFORMATION

If you break this Agreement, we will charge you if we unsuccessfully attempt to obtain repayment on the due date for repayment. A fee of GBP25 will be charged on the day that your missed payment was due. If we unsuccessfully attempt to obtain repayment on the due date, we will attempt to obtain repayment a second time 2 days later, and if we unsuccessfully attempt to obtain repayment on this second occasion we will charge you a further amount of GBP55. If we unsuccessfully attempt to obtain repayment we may charge up to GBP5. If we unsuccessfully attempt to obtain repayment 30 (thirty) days after the due date we may charge further GBP100 manual debt collection recovery fee.

 

Interest on any sum in arrears will be charged at the contractual rate, both before and after judgment, until payment. Also, you must pay us all other reasonable costs and expenses we incur (including any legal costs on a full indemnity basis) in tracing you, or enforcing, or attempting to enforce, our rights under this Agreement.

 

Repayment, Default and Recovery

8. You agree to make all payments to us under this Agreement at the proper time. We will collect payments by debiting your bank account using the debit card details you have registered with us up to three times per day. You authorise us to debit your bank account to collect payments due under this Agreement. If we are unsuccessful in collecting payment, we may try to debit your bank account again at a later stage until we have successfully collected payment. If you have provided us with details of a second debit card and we are unsuccessful in collecting payment from the first debit card, you authorise us to seek payment via the second debit card in the same way as you authorise us to seek payment via the first debit card. You must give us new valid debit card details when you cancel, lose or your debit card(s) registered with us become(s) invalid when you have unpaid loan with us. If you cancel your debit card registered with us and do not provide alternative debit card in 14 days we may add all the default charges described in the Key Information and potential attempt fees regularly charged until default date what is 120 days after the due date to your loan balance and refer your account immediately to our debt recovery partner.

 

Microcredit Ltd considers that all the overdue charges and interest have been rightfully added to the outstanding balance according to the Loan Agreement You accepted.

 

Microcredit Ltd has now forwarded the account to our Debt recovery and Legal partner Opos Limited. In order to agree on a payment plan or to discuss a settlement please contact them. However the amount that You have offered is not considered as a reasonable settlement as by the time You made the first contact with Microcredit Ltd Your balance was already more than GBP700.00.

 

We hope this response has sufficiently answered your questions. If not, please do not send another email. Instead, reply to this email.

 

Kind regards,

Minicredit Claims Department

 

What do I do now? I don't want to deal with OPOS as the chap who rang me was both aggressive and intimidating (I did make a note of his name). Do I carry on fighting?

BTW £640 failed debit card transactions??? (128 times)

 

Also to add that I did tell them that I couldn't make outgoing calls from my mobile because it was on a call restriction (because I couldn't pay the bill!)

[Nao]

at most you owe original loan plus one month interest plus initial default fee minus any payment made.

 

all other charges are penalty fees which violate oft guidelines and are unenforceable.

They also can't charge interest after the original due date of the loan as that is when the credit agreement ended.

 

Just send them an email asking them to pass it on to opos immediately uf you prefer dealing with opos.

 

Also make sure to secure your money, pdls are known to raid bank accounts, report your card lost / stolen and cancel alk direct debits / cpas with them at the Bank.

[sillygirl1]

The attempted debt recovery charges are astronomical - get this over to the OFT as soon as possible, it is a travesty of the system.

 

The whole email is pseudo legal claptrap - the default date is NOT 120 days after the missed payment, the contract is a short term one for x days as they have clearly stated, therefore the default date is legally the day you miss the full payment.

 

This whole email MUST go to the OFT and to the FOS.

[baggybreeches]

Thanks Guys, I thought I was right but it is nice to have it confirmed! Nao, I definitely don't want to deal with OPOS my experience with them has been horrendous, I am not a mild individual by any stretch of the imagination but they actually threatened and intimidated me (which is no mean feat!). I will send this over to the OFT now and see what happens. I am beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel here!

[Nao]

yeah, I wouldn't really want to deal with opos either, its just some people on this forum found them easier to negotiate with than minicredit.

[Sillyboywyn]

OPOS were great after you tell them you have made a full complaint to the OFT and you will not be paying any more than loan amount plus one months interest.

[baggybreeches]

I got this yesterday,

Mrs Elaine Curran

 

Further to your previous correspondence unfortunately we will not be able to accept £130.00 as full and final settlement figure. At this point we could look into a settlement figure of £523 but I would have to get this authorised by my manager if this is affordable for yourself. If not we can look into a payment plan but this would be for the full balance of £1045.50. Please respond directly to myself on the details below,

 

Regards

 

Ashley Morrison

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ashley Morrison

Opos Limited

a: 1st Floor, Ingram House, 227 Ingram Street, Glasgow, G1 1DA

t: +44 (0)844 372 2629

e: [email protected]

w: http://www.oposlimited.com

 

I replied that I have sent the matter to the OFT and will await their decision, just checking, is there anything I need to do in the meantime? Thanks for getting me this far guys x

[baggybreeches]

OPOS were great after you tell them you have made a full complaint to the OFT and you will not be paying any more than loan amount plus one months interest.

 

Thanks Sillyboywyn, The email I got back of the OFT was a bit woolly :-

Dear Ms Curran

Consumer Credit Act 1974 (the Act)

Complaint against: Microcredit Limited trading as minicredit.co.uk; OPOS Limited

Licence No: 0621701; 0616281

Thank you for your email of 29 October 2012 in which you complain about the

companies above. In your email, you raise a number of concerns regarding the debt

collection practices of these traders. I note that in relation to Minicredit, you complain

that you were unable to discuss a repayment plan because you did not have a contact

telephone number for the company. Further, you explain that since charges continued

to accrue on your account, this meant that you could not afford to repay your debt.

With regards to OPOS, I understand that your complaint concerns the threatening and

intimidating nature of communication from a company representative.

I can confirm that the businesses you mention consumer credit licences. Under the

Consumer Credit Act, holders of consumer credit licences must be fit and competent

to do so and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has a duty to monitor the fitness and

conduct of all traders who hold such a licence.

The OFT has issued guidance to consumer credit licence holders engaged in the debt

collection industry. The guidance is intended to ensure that debt collectors treat

individuals fairly. Non-compliance with this guidance will call into question the fitness

of licence holders and applicants. You can view our guidance at:

http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/cca/debt-collection

We have therefore recorded the details of your complaint, and we will consider this

alongside any other complaints we have received with a view to any consumer credit licensing or other action we may decide to take. If we do take any action against these traders we may need to contact you again in the future. Unfortunately, we cannot disclose any details about any action we may take, due to legal restrictions on the OFT relating to disclosure of information.

While we are very sorry to hear about the difficulties you have been experiencing, the OFT has no authority to become involved in individual disputes between consumers and traders so we cannot advise you directly in this matter.

I would therefore suggest that you consider contacting the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). FOS can help with most complaints about consumer credit products and services if the consumer has failed to satisfactorily resolve the matter directly with the consumer credit licensee itself. FOS can be contacted at:

 

Will they get back to me again?

[Welshy27]

If you have to enter a monthly payment plan there is no way you need to repay the full balance. My account was passed over at a simillar amount and I disputed the extra charges which they agreed to wipe once I could enter into a higher monthly repayment. OPOS offered me 50% off my total balance as a payment settlement plan. This worked out as the original loan, one months interest and the two default fees. In total, I will be on a nine month repayment plan with OPOS.

[PDLVictim]

Hi baggybreeches,

 

The OFT will usually not get back to you in the foreseeable future. They might use your case once they take action against Minicredit/Opos (they must have meanwhile hundreds of complaints against them) and then they might come back to you again to ask you to make a witness statement, but this does not help you right now (though sending them this might help other people in the future...)

 

As sillygirl1 stated you also should complain to FOS. They will look into your individual case.

 

The default date is definitely the 25th of April and not the 23rd of August. The issue I see is that you only contact them on the 18th of June. I understand you could not use your mobile but the FOS might question why you not used a public phone or email.

 

The debt collection attempt charge of 5 GBP is in the agreement, but obviously 128 attempts is ridiculous. According to their own statement above they are attempting collection on the due date, two days later and on day 30, so three attempts in total. They are contradicting themselves here

 

Also I would question the debt recovery fee (although in the agreement) as they are already charging a debt collection attempt fee. They could only charge either of these in my opinion.

 

I would write back to Ashley from Opos (copying Minicredit) stating that:

- You have reported them to the OFT for their charges, their debt collection practice and their harrassment

- You will report them to the FOS for their charges

- You are challenging (without prejudice to the other fees)

* the "2. Interest in total GBP 146.00" as this should only be 79 GBP, as you contacted them 79 days after taking out the loan and all further interest should have been frozen to enable you to repay the loan per OFT guidelines of debt collection

* the "4. Overdue penalty GBP 55.00" as this is a default fee, but you already have to pay the default fee of "3. Overdue penalty GBP 25.00", so no further default fees should be added

* the "5. Debt attempt fees GBP 640.00" as this would equal 128 collection attempts, however in an email from Minicredit they state they will attempt on due date, two days later and on day 30, so three attempts equals GBP 15.00 in total.

* the "6. Debt recovery fee GBP 100.00" as they are already charging a debt attempt fee

 

I would offer them a total of GBP 198.50 which is calculated as

- Initial loan GBP 100.00

- Interest until first contact date 18 June 12 GBP 79.00

- Debt attempt fee (3 attempts) GBP 15.00

- Default fee GBP 25.00

- Minus payments already made GBP 20.50

 

I would offer them this amount (GBP 198.50) to be payable over 12 months with a monthly rate of GBP 16.55 payable by standing order to their bank account.

 

If you can afford I would also offer them in addition a full and final settlement of GBP 120.00. (So they can either choose between getting GBP 198.50 in 12 monthly instalments or GBP 120.00 in one sum)

[Sillyboywyn]

I had a different outcome from my email to the OFT, and some one contacted me personally asking for a lot more detail and also any emails and txts etc they had sent me. The same went for SpeedCredit also.

[baggybreeches]

Hurray? What do I need to do now (obviously pay them, but is this email enough to stop them persuing me further?)

Further to your previous email correspondence i have passed all details to my manager who has now put your account on hold. I have been advised to make you aware that we will accept your offer of £134.50 as full and final settlement if you still wish to offer this. Please respond directly to myself on the details below if you wish to accept this offer,

 

Regards

 

Ashley Morrison

[PDLVictim]

Hi baggybreeches,

 

Yes, this email is enough. Reply to them that you accept and then make this payment by bank transfer.

 

See, that was easy...

[rippedoff15]

Hi did you pay by bank transfer

[baggybreeches]

Hiya, yes I did, and I have now paid them. Woohoo! Only 2 more to sort then I am done.

[rippedoff15]

Thats great, how did you repay them , they are refusing my offer and request for bank details. Did you pay via ukash ?

[baggybreeches]

I paid via opos, I had fairly unpleasant exchanges with an operator so I refused to speak to him and told them I would only communicate via email. I wrote offering to pay the loan plus one month interest plus one default less payments made. I did have to repeat myself 4 or 5 times until they gave in. Make sure your offer is reasonable as I did and they will accept it.