Microlend Problems

[renegadeimp]

I would get in touch with Stella Creasy MP actually. She has quite a few friends who work for the national press.

[Jamie Kingston]

Just reading another post about 24/7 money box. As renegadeimp said put in a complaint through the lender and then follow the procedure to escalate to the fos after the 8 weeks have passed.

[meepfest]

Update, because I am SO angry.

 

Just had a phonecall from David Greenspan ("one of the higher directors of the company") of Microlend. Actually, make that 2, he's just phoned again.

 

1st phone call - "we can resolve this today if you speak to me over the phone, and there's an opportunity for you to get some money back". I ask for this to be put in writing. Anything to be put in writing would be "defensive and get both parties backs up". I don't want to discuss it over the phone. "So you don't want any money back today then?". No. (I refused this on principal. It has angered me and further raised my suspicions).

 

2nd phone call (after they've sent an email that I've not had an opportunity to read): "So, you're not prepared to discuss this over the phone and get any money back today?" No, say I. "Well, I don't believe you have no money at all then. I don't believe for one second you're penniless". Oh, you don't? Told them not to phone me again.

 

Now, I can assure you, that I have only £10.04, and £10 of that I borrowed from my pensioner mother.

 

Words cannot express how completely DISGUSTED I am - they accuse me of blackmail, then ring me (which I've requested they don't do), twice, to try to "resolve the situation", in effect trying to sweep my complaint at their shoddy business pracices. I am LIVID.

[Jamie Kingston]

you should put a complaint through to the OFT for contacting you after you requested them not to. You should also add that complaint to the fos if you can. this company took me to court a few years ago...

[meepfest]

And here's the email they've sent (they phoned the 2nd time just after this came into my inbox):

 

Dear XXXX,

 

Thank you for your email.

 

I should start by advising you that as you have a complaint you should follow our complaints procedure to ensure your complaint is handled appropriately and via the proper channels. This will also ensure no delays in having your complaint handled correctly. You can find our complaints procedure on our website. If you require a copy of this please let us know.

 

In response to your email. You did not suggest going to the OFT to complain as you infer in your below email, your exact text was 'will be taking the matter to the OFT as a breach of guidelines if the matter is not dropped.' - what would you class this as if not blackmail, and why do you feel that we have breached OFT guidelines with regard to our charges? In addition I don't see how confirming what you had written was blackmail suggests our practices are highly questionable. What practices are you referring too exactly? You clearly state that if we pursue you as per our signed agreement for monies outstanding on your account you will complain to the regulator. What are you threatening us to complain about exactly and why have you not sought to follow our complaints procedure if there is a valid complaint to be made?

 

You provided us your debit card details and your signed contract clearly states that we reserve the right to debit any outstanding amounts from the details we hold for you when they become due or overdue. This is what we did. Please explain further where you feel we faltered here?

 

We always advise customers to get in touch with us prior to missing payment or if they believe that there may be an issue repaying as agreed. We debited your payment one hour before you advised us of your difficulties repaying in full, prior to which an email was sent but no response received and a telephone call was made but not answered. Why did you not advise us of your financial difficulties prior to missing payment?

 

All we have debited is the agreed repayment amount of £325.00. We do not believe that this payment was debited in an underhanded fashion as you so accuse us of. You failed to inform us of your intentions to default on payment until after we had debited payment. What do you class as underhand in this situation?

 

Please explain why you feel the need to dispute the charges placed on your account? Are they not clearly mentioned on your signed agreement? Where they not referred to on your notice of late payment? Did you not agree to them when you took out the loan? Please clarify these points so I can understand your position further.

 

As requested, we hereby confirm your requests not to debit any further payments from you despite the outstanding balance. We confirm this request will be adhered to unless expressly agreed to in writing from you. This is the first request of this nature that has been made to us either by telephone or in writing and we have agreed to this straight away as is expected of us. Do you have any issues with this?

 

We refer back to our original correspondence whereby we have accepted your repayment offer of £10.00 per month for 3 months with a view to revisit a more suitable repayment plan and have therefore been very accommodating to your current financial difficulties. You have nevertheless failed to confirm when your first payment will be made. We have confirmed our bank account details as well, as requested. Do you require further confirmation of our details? What issues do you have with the way we have dealt with your account since informing us of your intention to default?

 

As previously advised the current balance on your account is £89.00. In the event that a suitable payment arrangement is not confirmed and agreed to your balance may increase further and result in court action being taken against you. Please refer to your signed agreement, in the event that an arrears or default notice needs to be sent to you they will be charged at £12.00 each.

 

On a side note we attempted to speak to you today in order to discuss possible resolutions but you requested that we do not speak to you. We will respect your wises and ensure that none of our staff contact you by phone.

 

Kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

 

Micro Lend UK

COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT

[Jamie Kingston]

why don't you ask what they are willing to do to resolve then, but only write to them, no agreeing to phone - I would tell them to reduce the charges (or drop them in full) if they want the situation resolved and the complaint to stop ... but wait for other caggers to give their advice as well...

[meepfest]

Thanks, am intending to ask in my next email to them what they were prepared to offer over the phone but unprepared to offer in writing, especially since I had already requested they didn't phone me. I'm going to wait to reply to them until this evening, simply because I am so angry that my reply would be extremely counterproductive!

[Jamie Kingston]

very smart meepfest. In my opinion the smartest thing to do would be ask for the whole amount of charges to be removed, they might come back to you with a reduction but at least you'll have room to negotiate. Remember, your aim is to save money here, not waste more time and energy so I would ignore the silly questions and back and forth and go straight for the balls! maybe something along the lines of:

 

Dear sirs,

 

Despite my request for you not to phone me, you did, as per your email, please ENSURE none of your representatives phone me and keep everything in writing for the purposes of my clarification.

 

I would be willing to put this matter to a close on condition that the FULL amount of unfair and unjustified charges are cancelled and no further action is taken on my account.

 

If you agree to this then this will satisfy the account. This is a non negotiable offer and if you cannot agree to this then unfortunately I will continue with my complaint etc....

 

I'm sure you get the drfit (get tired of writing these out again and again and again....)

[renegadeimp]

Pity you didnt record those calls. They could lose their license for saying those things

[PDLVictim]

Hi meepfest,

 

It is unlikely they will take you to court for the oustanding "charges". Yes, they are known for taking people to court, but in most cases where the whole amount is outstanding. They have (for the moment) the loan repaid.

 

Their reaction shows that they have an issue, because they have used debit card details they should not have on file at all (the ones from summer 2012 which they were not allowed to store as they were for a one-off payment).

 

They are a very small company on the edge of legality (the David you spoke to is actually one of two "directors", but David is not his first name but his last name . There is no "Greenspan"...his first name is Daniel).

 

Anyway, I would in your case take this case to both OFT and fos simply because of the breach of data protection. I would not communicate with Microlend at the moment, but would copy them in the emails to OFT and fos. The emails should focus on the breach of data protection. I would then sit back and wait what Microlend comes back with, as it is their issue at the moment...

[Jamie Kingston]

Hey PDLVictim your signature shows you had them in the past... what happened with you and them if you don't mind me asking? The problem meepfest might face is that they could try and take to court, granted they probably won't, although they did take me to court, and if they go do go to court it'll only makes matters more difficult. From my own experience I'm very pro negotiating that way it gets these vultures out of your hair and you can move on. PDL's are a thing in the past for me and from time to time I try and help from the knowledge I have gained from experience. Experience tells me to sort the negative out so we can move on with the positive. As I'm writing this I can see you are down from £15,000 - £800 a good example of what I think, well done!!

[meepfest]

In reply to Jamie - whilst ordinarily I would certainly prefer Microlend to be out of my hair, I'm far more amenable when people are polite, professional and don't insult my intelligence - the fact that they have accused me of blackmail, been rude, obnoxious and entirely underestimated me mean that on principle this is one thing I'm not going to let go of and brush under the carpet. If they want to take me to court over £89 they're more than welcome to!

 

In reply to PDLvictim: I intend to do exactly that, because I can't in all consciousness ignore what they have done to me and, from what I've read, a lot of other people.

 

In reply to Renegadeimp: would have loved to have recorded them - his initial I'm a caring sharing kind of guy mask soon slipped when I refused to talk to him!

Edited January 21, 2013 by meepfest

[PDLVictim]

Hi Jamie,

 

I do not mind you asking

 

Yes, I used them in the past and they were actually very helpful. They were nice on the phone to me, they actually helped me negotiating with other lenders, starting my way out of this PDL hell. They even allowed me a few months ago to pay back my last loan with them in two installments without any additional charges or interest, which actually contributed pretty much to where I am now today. So I am actually thankful to them (and believe me this is the only PDL company where I think this ). And I totally agree with you that open negotiations is the best way to resolve these things.

 

So why do I advise meepfest to report them anyway? Simply because there is a fine line what you can and cannot do as a PDL company. And secretly recording debit card details is definitely the latter

 

The reasons why the interest rates for PDL are so high are in my opinion that first there are higher administrative costs and secondly there is a huge default rate. The reasons why the charges are so high is probably to reduce the default rate by scaring people So while I understand that for a small company like Microlend cash-flow is very important, they still have to factor in the default rates. I understand them sending emails, letters, doing phone calls or taking people to court, why not. But they still have to be professional. I read some threads where they do not act very professional over the phone or in emails, trying tactics like either scaring the debtors or making them feel guilty. In my opinion this is not okay. Now this thread they have taken things further by breaching data protection. This is more than not okay. So I think they have to learn to change their business procedures a bit...

[renegadeimp]

Hi PDlvictim. Looking at your sig must make you feel really good considering the worry you were having when you came here last year

[PDLVictim]

Hi renegadeimp,

 

Indeed, I am so much better now. Also thanks to all the help I have received here