MiniCredit & Opos

[fletch70]

I assume You have not typed it word for word otherwise You would have realised that the english is far too good for her.

 

How they still have a CCL is beyond me

[dragzb]

Actually its typed verbatim and I was surprised that the English was that good. Perhaps she's learning.

[fletch70]

Even without the capital Y in you , well bugger me backwards. Maybe she has been replaced by an alien from the planet Ork

[dragzb]

The laughable thing about this whole situation is that it's been (so far) 16 weeks and 6 days since I first raised the complaint with MiniCredit. Their own complaints procedure states 8 weeks from start to finish!!!!!!

[dragzb]

Seriously this Kristel Martinson woman is totally and utterly cuckoo!!!

 

Email today is

 

Dear XXXX XXXX

 

Thank you for the reply

 

I sent you the email below on the 30th of July but have not received a reply from you

 

Then she's attached her email from the 30th July which I'm not copying out again but it's further up this thread.

 

No I didn't respond to this email as I think that £183.54 as a gesture of goodwill is a ridiculously low offer, especially after the hassle I've had to go through to get to this point and the fact that it's been 16 weeks since I originally started the complaint and I still don't have a final response from her.

 

At the end of the day £1090 on a £200 loan is extortion, they know it, I know it and I'm not going to accept such a low offer. I've emailed her back with the following which has been copied to the FOS

 

Ms Martinson

 

Your email was forwarded to the FOS and I agree that I did not respond to you as I do not accept the gesture of goodwill payment as offered. Furthermore your email of 12th September states you have attempted to contact me via phone which I take to be between 30th July and 12th September. This is not correct and in addition you have been advised on several occassions that I will only correspond in written format.

 

It has now been over 16 weeks since I first raised this complaint with your company and we are still to come to a conclusion to the matter. This 16 week period is very much over the 8 week period as stated in your complaints procedure. This matter has not only taken up a lot of my time but has caused me several months of distress and therefore I feel that your offer of goodwill does not reflect this nor does it reflect the fact I feel I have been overcharged.

 

Now she's just emailed me with this

 

Thank you for your reply!

 

We will be waiting for the contact from the Financial Ombudsman Service to provide them all evidence regarding your account

[fletch70]

Now now, please don't be so nice about her. Cuckoo would suggest she has an excuse for being stupid, ignorant, incompetent, possibly non existent and generally in need of a good slap

[dragzb]

How this drags on. I've now had a letter from the FOS stating they are investigating and that Minicredit have 12 weeks to respond! How long does this have to go on for???

[renegadeimp]

Goes on for as long as it needs to. For now, i wouldnt worry about it. Let the FOS do their job.

[dragzb]

Had a response from the FOS

 

Dear XXXX

 

I am emailing to provide you with an update on your complaint. I have received all the requested information from Microcredit and completed my review of your complaint. I have issued my assessment to Microcredit and am waiting for its response. I will update you on my next steps once I have received a response.

 

Yours sincerely

 

I might get a decision soon then!

[mch1991]

I found out my partner paid £416.25 on a loan that was originally £100, and now the company in question is seeking further £1033.55 from her (in which she ignores the requests now).

 

My advice is the following;

 

- Report to the OFT (The payday loan industry is being watched through a magnifying glass right now), I have my own case handler who I've send a full report and all evidence of emails and communications and a witness statement.

- Dispute with the Financial Ombudsman (it will cost them £550 in fees alone).

- Anything you've paid except for the original loan amount and one months interest is reclaimable. I'm already instigating legal proceedings on behalf of my partner for £270 in over payments plus other fees we're claiming. Start out with a recorded delivery letter before legal proceedings (notice of intended litigation) (this is the stage we're at). Advise them of their obligations under the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct in regards to disclosure of arguments and so forth, give them 28 days to settle your dispute, after the 28 days is up, file a claim with the county court (you can do this via money claim online), which dependent on the amount you claim will cost you a small claim fee. And follow progress from there.

[fletch70]

If I can ask.

On what grounds are you making a claim ?

 

How have you managed to get a case handler at the OFT when they always seem to reply that they do not take on individual cases?

[mch1991]

If I can ask.

On what grounds are you making a claim ?

 

How have you managed to get a case handler at the OFT when they always seem to reply that they do not take on individual cases?

 

The companies i'm dealing with all operate under one known main company (WebLoansProcessing). As you can see from these forums they are probably the worst and most aggressive in the PayDay loan industry.

 

My claim is to recover my partners over payments and further costs for dealing with their company to mediate the issue. Also another factor of our claim is predicated on an ongoing series of harassment to extract money from my partner that is not due neither is it payable to them. This has caused significant alarm, harassment and distress contrary to Section 3(1) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. My case currently is 7 pages long (not including the evidence of this harassment).

 

You are correct about the OFT, however the above company has obviously received a large volume of complaints and the OFT is building a case against them (the only reason I can assume they're wanting all of this information).

[fletch70]

This thread is about Minicredit which unless i am mistaken is not part of the webloan processing group.

 

I wish you all the luck in the world and IMHO the harassment aspect is a no brainer however if the contract is similar to those of minicredit i.e a line of credit you may have difficulties in getting back the extra money. I would love to be proved wrong

 

As far as I am aware as well there is nothing to say that the maximum amount repayable is loan+ 1 months interest. This is a discussion that was had long ago on here and to date no one has been able to prove this point

 

Good luck keep us informed

[mch1991]

This thread is about Minicredit which unless i am mistaken is not part of the webloan processing group.

 

I wish you all the luck in the world and IMHO the harassment aspect is a no brainer however if the contract is similar to those of minicredit i.e a line of credit you may have difficulties in getting back the extra money. I would love to be proved wrong

 

As far as I am aware as well there is nothing to say that the maximum amount repayable is loan+ 1 months interest. This is a discussion that was had long ago on here and to date no one has been able to prove this point

 

Good luck keep us informed

 

Thank you.

 

Minicredit aren't part of the WebLoansProcessing group (I was just offering some advice in case you wanted to go down the path of reclaiming charges).

 

I highly doubt anyone could justify their high charges and fees (regardless of whether they're written within a contract). Whilst I am aware that there is no specific legislation or case law by where the whole amount + one months interest theory has been successful, I do think that generally PayDay loan contracts are taken out for no more than 28 days, and after the default on the contract I don't see how they can add a high amount of fees on a weekly basis.

 

Thanks, I will do.

[dragzb]

Ok so I've had a response from the FOS as so..

 

what your complaint is about

 

My understanding of your complaint is that you are unhappy with the amount of interest and charges Microcredit has applied to your account. You have explained that these charges were applied whilst you were facing financial difficulties. You also feel the amount of charges applied to be excessive and incorrect.

 

Microcredit’s offer

 

Following our involvement, Microcredit has told us that it is prepared to refund you 50% of the direct debit attempt fees, which totals £177. Microcredit is also willing to refund additional interest it has explained that you have paid which amounts to £6.24.

You now need to consider this offer.

 

When doing so, you may wish to bear in mind that the information provided does not indicate that you made Microcredit aware of your financial situation. Further to this, the terms of the agreement do indicate that Microcredit will attempt to collect payment three times per day.

 

what to do next and the timescales for responding

 

If you accept the offer, please sign the enclosed settlement form and return it to me. On the other hand, if you do not feel able to accept the offer, please let me know why, so that I can consider any further points.

 

In our leaflet, your complaint and the ombudsman, we explain about your right to ask the ombudsman to review your complaint – as the final stage in our process. But I hope that now an offer has been made by the business, you will not feel the need to take your complaint further.

 

I'm still not happy about this offer of £183.24 but is there any point in declining the offer?

[renegadeimp]

Decline the offer and tell the silly adjudicator that the charges are unlawful.

 

Seems the adjudicators are ttryingto brush the matter under the carpet to get the wait times down.

 

You can also escalate it to the ombudsman if the adjudicator tries to fob you off.

[fletch70]

Are you saying that they will refund you 183.24 and close the account?

 

I can't advise you what to do on this . Is this the adjudicators decision or has it gone to the ombudsman?

[renegadeimp]

No fletch. They are saying their normal crap. They will wipe 50% of the unenforceable fees but still want the op to pay everything else.

 

Its their standard reply because they know the adjudicators are useless.

[fletch70]

No fletch. They are saying their normal crap. They will wipe 50% of the unenforceable fees but still want the op to pay everything else.

 

Its their standard reply because they know the adjudicators are useless.

 

Many apologises I got my posters mixed up

 

I agree with renegade tell them to go and do one. Even if the ombudsman doesn't rule in your favour they would still have to start court proceedings and that would be "interesting"

[dragzb]

Its the FOS who have now mediated and this is the first offer received from MiniCredit which surprisingly was MiniCredits original offer as a "gesture of goodwill". What the FOS are saying is I have until 30th December to either accept this offer or decline it, if I decline I have to give my reasons for declining. To be honest I'm getting to the point of saying stuff it accept the £183 and be done with it.

[sillygirl1]

There is a point in declining, whilst Minicredit have in their T&Cs that they can 'collect three times a day' it is an unfair term and should be highlighted as such to the Adjudicator, use the OFT Guidelines in Debt Collecting and quote the PDL sectors own recommendations, they have been posted on this site,

[mch1991]

Why would you accept this? Absolutely ridiculous, by their own admission you've paid £1090.24 on a loan of £220. Therefore, you need to reclaim every penny that you've over paid. Letter before action, then consider issuing legal proceedings against them. Don't give up.

[dragzb]

Ok then so I've told the adjudicator to stick the offer (well in a nice way at least).

[dragzb]

Latest from the FOS is that although the assessor has upheld my complaint minicredit disagrees with this decision so its now been escalated to the ombudsman for further assessment. God only knows when I'll see a resolution to this.

[renegadeimp]

Well, minicredit is bound to disagree. They want money and they dont care how they get it.