Lending Stream... Cant arrange payment plan

[benjwg1]

Still having problems with Lending Stream...

 

I contacted them 2 weeks before payment was due to explain I cannot afford the repayments.

 

I sent them I&E and explained the problem

 

they will not set up a payment plan with me until I pay fees upfront on one of the loan agreements.. they have told me this 2-3 times and have since started ignoring my emails.

 

They will not freeze interest until a plan is set up which can only be done by paying fees.. the current amount I owe to LS is about £500.... with another months interest that they will add because they wont set the plan up yet will force the amount over £700-800....

 

They are now, for the passed 5 days, ignoring all of my emails and anything I send to them... probably to give it more chance of the loan lasting another month and more interest being added.

 

Is there anything I can do to stop this???

[renegadeimp]

Report them. LS is a one man band and the guy behind it doesnt care about rules or regulation.

[silverfox1961]

Oh shoot!

 

Lending stream are a US company with a correspondence address in the UK which sounds like a serviced office or just a mail drop as there is also another 271 companies using the same post code.

 

However, I feel a written complaint to them is in order but don't expect a quick reply.

 

Camrose House,

2A,, Camrose Avenue ,

Edgware,,

Edgware, ,

Middlesex, ,

HA8 6EG

[manontheweb]

I have a couple of suggestions,

 

If they have access to your bank account then open a new account (basic Halifax or similar with no credit check)

 

Get their bank details and start paying them £10 month or whatever you can afford. If you cannot get bank details then as a last resort setup a savings account and pay the money into that, then when they do give you their details you can pay them from there

 

The worst that can happen is that it will go to court, you will have to fill in I&E forms and the court will rule that you need to pay x amount per month, which is what you are trying to do anyway!

But if you break the repayment plan set by the court then that is when you get into serious trouble

[pdlescape]

Hi,

 

I have the same problem with Lending Stream. They say I have two accounts with them (one with two loans, one with just the one). I guess they use multiple loans so they can charge multiple default charges (I got 3 charges for £12 added to each today).

 

I have 4 other pdl companies who have all agreed to my plan with just a little bit of persuasion (Money in Advance, who were the quickest and easiest to deal with; Wonga, who took a couple of days but agreed and were good about it; Payday UK, took a couple of days but agreed and did it all by email; QuickQuid, were tricky but just had to go round the houses over a couple of days to get a 6 month plan paying my initial offer).

 

I emailed Lending Stream at the same time (3 days before payment was due). I got an initial response by replying to reminders@lendingstream stating they have a policy that they cannot setup a payment plan because I hadn't made the first payment on one of the two loans. I politely replied stating that I couldn't afford it, here is my I&E, I've made a fair and reasonable offer, etc.. Heard nothing for two days, by which time all others had agreed.

 

Bit the bullet and phoned them. Spoke to someone in India (who to be fair was very nice and obviously just doing her job). I was offering a payment of £60 per month over 10 months. They would only accept a payment of £121 that day, then back to normal payments next month (about £220). I said I simply can;t afford that, so what happens next? She couldn't answer, spoke to her manager and came back and said they could only accept £121. They had no record of my I&E, and haven't considered my offer at all. I reminded them of OFT guidelines and said I'd be back in touch.

 

Have since emailed all addresses I have for them (info, loans, reminders) a few times. No response. Got three separate emails saying I was in arrears and attaching a default notice stating they were disappointed I had not been in touch!! I had also sent another email to info stating the usual (you have not considered my plan, which I consider is fair and reasonable, blah, blah, blah) and warned that unless a response is forthcoming I will submit an official complaint to the OFT (sent that yesterday). So I resent that in reply to all three default notices.

 

My next course of action is that I'm going to be a pain in the arse. I'm going to take 5 minutes out my lunch break and phone them every day with the same offer, recording times and dates. Then I think I'll follow that up with an email each tiame. I don't see the point in posting anything particularly but might do it just to have a record of doing so. I'm figuring that'll help if it all ends up at court (but I guess it'll just go to DCA). I'll absolutely be challenging every single charge.

 

So, has anyone else actually ever had success with them?

 

Also, I must add that I couldn't have done any of that without the advice from here, so thanks

[renegadeimp]

You shouldnt have called them on the phone. They will do ANYTHING to get you to give them money and agree to things you cant stick to. Thats why they wont write back to you, or confirm in writing, what was said on the phone.

 

Again, do NOT phone them. At all. Do it all in writing.

[pdlescape]

Appreciate that, and stuck to my guns with all the rest, apart from Wonga (which took two minutes, no questions asked, just to sort out final dates for repayments).

 

Lending Stream do not respond to emails at all. Calling is also totally ineffectual (by that point there was no way I was going to agree anything other than what I was originally offering).

 

Any advice on what to do next? I'm hesitating to start off an internal formal complaint process as that gives them an extra 60 days to ignore it. Not sure if there's any point reporting them to BCCA as it's a trade association, and if I were to go to FOS would I also not have to have given LS 8 weeks to respond?

 

By this point I'm not overly concerned as I believe I've done everything by the book, and agreed plans with the bulk of my £4 grand+ debt.

 

*apologies for hijacking OP's thread too.. should this be moved to a new thread?