Lending stream four loans advice please?

[Booglemooch]

Hi all, it's my first time posting on one of these pages-ever! I need a bit of advice please.
I have four separate loans with lending stream, adding up to just over a grand. My husband left myself and our children last September which is one of the reasons I took out so many loans with them as I was desperate for some kind of cash coming in.
Obviously I got into difficulties repaying and the interest kept on spiralling. I contacted them via email to offer a repayment arrangement of £30 a month. I sent the same offer about 25 times by email-no joke! About 3 weeks after I defaulted on all of the loans I got a reply asking me to fill out an income and ex form, which I did and it showed that I had £30 left a month to offer. They told me that they would accept the £30 for three months and then they want the full minimum payment for each account every month after that! Well they can see that I couldn't afford that. I paid the first £30 instalment but I was so frustrated and upset that I didn't bother again. That was back in March. Now I'm getting calls from CRS, which I expected sooner to be honest. I'm not answering. No letters or emails as yet. What would be my best course of action? I have very little disposable income a month to offer, but want to get this cleared asap so I can stop worrying about the phone ringing or knocks on the door. Lending stream also have the wrong date of birth for me for some reason?! And I can't change it on my account page! Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

I'll ask our PDL expert, SnV to pop in.

Welcome to AAD

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

Welcome to AAD
So sorry to see that you've had such a rough time. Try not to worry, SnV will look after you.

I've moved your thread to the Payday Loans section.

If there's anything else you want help with, just shout,
Elsa x

[SaltnVinegar]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

Hi all, it's my first time posting on one of these pages-ever! I need a bit of advice please.
I have four separate loans with lending stream, adding up to just over a grand. My husband left myself and our children last September which is one of the reasons I took out so many loans with them as I was desperate for some kind of cash coming in.
Obviously I got into difficulties repaying and the interest kept on spiralling. I contacted them via email to offer a repayment arrangement of £30 a month. I sent the same offer about 25 times by email-no joke! About 3 weeks after I defaulted on all of the loans I got a reply asking me to fill out an income and ex form, which I did and it showed that I had £30 left a month to offer. They told me that they would accept the £30 for three months and then they want the full minimum payment for each account every month after that! Well they can see that I couldn't afford that. I paid the first £30 instalment but I was so frustrated and upset that I didn't bother again. That was back in March. Now I'm getting calls from CRS, which I expected sooner to be honest. I'm not answering. No letters or emails as yet. What would be my best course of action? I have very little disposable income a month to offer, but want to get this cleared asap so I can stop worrying about the phone ringing or knocks on the door. Lending stream also have the wrong date of birth for me for some reason?! And I can't change it on my account page! Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi Googlemooch

Welcome to AAD! Sorry to hear you've had such a horrible time with Lendingstream, it sounds like you have been doing as much as you can to resolve things reasonably. Their own conduct however is contrary to FCA guidelines however, so their own behaviour has been anything but reasonable.

Before we start dealing with them however, can you give and indication of your overall finances please? Do you have any other loans, credit cards or other debts (e.g. mortgage/rent arrears, council tax arrears etc)?

You don't need to give details, but when dealing with PDL debt its important to understand where they sit in the context of your overall finances.

We'll then tackle Lendingstream depending on how comfortable you are with a couple of approaches I'll suggest, first of which will be to take them to task on irresponsible lending by offering you four loans!

Best
SnV

[Booglemooch]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

Hi again, thanks for all of your lovely non judging replies! (The MSE page was horrible!)
I have no other debt apart from this, but have a limited income now, only child benefit, tax credits, carers allowance and disability living allowance (my daughter is autistic). I have a catalogue account which I have had for a few years now which I only ever use come Christmas!

[SaltnVinegar]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

Hi again, thanks for all of your lovely non judging replies! (The MSE page was horrible!)
I have no other debt apart from this, but have a limited income now, only child benefit, tax credits, carers allowance and disability living allowance (my daughter is autistic). I have a catalogue account which I have had for a few years now which I only ever use come Christmas!

Ok so lets start with some basic information. Could you provide the following for each of the four loans please:

• Date loan taken out
• Date a payment was last made
• Status (i.e. did you discuss a payment arrangement or just stop paying)?
• Did you have to fill out an application form and do you have a copy?
• Were you given any pre-contact information or fact sheet so you could assess the affordability of the loan that was being offered to you?
• Were you given a credit agreement and if so do you have a copy?
• Did you at any time 'roll over' any of the loans (or did you 'reloan') and if so how many times?
• If you did roll over or reloan were you provided new pre-contract information and new credit agreement each time and if so do you have a copy?
• Did you receive any arrears notice/letter also containing information on where you can go to get advice on your debts?
• Have you received any sort of default or termination notice to your POSTAL address?
• When was the last time you sent any correspondence to them (either by email or post)?

Apologies that it seems like a lot of information to provide, but depending on the answers you provide, I will have certain ammunition to beat them over the head with.

Some further information also would be helpful:

• You mention that you have limited income now - did the circumstances of your income change after you applied for the loans?
• Have you kept copies of the correspondence that you have with them?
• Do you own your own home (or mortgaged) or are you renting?
• Have CRS added any further charges/interest?
• What have you done to protect your income? (For example, have you set up another bank account, have you cancelled continual payment authority instruction with your bank, things like that?)

Finally, most important thing, and easier said than done, but don't let this stress you out from now on. Payday loan debt is the LAST thing you should be worrying about.

Best
SnV

[SaltnVinegar]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

Hi again, thanks for all of your lovely non judging replies! (The MSE page was horrible!)

And just as an aside - you're welcome, and we're not like MSE here when it comes to 'debtor bashing'. If you look through older threads on MSE you'll notice I used to post there and that attitude is exactly why that is in the past tense.

[PlanB]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

My husband left myself and our children last September which is one of the reasons I took out so many loans with them as I was desperate for some kind of cash coming in.

Hello Booglemooch and to AAD.

We can also take a look at any help you may need with child maintenance and/or housing issues if you want once the dust has settled on those annoying PDLs.

[nightwatch]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

Hi Booglemooch, Welcome to AAD,
you are in safe hand here, any questions on anything at all that is worrying you, then please just ask, don't sit and worry alone we are all one big family here (assuming you like family?)

NW x

[cymruambyth]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

All I can add is welcome and don't worry about anyone being judgemental. Most of us have made decisions that we regret or just had misfortune. Don't forget to ask questions about anything, you will amazed on the range of knowledge that is here.

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

Hi again, thanks for all of your lovely non judging replies! (The MSE page was horrible!) !

you got it in one. Judgmental

[SaltnVinegar]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

Hi Booglemooch

Hope that the amount of information I've asked you for hasn't frightened you off. My experience of Payday Loan companies is that they rarely adhere to the legislative requirements of the Consumer Credit Act, so the questions I'm asking are to determine if they have done so (e.g. the pre-contract information).

The other questions I asked are to understand your circumstances a little better, and hence advise you more correctly based on possible outcomes/risk.

I know it all seems a little daunting when you start out but if you have a read through the stories on this board you'll notice theres very few people we can't help.

Best
SnV

[Booglemooch]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

Hi-sorry I haven't replied to any of the thread on here but I have had a crazy few months!
Good news! I wrote to lending Stream and they have wiped all of my debts as a 'gesture of goodwill'. I had a very long rant at them about them being irresponsible lenders and not doing the correct affordability checks and they responded that my accounts with them have now being closed with no further monies outstanding-and CRS have also confirmed the same thing! Such a relief I can tell you!

[SaltnVinegar]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

Hi-sorry I haven't replied to any of the thread on here but I have had a crazy few months!
Good news! I wrote to lending Stream and they have wiped all of my debts as a 'gesture of goodwill'. I had a very long rant at them about them being irresponsible lenders and not doing the correct affordability checks and they responded that my accounts with them have now being closed with no further monies outstanding-and CRS have also confirmed the same thing! Such a relief I can tell you!

Hi Booglemooch

Did they write off ALL of the accounts? If so I would be very interested to get the information I asked for a while ago. We have a couple of members in the same position as you so would be interested to see whether there are circumstances the same (which I suspect there are as they have already had some loans written off also!)

Best
SnV

[Booglemooch]

Re: Lending stream four loans advice please?

Hi Booglemooch

Did they write off ALL of the accounts? If so I would be very interested to get the information I asked for a while ago. We have a couple of members in the same position as you so would be interested to see whether there are circumstances the same (which I suspect there are as they have already had some loans written off also!)

Best
SnV

Hi SnV, Yes they wrote off all four loans. I emailed them with the account numbers, outstanding amount and original amount borrowed and told them that I have no hope in clearing them and that it would take over 4 years at £25 a month and they replied that they have written them off.