Court summon - Payday loan Irresponsible lending?

[PotatoPeel99]

Hello y'all!

I've been racking by brain over this way too much to the point where even the most obvious of details make hardly any sense, so I apologise if any of the content contained in this post makes little sense or may sound confusing, please let me know if you want any specific details, I'll be more than happy to try and re-explain the situation if need be

I've been browsing the forum every now and then out of interest for the financial world, yet this is my first time posting, so be nice!

So, to cut a long story short I received a court summons today over a payday lender which ended up selling the debt to a collection agency, I'm currently at a loss at what to do, until I came across this link which I've seen dotted all around the forums with folks going through the same issue

https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/

Now, although a summon is in place (Received on the 6th of November 2017) is it still possible to take this route? am I too late to pursue this type of action?

When I had this loan (around 2 years ago) I was a student that lived in the city while struggling financially, after rent I was usually left with aprox. £150 to last me throughout a month, living in the city this isn't much to afford travel to University and ofcourse to eat well, lets not even get started on course materials..

So I resorted to (stupidly ) taking out a payday loan from a company that is 'For Students, by Students'

Having a look at my account statement with this company, this is pretty much the long and short of it. Just to clarify this company allows you to top-up your loan as you need it (up to a certain amount) they also offer a 'Loan extended' option for those who want a few extra DAYS to pay the funds back. They give you 10 days maximum to pay back any money you borrow, so bare this in mind.

12/09/14 - £150 borrowed
16/09/14 - £76 added to original amount to total £226 (Top up)
30/09/14 - Loan date extended (Couldn't afford)
06/10/14 - Loan date extended again (couldn't afford)
7/10/14 - Full amount paid off (although again, I struggled, I had to ask my family to help) this left me with practically no money for an entire month, I literally had to live off £50 for the month and survive on 10p noodles
6/11/14 - £150 borrowed
11/11/14 - Topped up to £514- Paid back family, needed money to travel, pay off all sorts of things
18/11/14 - Payment made using Student Finance money, this left me with even less money to live on to begin with....
11/30/14 - £350 borrowed to help balance the loss from having to pay off previous loan of £514
3/1/15 - I was at home during this period (christmas/new year) so this allowed me to save up money I would've spent while living in the city and I paid off the remaining balance (total at £457.80 including interest) (Mum and Dad covering food, bills, water and everything else at home honestly almost made me cry, was nice to not have to worry about those expenses....for now.

After the last payment I was now in hotwater, I wouldn't get my Student Finance for awhile yet, I had no money and nothing to live on...

1\3\15 - Borrowed £100
22/3/15 - By this date after borrowing even more, it totalled £474

Then the late payment charges and all sorts of fees were added on, the total on the summons is for £674 (includes £60 court fee)

I was a student that had very little student finance money coming in, when I did have it, it went fast due to how expensive rent/food/travel accumulated in a short amount of time. I've had some family help, sure. But it didn't help my situation much, only made me borrow more to pay off what the Payday company wanted.

Do I have a chance at fighting this?

Do I have no choice but to take this on the chin and learn from mistakes here? (although if you can't tell, I already have learnt from these mistakes, it's still biting me in the butt!)

Again, sorry if you struggle to make sense of this, panic can have that effect I guess?

Much love in advance! - Thank you for taking the time to read

[Kati]

Re: Court summon - Payday loan Irresponsible lending?

tagging [MENTION=48934]Debt Camel[/MENTION] xx

[Debt Camel]

Re: Court summon - Payday loan Irresponsible lending?

ok first thing to do is sling in a complaint to Smart Pig (I assume that is who the lender was?) about all your borrowing including the last loan. The last loan is now tricky as a court case is already underway but complain about it anyway. Even if you only get a refund for the earlier loans (was it three loans (some topped up) that you repaid?) this will help you be able to pay off any CCJ you do end up with.

You have seen the Debt Camel page - use the template there, skip the step one as you know the exact dates and amounts so send a full complaint straight away. Don't waste any time trying to improve it. That page is the best place for questions about the refunds as opposed to the court process. If Smart Pig says no, or refuses to look at the last loan, send the whole complaint to the Financial Ombudsman asap. You do not want ANY time where there is no active complaint in about the last loan.

Have you read https://debtcamel.co.uk/court-payday-loan-debt/ ? As that says the ideal is to get your case stayed whilst the complaint goes through. So tell the debt collector immediately you have made a complaint and ask them to stay the court action.

Only if the debt collector (who is it?) refuses to do this need you fall back on an irresponsible lending complaint.

If the debt collector wont stay the court action or doesn't respond, you need to file a defence in time. Make sure you ask for a copy of the CCA agreement for the debt.

Were you sent a Letter before Action/Claim by the debt collector before the court papers? If so what date? And did it look like the one discussed here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/letter-before-claim-ccj/