Internet's first get-out-of-debt community - 129,000 members

oscar915

Let me share with you my recent experience with Langhorne debt solutions ( I did not know about this forum late last year so that is why I hired Langhorne).

I live in the State of Indiana and all of my loans were illegal except for the 1st Bank of Delaware one. I think this one might be legal because I applied for the loan online through Check N Go which has a store front in Indiana and also because this is considered a bank loan. I am checking with the Indiana Department of Institutions if this loan is legal or not.

I had 16 payday loans totaling an original balance of $7,050. I already paid $4,760 in principal and interest on these 16 loans. On principal only, I still owed $2,967 and I probably owed another $3,000 in interest. I did not know where to turn so I hired Langhorne. Langhorne's fees totaled $2,865 (this includes a $100 enrollment fee) for a 12 month period.

Langhorne required me to save $656/mo.for 12 months. The first 3 months they took $639 from my bank account for their fees. The next 2 months they took $319 for their fees and the remaining months they would take $30. They required me to save $7,877 for 12 months and $2,865 of this would be their fees. I would have around $5,012 left over to pay the payday loan companies.

Everything was fine until January 15, 2008. Sonic Payday (Northway Financial Corporation) garnished my wages for $309.96. I was completely shocked. This garnishment caused me $200 in overdraft fees. I had no extra money so I had to use my Langhorne money the next payday to cover lost dollars. In February, Langhorne expected me to pay off a few loans. I could only pay one loan off because of what happened in January. They had me pay Loan Point USA $200 through Western Union (Western Union charged a $12.95 service fee). So I paid it. When I went back to my records, I had taken out a $500 loan with Loan Point USA. I had already paid them back $600 and Langhorne made me give them another $200!! So I actually overpaid them by $300.

I'm getting back on my feet with Langhorne and I wanted to pay off a couple more loans and then Sonic garnishes my wages again for the amount of $435.94 on 4/15/08. I went into shock again and I had to pay another $200 in overdraft fees. Back in January, Langhorne had me send a Revocation of Wage Assignment letter to my payroll department so I did not think my payroll would garnish my wages again. Basically, Langhorne blamed my payroll department for doing this the 2nd time which I think they were correct in doing so. However, my payroll department would not do anything about it.

The 2nd garnishment put me back another 6 - 8 weeks and I had to borrow money from my Langhorne account to cover overdraft fess and other bills.

I did not hear from Langhorne for a long time except when they wanted to collect their fees. On June 3, 2008, I received an email that they are suspending my account. They claim they asked me numerous times for my bank statement and since I did not provide my bank statement, they could not settle payday loans for me. To my knowledge, the only time they asked me for my bank statement was on 4/11/08. Perhaps I should have sent them a bank statement on 4/11 but I waited a fews days and then the fiasco with Sonic happened again and I never sent them my bank statement. I did not have any funds in my Langhorne account to pay for any loans until I got back on my feet in late May/June.

On June 6, I get another email from Langhorne saying "...We haven't forgotten about YOU.....We can still HELP...." so I am thinking GREAT, they will still help me. In the meantime, a few days after June 16, I received a rude letter in the mail from Langhorne lecturing me how they have attempted to email me numerous times for my bank statement and Why have I ignored them and then proceeded to give me an example of buying a gym membership and never using it...blah blah blah.

The reason that I am upset is because they said I had 30 days to respond to the June 16 letter if I can demonstrate significant progress towards my savings. I have about $1,300 in my Langhorne account which is about $600 short of what I should have in it but remember I had to take the $400 in overdraft fees and about $200 other late fees from the Langhorne account due to my wage garnishments. I responded to their June 16 letter on July 10 detailing the Sonic problem which caused a major setback to their savings program and telling them that I could make it all up by August 31. On July 11, I emailed Langhorne asking them if they received my letter and that I would appreciate a response by July 16 if they were going to accept the terms of my letter. No answer. I emailed Langhorne this morning again telling them I need a response today. Their response was: "As of June 16 you were dropped from the program for failure to save." oh...so I guess they did not even consider giving me 30 days.

I don't think Langhorne is a bad company but they sure did not empathize with my situation. I just could not make up the money I lost from my Sonic garnishments and overdraft and late fees in a timely manner.

I paid Langhorne $2,715 in fees YTD and received one payday loan resolved which I overpaid anyway.

I would definitely negotiate the payday loans by yourself by using this forum. I could have used that $2,915 I gave to Langhorne and Loan Point USA and I would have been able to negotiate the loans and been done with it all by now.

Back to square one...

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 1:39 pm Subject:

Weren't you notified before hand about your court dates? It is unfortunate for you that you had to go through this but settling things on your own can be done with patience and saves you a bunch of money in the long run.

Good luck to you,

oscar915

Hi ladybug, Sonic illegally (yes, I mean very illegally) garnished my wages. No prior notice. No court date. Nothing. Langhorne told me to get an attorney but I could not afford one. BEWARE of sonicpayday.com. They are ruthless and messed up everything I had going with Langhorne.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 1:53 pm Subject:

This is exactly what I have said about Langhorne since I spoke with them in January. I didn't like thier attitude or their business practices. It was going to cost me a small fortune to have them settle PDLs that I had just about repaid the principal on. They told me that was the way it had to be. . . .the PDLs woudl not accept anything less than $150 to $200 over the principal and what I had already paid. Oscar, I don't think you are alone in this. I know that people have used them and have been very satisfied. I never gave them the chance. They told me that they had previous PDL experience (as in working as an employee of) and as such knew just what to do. In my opinion, if they knew what to do, they would negotiate and tell the PDLs that enough is enough. Their fees were way above what I was willing to pay to have someone do what I was sure I could do myself. I am now PDL free and I didn't use the help of anyone but the great people on this board. Call it what it is, but I don't think that their organization is much better than the PDLs themselves. The amount of money you have sunk into this hole, and gotten little much back, is pretty much proof of that. I am sorry for the aggravation you have had to endure as a result. I am also sorry that you are back at square one, months later. Perhaps you could give some info on your PDLs to a new start with us on the board?

oscar915

Thank you so much for your response. I'm glad somebody understands where I am coming from. I forgot to mention that Langhorne took 95% of their fees before they cancelled me.

Anyway, I have been thoroughly reading this forum for several months. I have the IN state laws for predatory loans and copies of letters that I got off of the forum to send out to the payday loan companies. I will keep in touch because I have to work on 15 loans so I am sure I will need help in the future. Also, I started to file complaints with the Indiana Department of Institutions, Attorney Generals Office and BBB regarding these Illegal payday loan companies. thank you.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 2:18 pm Subject:

You are off to a good start by handling this yourself...keep up the good work it will pay off in the end without having to pay someone else to do it for you.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 2:26 pm Subject:

Like Ladybug says, you are off to a good start and you are in good company here on the board. Just make sure your money is safe BEFORE you let the PDLs know that they are about to be cut off. If you don't they will go in anyway they can and take you for what they can find. Touch base often, ask questions and don't hesitate to ask for help. Most importantly, keep us posted on your progress.

oscar915

These PDL's are from late 2007. I have changed my bank account twice since then and NOBODY has access to it. I started paying all of my bills through my banks Online Pay Bill system and I do not even have checks because I don't want my account number to be floating off anywhere. I do believe Langhorne will keep my bank information safe even though they cancelled me.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 3:29 pm Subject:

That is ridiculous what has happened to you. Also I am in shock your payroll department allowed your wages to be garnished without notifying you at all Evil or Very Mad

A "Wage Assignment" is totally voluntary. For all that money you paid to Langhorne, they could have atleast informed you of that before they started taking their fees Mad

Any garnishment of wages has to be issued by a court. So in other words that was BS! Payroll should have never honored it! Langhorne informed you to send revocation of wage assignment after the second garnishment, a lil too late at that point Evil or Very Mad

Oscar you are on the right track now as the others stated. Just follow the advice of the people here on this forum, and you could be PDL free in a few months. Please, Please send a revocation of "Wage Assignment" letters to all current PDL companies. That is the first thing you do after bank account is secured Wink

Best of Luck!

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:53 am Subject:

thanks for the info, i considered them awhile back but thought it seemed expensive (payday loans arent legal in my state). it;s always good to hear people's experiences.

oscar0915

You have to be very very careful before you hire Langhorne or any debt company. If I would have known that Sonic payday was going to illegally garnish my wages and Langhorne PENALIZED me for it, I would have never hired them. Also, If I would have known about this forum 4 months before I hired Langhorne, I would have never hired them - even with 16 payday loans.

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:24 pm Subject:

Does your payroll department now understand that they are not to process any wage assignments and that you have revoked all of them? Having been a payroll manager many years ago, I am appalled that they would allow that second garnishment, even after you had revoked the wage assignments!

Good luck to you! It sounds like you are moving in the right direction!

oscar0915

I've worked for my company for 16 years (large well-known company HQ in Ohio) and to be honest, I should have had the audacity to send a note to the payroll manager after the 1st incident happned with all documentation. I only sent my documentation to the payroll analyst/clerk. I still get upset about it but I think it is too late to do anything about it now with the payroll manager.

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:23 pm Subject:

You might want to just make sure that the payroll manage knows that no other wage assignments are to be processed from this point forward--just in case anyone else tries.

Your feedback regarding Langhorne will be very useful on this board. I have seen many people asking about them and wanting to know how people who have used them have fared.

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:46 am Subject: debt

Just another example of 'Lawyers' who are "willing to help in time of need." Gosh..I think I've heard horror stories all over this forum. I'm SOOOO sorry all of this happened to you. Seems, what I read, anyway....these so-called lawyers, consolidation companies, etc. put us in MORE debt than we already are.

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:28 am Subject:

sd. . . you are exactly right. Once Langhorne told me that they had fomer PDL employees on board, I ended the conversation and never looked back. You would think that it would be comforting to know that THEY know the hazards of PDLs and are willing to help, but it is starting to look as if their knowledge is more harmful, than helpful. As for me, I would suggest using the advice on this board before resorting to outside help. As I stated on another post, seems as if people on coming on here, gathering information and when they finally do come forward, they are well prepared for what is ahead of them. In spite of all the agony that these slugs have provided for all of us, I do feel that things are moving forward and the PDLs are starting to be on the receiving end of their own self inflicted agony.

*Name:
*Email:
*Phone:
*Zip:
Debt

	* denotes required field

Internet's first get-out-of-debt community - 129,000 members

I would not hire Langhorne...Do it yourself

Members Area

Free Debt Counseling

Ask the community

Community Photos

Featured Discussions

Featured Articles

Question of the Month

Also See

Recent Forum Discussions

Recent Blog Post