Laughable attempt by Professional Debt Mediation/Paydaymax.com
Date: Thu, 09/10/2009 - 09:44
Around January of this year, we ran into some financial difficulty when my husband's hours got cut at work. Of course I did the stupid thing and got an online payday loan with paydaymax.com. When it was due, I paid the finance charge of $90 to have it renewed for 2 more weeks, hoping he would be at full-time hours again and I could just pay it off. I wasn't able to pay it off though and go in the cycle of continually paying the $90 every 2 weeks to keep renewing the loan. Pretty soon, I had paid more in finance charges then the principal, which was just $300!
So I asked if we could work on a payment arrangement, splitting the loan up in to 3 payments without accruing more finance charges, and then I would be done with them. The person I spoke with verbally agreed that this would fine and even emailed me a "pay agreement" letter stating I was going to pay $130 every 2 weeks for 6 weeks. It looked like a scanned copy of the letter, with a handwritten signature from the shift supervisor, "Julie M".
So 2 weeks rolls around and guess what - they debited my bank account for $660! When I called them to complain, the man I spoke with told me they don't make verbal agreements, that I had to sign some form and send it back, then it had to be approved, yada yada yada. He then launches in to how only "losers like yourself take out payday loans and then refuse to pay for them!" I explained to him that I wasn't refusing to pay for it, I just couldn't pay all the finance charges every 2 weeks. I then asked what the extra $270 was for and he said I was charged $90 finance fee for every 2 weeks the loan went unpaid. I told him that this was supposed to be the first payment on this date and asked why they had prorated the fees if this payment arrangement wasn't even binding as he said. He gets irrate and starts yelling at me, telling me he didn't need my help with his job and hung up on me.
I rushed to my bank right after because I did not have $660 in my account, spoke with my branch manager who understood me (thank god) and since the charge was still in "memo post" she reversed it back to the PDL company, closed my account and helped me open a new one. She also helped me out a fraud alert on my account as well as with the 3 credit reporting companies.
I let the hoopla die down for a couple of weeks, and decide to call back so I can make a payment, via a money order because I still want to pay them at this point. I speak with some woman who states that my loan is now in the legal department and I need to get a lawyer. She hangs up on me. That same day, I get a letter from Credit Protection Depot telling me I have 3 days to pay off what is now a $1300 debt due to their fees, the loan, and finance charges. So I come on here, find some really good advice and I file a complaint with the Indiana Attorney General, The FTC, the BBB and the Indiana State Department of Financial Institutions. I make a copy of every complaint I filed, along with the responses I receive back from them, I write a C/D and revocation letter and send it all to Paydaymax AND Credit Protection Depot and magically, I don't hear another word from either of them...................
Until now.......I get a phone call 2 weeks ago from "Don" at Professional Debt Mediation. He states that he is the account manager on my debt to Paydaymax and goes on to state that I have 7 days to pay them $2335! I ask him what the debt is for and he states "you shirked on paying your loan back in January!" I tell him that while he believes I shirked my responsibility to pay the loan, I had in fact worked out a pay agreement with someone at PDM, and could even send him the letter I was sent back then. He launches in to how his company now owns this loan, so I need to leave PDM out of it. I then ask him how my loan went from $390 to $2335 and he states "You've been charged our fee of $325, plus $90 for every 14 days that the loan has gone unpaid." Hmmm, sounds a little familiar. He continues to drone on about how it's people like me who have gotten this country in to the sad economic shape that it is and that everyone like me, should be rotting in jail.
So I am about to hang up when I decide to pull out my letter from the Indiana DFI which states that ALL internet loan companies who choose to do business in Indiana are doing so illegally. It also states that due to a new provision to the law, that when an internet PDL company conducts business illegally and knows they are doing so, the loan becomes Null and Void. I read the ENTIRE letter to him and get nothing but silence....... He then speaks up and demands to have a copy of the letter faxed to him that day. I go to Office Depot, pay the $2.50 to have it faxed and within 30 minutes, I am getting an ear full again from Don, who is stating the letter is fake (it's on official letterhead with an official Indiana state seal) and that I am now going to jail for fraud. I laughed, which infuriated him more and caused him to hang up on me.
I have retained a lawyer since this time, because we are having to file bankruptcy on all our medical debt. So someone calls me again from Professional Debt Mediation (funny how their acronym is the same as paydaymax, PDM...anyway) and says they are willing to work with me on my debt if I pay half now and half next month. I ask the lady this time "1/2 of what? Half of $390, because I'll do it!" and she says "Oh no, you have to pay $2335 plus our attorneys fees. We're going to court over this." So I say "Ummm, I am not paying attorneys fees if you haven't filed anything and I am certainly not paying $2335. I will pay my original loan amount, even though legally, I don't have to." She gets snippy and says "what do you mean legally?" I once again break out my letter from the DFI (no other agency was able to get in contact with them) and I read it, again, from start to finish. I also inform her that since she has ignored my C/D letter, she is violating the FDCPA and that "Don" did the same thing and they now owe ME money! I also inform her that unless the matter and loan are marked as Null and Void or Paid in Full, that I would put the PDL on my bankruptcy and they would get nothing.
Oh boy, don't ever tell a C/A that you plan on doing this because it will cause them to bring out the claws. She started ranting, saying I couldn't put a PDL on a bankruptcy and that I was once again, going to jail for fraud. I let her finish and then let her know what my docket number was for our bankruptcy and that she needed to note my account with the information and never call again. And then I hung up and filed another complaint with the DFI, FTC and BBB.
So I asked if we could work on a payment arrangement, splitting the loan up in to 3 payments without accruing more finance charges, and then I would be done with them. The person I spoke with verbally agreed that this would fine and even emailed me a "pay agreement" letter stating I was going to pay $130 every 2 weeks for 6 weeks. It looked like a scanned copy of the letter, with a handwritten signature from the shift supervisor, "Julie M".
So 2 weeks rolls around and guess what - they debited my bank account for $660! When I called them to complain, the man I spoke with told me they don't make verbal agreements, that I had to sign some form and send it back, then it had to be approved, yada yada yada. He then launches in to how only "losers like yourself take out payday loans and then refuse to pay for them!" I explained to him that I wasn't refusing to pay for it, I just couldn't pay all the finance charges every 2 weeks. I then asked what the extra $270 was for and he said I was charged $90 finance fee for every 2 weeks the loan went unpaid. I told him that this was supposed to be the first payment on this date and asked why they had prorated the fees if this payment arrangement wasn't even binding as he said. He gets irrate and starts yelling at me, telling me he didn't need my help with his job and hung up on me.
I rushed to my bank right after because I did not have $660 in my account, spoke with my branch manager who understood me (thank god) and since the charge was still in "memo post" she reversed it back to the PDL company, closed my account and helped me open a new one. She also helped me out a fraud alert on my account as well as with the 3 credit reporting companies.
I let the hoopla die down for a couple of weeks, and decide to call back so I can make a payment, via a money order because I still want to pay them at this point. I speak with some woman who states that my loan is now in the legal department and I need to get a lawyer. She hangs up on me. That same day, I get a letter from Credit Protection Depot telling me I have 3 days to pay off what is now a $1300 debt due to their fees, the loan, and finance charges. So I come on here, find some really good advice and I file a complaint with the Indiana Attorney General, The FTC, the BBB and the Indiana State Department of Financial Institutions. I make a copy of every complaint I filed, along with the responses I receive back from them, I write a C/D and revocation letter and send it all to Paydaymax AND Credit Protection Depot and magically, I don't hear another word from either of them...................
Until now.......I get a phone call 2 weeks ago from "Don" at Professional Debt Mediation. He states that he is the account manager on my debt to Paydaymax and goes on to state that I have 7 days to pay them $2335! I ask him what the debt is for and he states "you shirked on paying your loan back in January!" I tell him that while he believes I shirked my responsibility to pay the loan, I had in fact worked out a pay agreement with someone at PDM, and could even send him the letter I was sent back then. He launches in to how his company now owns this loan, so I need to leave PDM out of it. I then ask him how my loan went from $390 to $2335 and he states "You've been charged our fee of $325, plus $90 for every 14 days that the loan has gone unpaid." Hmmm, sounds a little familiar. He continues to drone on about how it's people like me who have gotten this country in to the sad economic shape that it is and that everyone like me, should be rotting in jail.
So I am about to hang up when I decide to pull out my letter from the Indiana DFI which states that ALL internet loan companies who choose to do business in Indiana are doing so illegally. It also states that due to a new provision to the law, that when an internet PDL company conducts business illegally and knows they are doing so, the loan becomes Null and Void. I read the ENTIRE letter to him and get nothing but silence....... He then speaks up and demands to have a copy of the letter faxed to him that day. I go to Office Depot, pay the $2.50 to have it faxed and within 30 minutes, I am getting an ear full again from Don, who is stating the letter is fake (it's on official letterhead with an official Indiana state seal) and that I am now going to jail for fraud. I laughed, which infuriated him more and caused him to hang up on me.
I have retained a lawyer since this time, because we are having to file bankruptcy on all our medical debt. So someone calls me again from Professional Debt Mediation (funny how their acronym is the same as paydaymax, PDM...anyway) and says they are willing to work with me on my debt if I pay half now and half next month. I ask the lady this time "1/2 of what? Half of $390, because I'll do it!" and she says "Oh no, you have to pay $2335 plus our attorneys fees. We're going to court over this." So I say "Ummm, I am not paying attorneys fees if you haven't filed anything and I am certainly not paying $2335. I will pay my original loan amount, even though legally, I don't have to." She gets snippy and says "what do you mean legally?" I once again break out my letter from the DFI (no other agency was able to get in contact with them) and I read it, again, from start to finish. I also inform her that since she has ignored my C/D letter, she is violating the FDCPA and that "Don" did the same thing and they now owe ME money! I also inform her that unless the matter and loan are marked as Null and Void or Paid in Full, that I would put the PDL on my bankruptcy and they would get nothing.
Oh boy, don't ever tell a C/A that you plan on doing this because it will cause them to bring out the claws. She started ranting, saying I couldn't put a PDL on a bankruptcy and that I was once again, going to jail for fraud. I let her finish and then let her know what my docket number was for our bankruptcy and that she needed to note my account with the information and never call again. And then I hung up and filed another complaint with the DFI, FTC and BBB.
Well, to begin with Paydamax is illegal in most (if not all) of
Well, to begin with Paydamax is illegal in most (if not all) of the U.S., never trust an illegal lender or the collection agencies they are supposedly affiliated with. CLICK HERE to find out how to deal with illegal lenders.
I get ya Shazzers....but at the time as someone who never had ev
I get ya Shazzers....but at the time as someone who never had even gotten a payday loan before, I was up for anything that would help us financially.
I am just amazed that I have this letter from the DFI stating they are illegal, it has now been sent to both PDM's twice, and still they keep trying to get me to pay and the amount keeps going up.
Plus, I just ran my credit report right after making my post and guess what.....it's on there now!
Quote:Originally Posted by katcunningtonI get ya Shazzers....but
Quote:
Originally Posted by katcunnington I get ya Shazzers....but at the time as someone who never had even gotten a payday loan before, I was up for anything that would help us financially. I am just amazed that I have this letter, it has now been sent to both PDM's twice, and still they keep trying to get me to pay and the amount keeps going up. Plus, I just ran my credit report right after making my post and guess what.....it's on there now! |
O dear, you'll need to dispute it on the grounds it was an illegal loan to begin with, just explain they aren't licensed to lend and you might want to include your state payday loan laws. Request the CRA ask for proof from the lender that they are licensed to lend in your state.