Provident Financial

PooBal

Hi Everyone,

Hope someone can assist. I have been a customer of Provident Financial for the last 5 years, I have taken out numerous loans with them. Last week I got a call from an investigator from Provident, he is investigating my agent. It turns out my agent wasn't recording the correct payment figures with Provident I.E if I payed him 50 Euro he was telling Provident I only paid 25.00, then a couple of weeks later he would pop the 25.00 back in. He was essentially borrowing 25.00 off my account any paying it back in when he could.

Also, I have cleared many of my loans early and I have never received a refund ( I'm guessing my agent was keeping this for himself). The investigator went through my account and he was able to tell me how many loans I payed back early. He is coming down this evening to take my books away for an audit. He would prefer if we sorted this out amongst ourselves without bringing in the regulator. I am just wondering should I receive a refund including interest e.g 20.00 @ 187.2% (interest) = 37.44 * 18 months = 673.92.

Would this be the figure I should be asking for as a refund or have a calculated wrong?
Thanks for any help.

jaymcg91

Sounds **** mate, this is why (when I used to get loans from them) I paid over the phone, much more clear what you're paying.

PooBal

Didn't know you could pay over the phone. My agent was constantly telling me I was in arrears even though I have never missed a payment. I now know why.

jaymcg91

PooBal wrote: »

Didn't know you could pay over the phone. My agent was constantly telling me I was in arrears even though I have never missed a payment. I now know why.

That's coz your agent was a crook! Mine used to hate coming round , so she gave me the freephone number for me to call up and pay. Also easy then to calculate the ESB (Early Settlement Balance) if I cleared a loan early (because they reduce the amount due). They also gave me reference numbers for every payment.

I'd be telling them I'm getting the regulator involved if they don't give you a decent refund also mate!

PooBal

I did give the regulator a call and they seemed a bit P***** that this was happening. They have given me some information on how to escalate it. I will wait to see what the investigator says this evening if I'm not happy I will be bringing it to the Ombudsman. I won't be using them again.

km991148

PooBal wrote: »

He is coming down this evening to take my books away for an audit.

Can you give copies only?
At least take copies (pics on your phone even) for yourself..

PooBal

km991148 wrote: »

Can you give copies only?
At least take copies (pics on your phone even) for yourself..

I took copies of everything this morning. Going through my books and I have made a lot of over payments.

Rob Thomas

What a nightmare for you. It's only lucky that you have your own records, many more may not have them. I imagine that if the agent was carrying on like this with you, he/she did the same with many others and there may be a web of inter payments to work through. Unfortunately anywhere you have money involved and lax processes in place (at their end) someone will eventually succumb to temptation.

Essentially the person calling to you will be charged with sorting it out for the company and making sure that you are not out of pocket as a result of this practice. Basically they are fair and it will be resolved to your satisfaction I would imagine but there are a few things I would counsel you to make sure of.

1. Is your credit record or standing in any way affected? Your payment record should be amended to show the payments you actually made and when you made them, not what the agent was fabricating.
2. You say you took out multiple loans, was the rate of interest you were charged or the terms of the borrowings affected by the poor repayment record the agent was saying you had? Were you considered a higher risk and charged higher rates?
3. You should receive the appropriate refunds for the early repayments you made plus interest on the money owed to you. That won't necessarily be the rate you were paying on the loan but it should reflect that you were without the money.
4. They will have their own process for dealing with customer complaints and concerns so the agent should be giving you a reference number, appropriate documentation and you should get regular updates through to resolution. If you are not satisfied you can then raise it with the regulator but you will need to go through the company's own process first. If the overall fraud is above certain levels the company will have to advise the regulator themselves anyway.
5. Make sure and get written confirmation that your personal data and information was not compromised at any stage by this agent or what they were doing. If they were robbing Peter to pay Paul chances are they were desperate and were careless with paperwork and documents also.

Good luck with it and remember the ball is in their court to sort it out to your satisfaction. I'm sure you don't want to profit on the actions of another but you should be compensated appropriately to reflect the difficulties you have encountered.