What is the best way to go about this. Last Christmas I applied for a payday loan. It was $10 or $20. They told me they deposited it in my savings account. I called the bank several times and they told me nothing was deposited into my account. When it came due I didn't pay it, I told them I didn't get it, I'm not paying it. (They, of course, claimed it was deposited.) I was having a terrible month, financially, and I couldn't see the point. Each month the bill got larger. It's $157 and they turned it over to a lawyer. They tell it's going to court. I would be happy to settle rather than have a judgement on my record, if I could pay it little by little becuase I have a very small income and I'm trying to get through school, (at the age of 50). They want the whole thing. I just want it over. What should I do?
The only real way to go about it is to pay it off somehow. I understand that you don't have the finances to do that at this time so it seems to me that you have only two other options, one of them being to let it go to judgment and whatever might come after that. Depends on whether or not you have a garnishable job or income of some kind. If they get the judgment you can probably make better arrangements to pay it off than you can trying to deal with the payday loan people. You could also call the lawyer and agree to pay it off little by little as you can as long as you can stipulate to payments of maybe as little as $25 a month at least. The lawyer may want you to go for a stipulated judgment but you should never go for that under any circumstances. If he wants the judgment at least make the lazy sucker work for his pay. (LOL) The next to respond to the court and fight him off quite possibly ending up filing a federal case against him for violation FDCPA which he is almost sure to do. If you can't pay off a $157 loan then you very will may be able to file in forma pauperous and if you do that he will very quickly get a very sour taste for trying to collect those little payday loans indeed. Right now he probably thinks it is almost pure gravy but let him have to go out and spend a big bunch of money hiring another attorney to defend himself and that will change his mind real quick.
Do you have the bank statements which show NO deposit? If you have that evidence, then you may want to go to court. For if they did not deposit the money (in the correct account), then they broke thier own contract, and thus they cannot collect any fees and/or interest, let alone the original loan amount. You will need to have the original contract you took out with the loan service, and copies of your bank account. If you do not have the statements, the bank can reproduce them. They may charge you a "research fee", but it is probably worth it. Prepare to ask for the evidence of the deposit on the loan services side. My bet is that they don't have it, or they made an error on it. You might also want to turn to your state's Attorney General's office, with all the hype about these loans lately, they are in the legal spotlight. A call to the loan company's attorney's from the AG office may change their attitude.
I agree. If you can prove you never received the money, there is no reason to pay ANYTHING. What are you paying back if you didn't get anything. Get the evidence from the bank and tell them you'll see them in court. They assume you won't show up and they'll get a default judgment.
