CAN THEY DO THIS?

I need your advice with a query that I lodged with a microlender.

The query was on direct debits that they sent to my account on dates that we had not agreed on thus creating unpaid transactions in my account.

I work in a financial institution so account misconduct is a serious offence which is why I then sourced some funds to close the account. After closure, I then lodged a query on around 6 transactions that they sent to my account on different dates and they only refunded one transaction, but on a complaint letter I sent, I also requested an apology letter to assist with my employer case.

The explanation I got for the one refund was that the other direct debits were sent on those dates because my account was in arrears, but my question was if they had the right to do so and if creating unpaid transactions and charges of P325 each on my account was punishment for arrears. I requested for the part that stipulates that in our signed contract and the apology letter but I am getting no responses.

Kindly advise.

I’m sorry to hear about your problem. I haven’t seen the contract you signed with the microlender but I suspect it says that if a customer is in arrears then they can take any catch-up payments whenever they feel like it.

Unfortunately, companies like this make money not only from the extraordinary interest rates and other charges they charge but also from the penalties they charge when anything goes wrong. The lender you chose is a particularly expensive one. For instance, if you borrow P10,000 from them over a year you’ll repay a total of P19,116. If you borrow just P2,000 over a year the total repayment will be an extraordinary P5,028. And that’s before anything goes wrong.

I’m also concerned about your position with your employer. Many banks and companies in the financial services industries insist that their employees don’t get into high levels of debt. They do this to minimise the chances that their employees can be bribed or influenced to break the rules. The decision you need to consider is whether honesty is the best policy.