provident agents [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

A question about : provident agents [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

Hi, I'm 'self employed' as an agent with provident. In the current financial climate there are quite a few customers struggling with their debts but we the 'AGENTS' are essentially subsidising the company. They have brought in a new policy where if a customer falls behind in payments they are penalising us upto Ј15 depending on the state of their account. As of today I stand to lose Ј50 this week as I know these customers cannot pay the amounts being asked for. There are lots of people visiting C.A.B and entering Iva's debt management etc which are outwith our control yet they see fit to still go ahead with this draconian measure. Lots of people are unhappy with this and we appear to be helpless and unable to stop this. Does anyone have any advice they could possibly give?

Best answers:

• Go to your contract. If it is there in the terms and conditions then re aware of it when you signed up and cannot now bleat about it. If it is not in your contract and you have not subsequently adopted it or agreed to it, then it cannot be forced upon you. However, your contract is presumably a one of business, not employment and as such, you are expected to shoulder some risk. How much will be in your contract.
• contract pretty much one of you collect money, dish out loans, 52 weeks of the year. we want time off we need a deputy. nothing in there about comissions etc.
• What did you moan about before?
  Should have more customers at the moment! or are people not using short term cash loans much these days?
• hi there, it's a shame you had a couple of negative replies to your query. (albeit some advice) i lurk on the debt free wannabe board alot and provident personal credit are really frowned upon because of the interest they charge however, i have used provident for many years and at the end of the day when your credit's shot to pieces, they are usually the only ones who will touch you with a barge pole. some people might see this as exploitation but that is the price you pay for getting into trouble with debt in the past (well that is my experience anyway) anyway, at the end of the day, agents are only trying to do a job (which are few and far between these days) i know that my provident agent just scrapes a living (she has been an agent for around 30 years) and often loses wages because of non payers.
  i would look really hard into your contract with them and hope that the contract you signed doesn't say anything about this Ј15 charge and maybe you can contest it. surely provident should chase up non payers on your behalf?
  since i get paid monthly i pay my provident money 4 weeks in advance to my agent on payday. could you do something similar with your monthly paid customers?
  i don't really know what else to suggest - provident are so so expensive, but at the end of the day no one forces loans on me and customers are well aware of their payments when they sign up. my loan is finished in august and i sincerely hope never to take another one out.
  if it gets so bad, you really should look for another job - hard at the moment i know - but one with hopefully less hassles for you.
• sorry - i just read you reply about nothing in your contract - surely they are breaking the contract? surely they have to state that sort of thing in it? i would maybe contact ACAS
• I was an agent for shopacheck and i was tired of being deducted monies for various errors by central admin, at the end of the day i thought the 7% commission i got wasn't worth the hassle, so i decided to leave which was the best thing i could've done.
• its a viscious circle at the moment, you take on more customers and they dont pay then you lose Ј15 through the system that provident are working. at the end of the day they say this is a bad debt charge against the customers being in arrears but lets face it if they were all squeaky clean then they wouldn't touch provident and provident actively encourage people with poor credit history. as I see it a debt is only bad when its gone full term and still outstanding!! the office managers, when you complain to them they say that we should see the company's books on bad debt but there yearly profits are up millions. To everyone else you are probably right that its time to move on but when you've been doing it 16 years with the same company its a wrench. thanks to all who tried to help.
• I also am an agent for provident and myself and my colleagues are furious at these new measures introduced to try and 'control' arrears. Apparently we have to be made accountable for the arrears on our books. We are already penalized for this as we are paid a lower rate of commission on customers who fall behind with their payments whether through genuine hardship or not. Also why should we be made accountable for someone losing their job or any other change in circumstances that prevent them being able to pay their weekly rate. Yes we are rewarded sometimes for attracting new business so maybe there should be some sort of 'claw back' when these accounts go 'bad' but under the new scheme its irrelevant whether we put the customer on or not. Any advice from other agents who have any info on how we can oppose this would be greatfully appreciated.
• Maybe there needs to be a mass walk out of agents. Then provident may have a rethink on this. I have already spoken to all my customers telling them of this situation. My customers back me all the way to the point that if I leave then none of them will pay their accounts or a token payment weekly. I will then go to another company reserve them loans and be in an even stronger position than before as anyone on reduced payments would be given a loan to suit their new circumstances. I am in contact with a few people and believe there is private meetings being arranged to see what type of backing there may be. If this type of unrest gets back to provident then they may have a change of heart and take a long hard look at themselves and their tactics in this current financial climate. Presently all development managers are doing telesales to drum up business that then may put customers over the top financially and then reduce payments, cab or debt management. Who then suffers? The agent again, not the D.M who usually end up with a big fat bonus and a pat on the back (for doing so well) I DONT THINK SO!!
• Im not really sure if a mass walkout is a good idea, as tempting as it seems. They would just terminate our agreements and during the current economic climate there are plenty of willing people to fill our shoes. But we still shouldnt be held to ransom. Unfortunately as im sure you're aware Stormchild, most of these decisions are made by the 'money men' in the higher positions. Most of them have never knocked a door in their life, or had to collect a round. They have no idea what its like. They think that by deducting this money we can suddenly make people pay more! If they could, we wouldnt have any arrears in the first place. But we do not live in an ideal world. We're supposed to be approachable when people face hardship, and do our best to help people through it. It has even been suggested by someone that if someone falls behind, give them another loan and take the arrears out of it to bring them upto date! Thats right, theyre in a hole lets just make it deeper shall we?! No wonder we have a bad name.
• I remember not so long back they used to 'fine' us Ј5 if we made a mistake on our loan agreements! it as just like being a child again, if you dont behave you dont get your pocket money! they suddenly stopped that though, maybe someone told them it was illegal??
• provident agent myself only way of beating the commission rip off, when you hit your hitlists, is to save your pluses, and save the money you get that week for the weeks you get a minus.or how about a one day stoppage/strike. its illegal to drip feed but thats what they are pushing agents to do,(but please any agent dont do this) i myself could end up losing 115 this week which is totally unfair, and i know agents that could be losing up to 200 a week in commission.i think any agent thats reading this should post to your facebook.and dont give the dms their bonuses. angry agent norfolk
• Hi Blondie, all it would take to stop D.M getting bonus(don't forget that if they don't get it neither does A.M, Rom's, Dom's etc nice thought aint it)is to miss a Ј500 sale from your and colleagues sales targets for a few months. Lets see them squirm then when all their jobs are on the line.
• i have got a provident loan and a greenwood loan...we had bad credit but a good income...then due to a tax credit balls up we had to reduce our payment so we had an arrangemnt with the prov and green manager that we would pay a nominal amount for the future untill situation improved
  my provident agent told me about the new charge on friday and told me her manager told her to tell the customers to pay provident and not greenwood so they wouldnt be charged
• There are many home collect companies who would look to recruit good agents, explore your opportunities by logging onto the lenders compared website and looking for the companies who trade in your area and see what they have to offer, this is a very competative industry and you are no doubt worth far more than you realise.