Grrr Wonga help please!

stephbond89

Got a loan from Wonga a couple of months ago- yes i know i know stupid of me...

Anyway since then we had problems with our council tax (see my last post for info!) and so they are my number 1 priority debt, so I cannot afford the £100 I owe to Wonga.

They are emailing me about ti all the time- they ahve my bank details (card details), I ahve cancelled the card, but the bank told me a payment is still likely to go through from a cancelled card if they try to take it as its pre authorised apparently.

Anyway, I emailed them telling them I cannot afford the £100 and that the most I can afford to pay them is £1 per month the same as all of my other non priority debts are receiving now, but they are threatening to take the whole amount due from my card over the next 7 days!!! If they take this money, it will really mess me up, and will mean I won't have the money to pay my priority debt to the council!!! I ahve contacted the bank who basically say it is between me and Wonga.

I have basically withdrawn my authorisation for the use of my card, and have given them a payment plan which I can afford, but if they are refusing to accept it and then take the full amount from my card (whcih if they try everyday will eventually go through when our wages are paid in, and it would be before my other bills and debts were paid meaning something else wouldn't be paid!), where do I stand?!

I ahve threatened to notify the police if they take the money (as as far as I am concerned if I have asked them not to take the full amount and given them a payment plan, but they still take it, then it is theft) and the FLA (who they're a member of), but they don't seem particularly bothered by it to be honest!!!

Where do I stand? If they sent this to a debt collector, I would know how to cope with it as I would simply offer them payment which I know they're likely to accept, and if not theres not much they can do, but Wonga have my card details whihc according to the bank they can do as they please with as I entered into an agreement which I have broken.

Yes I know I shouldnt have gotten the loan if i couldnt pay it back, but at the time I didnt have a problem with paying it back, and then the problem cropped up witht eh council and now I need to pay them, which is 100 times more important.

I am hoping to be able to find £100 to pay them off, but its hihghly unlikely Id be able to do thsi without getting into more money mess...

advice please!

PNPSUKNET

do an soa and lets see where you can cut back.

stephbond89

I have done an SOA loads of times on here for various things, and we have established that at the moment there is nothing I can cut back on as most things are under contracts which I have negotiated down and down to the lowest they can go- this has ended up costing me a fortune in phone bills, but has saved me around £30-£40 a month.

I dont want help with my budget in all fairness, I want to know what I can do about Wonga at this moment. I dont mean that to sound disrespectful and I know your trying to help by seeing where I can cut back on my budget, but there seriously is nowhere at the moment where I can cut back at the moment until my contracts come to an end and I can cancel those and get freeview and PAYG phones (the only bills I can cut back on are those two bills).

At the moment, I just want advice on how to deal with Wonga, and what I do should they take £100 out of my bank in the next week meaning I can't pay other things, more important things like my rent and my priority debt (council tax).

chuckley

check they havent set up a D/D as they have the acc # n sort code. once your old card is 'lost', the old one wont work, as the bank will have sent you a new 1. call them asking about payment plans. OR just send them a letter with a payment you can afford and when you will next be able to pay the rest.

stephbond89

no definitely no direct debit, I check it everyday!!! lol, I have online banking so keep a VERY close eye on my bank account after having some fraudulent activity on there two months in a row this year! So I know there is no dd set up, or standing order which is good

I thought that too about the card, but according to the bank man, he said that 99.9% of card payments will go through even for a cancelled card as they are pre authorised once the company has your card details...now I dont know if he meant a card payment which had already been put through (so if I went to Asda and spend £300 then cancelled my card), or all card payments which were put throguh after that...I think it must be onlyt ones which have already been put through though, as surely the idea of cancelling the card is to stop payments like that...!?

I have emailed them about a payment plan, offering just £1 a month (this is literally all I can afford at present!) but they're threatening to take the full amount anyway and refusing my payment offer!

climbintheladderouttadebt

Hi Steph,

my first bit of advice would be to get a new bank account with a new bank (who you owe no money to and are not linked to anyone you owe money to) and have wages paid into it. Although I realise you're on tight deadlines with wages etc. Perhaps when your wages go in, withdraw them immediately? cancel all dd's & so's and pay bills by cash?

My friend has run into a similar problem with MoneyShop - she changed her account and card details but stayed with the same bank. MS took £300 before payday, unauthorised from the new account, and its caused a right mess. But these situations are manageable.

Contact your local council asap and show them what's happening, if Wonga do take this money. What is the status with the council debt? Are the courts involved yet?

climbintheladderouttadebt

Ah - just checked your other threads and seen your recent post re the council (I read it last week!)

The Wonga payment can still go through with your old card details, so I believe.

stephbond89

Hello
I do have another bank account which is completely unattached to the account with Wonga, but my husband isnt on the account, its my own account, so his wages cannot be paid into it- it must be an account with his name on it and as he has terrible credit, they wont give him an account so no way of even adding him to it.

The money been taken out onm payday which is the 6th, wouldnt work if they put the payment through that morning sadly

I dont honestly think the council would "let me off" not paying £100 of the debt i owe them after all the trouble I had securing the arrangement with them, even if I explained what had happened, we are paying them £194 this month to clear one of the accounts debts! I am actually meant to be getting some money which my mum has inherited this month, and if that arrived in time there wouldnt be a problem as Ill be paying the debt off with that anyway, but without it, it would put us into a HUGE financial mess for this month. I "could" not pay the council this month, but it would only cause problems for myself which I have oinly just managed to sort out!

I am hoping that they do actuaslly read the email i sent them today (they dont seem to read anythign and NEVER reply!), I am thinking of contacting my bank about it and asking what they suggest or if they could guarantee me that the money wouldnt go out of my account or that if it did, they would honour it...but i doubt it lol!!! I finally sort one financial mess out and then another crops up! Its really not a great situation for an 8 month pregnant woman to be in!!! lol

chuckley

steph, im suprised the bank gave u this advice. Ive never heard of it and it never happened to me. they only managed to take money until my card was lost. they tried but bank refused as i had a new card. same process with another I bank with.

UNLESS u asked them to cancel the card rather than report the card as lost?! banks get fussy with cancel requests when the account is still active. thats probs why they are saying it will still go out of the funds are there.

stephbond89

I reported it as stolen as I had fraudulent activity on the account, it was the Fraud dept I was speaking with! Apparently if its its cancelled normally it is still active for up to 31 days or something, but no this went through the fraud dept. I must admit, I did get a call to say they tried to take a payment from Fraud and they didnt put it through, so I am hoping this would happen again, I think they must have been talking about if a payment had already "gone through" to pending, so as I said if i went to the shop anhd used my card! I hope so anyway!!!!!!!! But still worried me about them! I have now complained to the FLA who they're associated with and hopefully that'll get it sorted

Marisco

Hi Steph, you say your husband cannot pay his wages into your account, is that because his work won't allow it? The reason I ask is, my son was able to get his wages paid into my account, and his JSA when he was unemployed. All he had to do was write and sign a letter of authorisation, and there was no problem. As to the card, they shouldn't be able to take payments off a new card as it would have a different number to your old one. When I lost mine, they issued me with a new card and it wasn't 'till I got a letter off a couple of things I pay by card that I realised it was a different number on the card!! I never gave it a thought to be honest:o