Vanquis Scam?

CoinCollector

Hi can anyone shed light on this or help?

A friend got a Vanquis card and paid a bill with £69.50 to Yes Loans Ltd and £150.00 to CTM Ltd. They have received nothing from either company but mistakenly paid the bill. Those companies seem very dubious, and are Vanquis colluding with them?

Can we recover this?

We will be cancelling the card as we have lost confidence in the integrity of Vanquis, who seem to charge a £1 direct debit in any month that you do not use the card. Sharks

Apples2

Shock Horror!!

A Credit Card Company paid out to a company you agreed to pay!!

Are you for real??

CoinCollector

HI the first one they had probably agreed to pay, the second one they had not. So how do you do a chargeback?

Yes Loans misleads people into paying to submit an application. That is debatable.

The second company demanded credit card details to provide any information on the phone about getting a loan, then billed £150.00 without saying they would and without any kind of invoice or statement of what they were charging for, and were rude and abusive on the phone so the victim paid to make them go away. How do they recover their £150.00? Seems meanwhile that company has changed its name - maybe it was a scam.

jen245

How on earth have you come to the conclusion that Vanquis are involved somehow? Sounds to me liike your friend was silly for paying for something they didnt want. I wouldnt pay anyone £150.00, just to make them go away. Your friend could have just hung up the phone, without giving out their card details.

CoinCollector

Hi it is the inexplicable £1 direct debits that made me question Vanquis - it shows all balance paid for previous bill, then adds a £1 direct debit with no explanation.

As said they gave their card details as they were foolish enough to take that to be a form of verification - clearly a company preying on the vulnerable.

But I've actually twice been asked card details online from companies that did not make a charge, they just wanted to verify identity and ability to pay before doing anything on your behalf, and they turned out to be trustworthy. So that does happen.

They have received no invoice and no product from the second company, so how do we get Vanquis to do a chargeback?

CoinCollector

I looked at the bill again. The £150.00 to CTM was to a company called Beneficial Claims Limited who send out emails offering loans. They have now changed their name to all three of these:
We Fight Any Claim Limited
We Fight Any Claim .com
We Fight Any Claim

i see they have been mentioned on this forum
forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2592181

Basically having got a call from someone upset who read their email and wanted a loan, they spent 45 abusive minutes telling them they must first apply to get a PPI refund.

callum9999

CoinCollector wrote: »

Hi it is the inexplicable £1 direct debits that made me question Vanquis - it shows all balance paid for previous bill, then adds a £1 direct debit with no explanation.

As said they gave their card details as they were foolish enough to take that to be a form of verification - clearly a company preying on the vulnerable.

But I've actually twice been asked card details online from companies that did not make a charge, they just wanted to verify identity and ability to pay before doing anything on your behalf, and they turned out to be trustworthy. So that does happen.

They have received no invoice and no product from the second company, so how do we get Vanquis to do a chargeback?

Why don't you just ask Vanquis what they are before you start slandering them?

jen245

If you want them to do a chargeback, calling them would be a good start. As far as I can see, Beneficial Claims do not provide finance, they specialise in trying to get people out of paying for their debts (not very well by the sounds of it), so why did your friend contact them for a loan? There is also Beneficial Finance (part of the HSBC group), who do provide personal finance but are nothing to do with Beneficial Claims

I have a feeling your friend is not giving you the full story

CoinCollector

callum9999 wrote: »

Why don't you just ask Vanquis what they are before you start slandering them?

Why don't you stay on topic and not use words like slander?

The specific questions posed were:

Those companies seem very dubious, and are Vanquis colluding with them?

Can we recover this?

And this fact was pointed out:

seem to charge a £1 direct debit in any month that you do not use the card.

That and their unhelpful call centre resulted in a loss of confidence.

It would be useful to know if others are experiencing those charges.

CoinCollector

jen245 wrote: »

If you want them to do a chargeback, calling them would be a good start. As far as I can see, Beneficial Claims do not provide finance, they specialise in trying to get people out of paying for their debts (not very well by the sounds of it), so why did your friend contact them for a loan? There is also Beneficial Finance (part of the HSBC group), who do provide personal finance but are nothing to do with Beneficial Claims

I have a feeling your friend is not giving you the full story

Hi thanks for the info. As I understand it they send out emails, probably spam, offering loans and that gets you to ring them - they then insist you must make a PPI claim via their We Fight Any Claim operation, then they send your details to Yes Loans who charge you £70.00 to apply for a loan which you do not get.

Kyresa

Re the £1 charge, I suggest your friend reads the terms and conditions readily available here:
http://www.vanquis.co.uk/vanquis-card/terms-and-conditions

Particularly point 3.7:
3.7 If in any statement period you incur interest (excluding ROP Charges) and that interest is less than £1, a minimum finance charge of £1 will be added to your Account in place of that interest which will be waived.


Second, Your friend asked these companies for a service, they handed over the card number. All these companies did was process it and Vanquis paid it, like any regular transaction.

Vanquis is a credit builder card if you've had bad credit, the fact that your friend has to go to yes loans and get debt write offs should concern you more!!! Plus, these companies cannot "insist" you do anything. Your friend could easily have just said no and put the phone down.

You can either contact the companies and ask if they will refund the money - there should be a cooling off period? Failing that, contact Vanquis (the ones you call scammers etc) and tell them that the card has been charged in error and without authorisation. They should then put a hold on the charge.