My bank, my card and Wonga

Vazlerm

Wasnt quite sure where to put this, but in desperate need of some advice.

The story...
Against better judgement, I used WONGA to get a short term loan on April 4th, it was due to be repaid in full on April 29th.

April 29th comes and first thing in the morning I recieve a text AND an email from WONGA billing me for late payment. So first off, it wasnt late, our agreement clearly said to be paid ON 29th april not by a certain time or before, but actually ON that date.
Secondly, following a phone call to my bank, I was informed the reason the money had not gone to WONGA that day was because WONGA themselves had actually compromised my card and so they had cancelled/stopped it and were re-issuing me a new card.

Completely furious at this but not willing to it on my mobile calling a premium rate number for something I am not at fault for, I emailed them explaining this situation. They emailed me back a generic response that didnt acknowledge a single point I raised, didnt answer a single question and gave me no indication of how exactly they expected me to pay with a card that they had caused to be cancelled. I re-emailed them and of course they decided to just ignore it and I have still not heard a thing from them except for threatening emails and texts about failure of payments.

Reluctantly and not wanting to get in any trouble or be accused of not wanting to pay what I owed, I gave cash to a friend and just had them call the automated payment line and enter the amount they wished to pay and their card details. The debt was paid completely in full, on the 29th april as agreed.

Today I have been informed that WONGA have gone and took MORE money out of her account on two seperate transactions. Considering she keyed in the amount she wished to pay on that card, surely its not legal for them to then bill random amounts to her card when they feel like it. She had no agreement with them, gave them no authorisation and has had no contact with them since that one payment.

I have sent WONGA repeated emails, tried to comment on their own forums which conveniently dont allow comments anymore (no posts in almost 2 months on a loan website? I dont think so). I have even emailed the FLA who supposedly endorse them and have their logo all over the WONGA site, yet they havent replied either.

She will be going to the bank first thing in the morning to cancel her card. But this doesnt fix the problem of her now being owed money or the fact that I am still recieving texts and emails claiming I owe them money when I stuck to the agreement. I am also without my main visa card which is causing me a lot of problems while I wait for the new one to arrive.

So in summary what I want to know is, who do I contact about card fraud due to them repeatedly charging her card without permission. Who do I contact about my credit file being affected by WONGAs mistakes and who/what/where should I go now? what should I do?

I would greatly appreciate any advice! Thank you

zppp

Vazlerm wrote: »

Wasnt quite sure where to put this, but in desperate need of some advice.

The story...
Against better judgement, I used WONGA to get a short term loan on April 4th, it was due to be repaid in full on April 29th.

April 29th comes and first thing in the morning I recieve a text AND an email from WONGA billing me for late payment. So first off, it wasnt late, our agreement clearly said to be paid ON 29th april not by a certain time or before, but actually ON that date.
Secondly, following a phone call to my bank, I was informed the reason the money had not gone to WONGA that day was because WONGA themselves had actually compromised my card and so they had cancelled/stopped it and were re-issuing me a new card.

Completely furious at this but not willing to it on my mobile calling a premium rate number for something I am not at fault for, I emailed them explaining this situation. They emailed me back a generic response that didnt acknowledge a single point I raised, didnt answer a single question and gave me no indication of how exactly they expected me to pay with a card that they had caused to be cancelled. I re-emailed them and of course they decided to just ignore it and I have still not heard a thing from them except for threatening emails and texts about failure of payments.

Reluctantly and not wanting to get in any trouble or be accused of not wanting to pay what I owed, I gave cash to a friend and just had them call the automated payment line and enter the amount they wished to pay and their card details. The debt was paid completely in full, on the 29th april as agreed.

Today I have been informed that WONGA have gone and took MORE money out of her account on two seperate transactions. Considering she keyed in the amount she wished to pay on that card, surely its not legal for them to then bill random amounts to her card when they feel like it. She had no agreement with them, gave them no authorisation and has had no contact with them since that one payment.

I have sent WONGA repeated emails, tried to comment on their own forums which conveniently dont allow comments anymore (no posts in almost 2 months on a loan website? I dont think so). I have even emailed the FLA who supposedly endorse them and have their logo all over the WONGA site, yet they havent replied either.

She will be going to the bank first thing in the morning to cancel her card. But this doesnt fix the problem of her now being owed money or the fact that I am still recieving texts and emails claiming I owe them money when I stuck to the agreement. I am also without my main visa card which is causing me a lot of problems while I wait for the new one to arrive.

So in summary what I want to know is, who do I contact about card fraud due to them repeatedly charging her card without permission. Who do I contact about my credit file being affected by WONGAs mistakes and who/what/where should I go now? what should I do?

I would greatly appreciate any advice! Thank you

First of all it is not card fraud. When you enter a loan agreement with Wonga, you put your card details into the website and authorise them to debit the funds from your account in addition to any late payment fees etc. This happens automatically, so if you don't pay, you have given authorisation for them to debit money from your account. (I know this because I have applied recently to get Quidco cashback.)

Regarding the queries about your agreement, it may be worth using saynoto0870 to find a non premium rate number, and confirm why you recieved messages etc saying you are in arrears. Furthermore, given that yor friend has paid them, you should ask them to make a refund for the card payments if required.

fozmcfc

So was the money in the account by 00:01 on the 29th for Wonga to take is the question here.

There is no time specfied, if Wonga attempt to take it out at 00:01 ON the 29th, they haven't broken any agreement.

Basically the money need to be in the bank on the 28th April latest to make sure the payment is made.

DebtHater

To be honest, an urgent problem like this shouldnt really define whether you call their 0870 number or not. If it was me, I would just call them up, its 10p per minute but its also sorting out this big mess.

"Alternatively you can call our customer care team on 0871 288 5704, or our collections team on 0844 842 9109, during office hours (calls cost 10p per minute)"

It also does state clearly in their FAQ page (which isnt small print!) that they will charge your card if they havent received payment from you:

What happens if I don’t repay my loan?

We make every effort to avoid that situation and the vast majority of customers repay our trust in them. So we hope it never comes to this, but here's a straightforward explanation of what could happen if you don't repay a cash advance as promised...
If our early morning collection attempt is declined by your bank - because you haven't ensured there are enough funds available - we will do our best to contact you throughout the day. We always hope to resolve the situation that day but, if we still haven't received full repayment by 5pm on the due date, you will incur a £20 missed payment fee towards the cost of a failed collection. We will then make further attempts to collect the money from your card and also keep trying to contact you to discuss the situation with you as soon as possible.
Your account will be handled by our professional collections team. They will do their best to come to an arrangement with you and help you resolve things, which is always our goal. Wonga doesn't believe in hitting you with multiple charges, like most traditional lenders will, but interest will continue to accrue on your balance for up to 60 days if we can't reach a fair agreement in the meantime. If you don't work with us and we can't recover the money over a reasonable period, your account may be passed to an external collections partner.
Continued failure to repay a loan will mean credit reference agencies (CRAs) will record the outstanding debt. This information may be supplied to other organisations by CRAs and fraud protection agencies to perform similar checks and to trace your whereabouts and recover debts that you owe. Records remain on file for six years after they are closed, whether settled by you or defaulted.
Finally, your Wonga trust rating will be hit hard and you probably won't be able to borrow from us again. In a nutshell,please don’t apply for a loan if you think you might struggle to pay it back in full and on time.It’s really not worth the potential consequences for a few hundred pounds.

To be honest, I think you may have misunderstood their process. It states that they have an "early morning collection" from your bank, and failing their 5pm collection run then you will start getting charges, which is what I assume the extra transactions are on your friends card.

Apples2

So first off, it wasnt late, our agreement clearly said to be paid ON 29th april not by a certain time or before, but actually ON that date.

We had a long running thread like this fairly recently.
In that case the OP was adamant it was up to him what time of the day he would make the money available to Wonga.

The upshot of that query, the same as this one, is that it is simply crazy not to ensure the payment is ready for collection at midnight the day before it is due.

In complete accordance with the T&C's, they are now free to withdraw funds from ANY card associated with your file (your friend's). This is something you agreed to before taking the loan out.

OP, you may not agree but this issue is absolutley your own doing by not ensuring you had the money available. They stated the date they would attempt recovery along with what would happen if it fails.

kerrypn

Vazlerm wrote: »

Reluctantly and not wanting to get in any trouble or be accused of not wanting to pay what I owed, I gave cash to a friend and just had them call the automated payment line and enter the amount they wished to pay and their card details. The debt was paid completely in full, on the 29th april as agreed.

Today I have been informed that WONGA have gone and took MORE money out of her account on two seperate transactions. Considering she keyed in the amount she wished to pay on that card, surely its not legal for them to then bill random amounts to her card when they feel like it.

Surely this isnt right? If you have paid in full why are they recovering more money?

Definitely worth the cost of the phone call to resolve OP

Apples2

The extra money would have been the fee for the late payment and the cost of the text message and email due to the request for payment failing.

Always worth a call though, you never know, you may end up with a sympathetic ear on the other end (miracles sometimes happen!).

sharpy2010

Apples2 wrote: »

In complete accordance with the T&C's, they are now free to withdraw funds from ANY card associated with your file (your friend's). This is something you agreed to before taking the loan out.

No, this is wrong. The OP cannot give permission for the friends card to be debited more than the one time that it was, so regardless of Wonga.COM's terms and conditions, this is not allowed.

Vazlerm

zppp wrote: »

First of all it is not card fraud. When you enter a loan agreement with Wonga, you put your card details into the website and authorise them to debit the funds from your account in addition to any late payment fees etc. This happens automatically, so if you don't pay, you have given authorisation for them to debit money from your account. (I know this because I have applied recently to get Quidco cashback.)

Regarding the queries about your agreement, it may be worth using saynoto0870 to find a non premium rate number, and confirm why you recieved messages etc saying you are in arrears. Furthermore, given that yor friend has paid them, you should ask them to make a refund for the card payments if required.

At the risk of sounding arguementative... I have to say I do hate it when people dont read properly, then feel the need to comment on a thread.

I clearly stated that

A) my card got cancelled by my bank on the 29th due to WONGA THEMSELVES compromising my card. So I wrote immediately to WONGA by email, this was early in the morning. There was money in my account several days before the 29th and on the 29th so that was never an issue. And they were informed about the problem long before this so called 5pm cut off that has been mentioned by another poster.

AND MORE IMPORTANTLY

A friend of mine CALLED and made a ONE OFF payment on their card which is not in my name, not owned by me and at no point did she give them persmission to take any amount other than the amount she keyed in on that day (29th) which was the amount they were owed ON THE 29th

So yes, it is fraud to repeatedly use someones card when they have only given you permission to use it once for a single transaction. Im sure you would be overjoyed if you went shopping and a few days later found that those shops had randomly decided to throw a few more charges onto your card.

And to the ones stating about a late charge. I dont think so. They have compromised my card, my bank have therefor blocked the card and they were contacted and informed of this early hours of the day they were due to be paid. They acknowledged my first email, therefor admitting that they had been informed, yet have still proceeded to keep sending me texts and emails about late charges and repeatedly bill someone elses card.

Thank you to those who have commented and read my post properly.

Apples2 you really shouldnt be commenting. Ring their payment line and it says very clearly "to make a one off payment with a card not associated with your account press..." which she did, so yes for them to keep her card details and continue to bill her card, is fraud. Especially as she entered into no agreement with them at all except for keying in ONE SPECIFIC amount of money ONCE and the moment they take more than that amount, they are commiting theft.
And its my own doing because WONGA caused my card to be cancelled by my bank by compromising it?? How do you figure that one out? Seriously dont comment if you are unable to comprehend.

Clive_Woody

Vazlerm wrote: »

A) my card got cancelled by my bank on the 29th due to WONGA THEMSELVES compromising my card.

Out of curiosity how did they compromise your card to the extent the bank decided to cancel it?

Vazlerm

One further note...

If wonga are so trustworthy and reliable, confident in how great they are, why have the not allowed any comments on their forums for almost 2 months?

Also on their site it clearly states
We hope it never comes to this, but if you still feel unhappy after discussing the matter with us, you can make a formal complaint in writing to [EMAIL="customercare@wonga.com"]customercare@wonga.com[/EMAIL]. We will normally respond to your complaint – and endeavour to resolve it - within 48 working hours. If your complaint is particularly complex, however, it may take longer to investigate. In these cases, we will always explain why there is a delay and tell you when we will contact you again. If you are not satisfied with our response you can appeal the decision by writing to us again, stating your objections and providing any new information to be considered.

Yet I have emailed them more than 6 times, twice alone on the 29th and they have made no attempt to resolve this issue or discuss anything with me. I have not received a reply to my issues.

After a discussion with her bank about this matter today, they were very quick to cancel her card also and have taken steps to recover the amount extra they have taken stating it is unlawful and they had no right to those extra amounts under the circumstances. So once again, please dont comment on something you know nothing about Apples2.

I am still waiting to hear from WONGA but they now have no valid card details.