Wonga.com

Tixy

ploddingon wrote: »

I don't mean to sound high and mighty at all, but doesn't he just need to ring his bank and cancel his debit card? They would send through a new one and that's that. He could still withdraw funds from his bank account in person until the new card showed up, not that it sounds like he would be using it much. Why go to all the hassle of opening a new bank account? Just saying it how I see it.

A lot of payday loan companies are able to deduct money straight from your account if you cancel/'lose' your debit card. Its written in the T&Cs that they can withdraw the money from your account by other means -and they know your bank details from when they paid the loan.

I don't know whether this particular outfit can/does do this - but there are lots of instances of this happening across the forum. This thread mentions some I think (from memory) - Dealing with Payday Loan Companies

If you read some of the cases on that thread and similar ones across the forum you might think its worth opening a new account - which isn't really that much of a hassle to do.

skintandscared_2

This is true. Cancelling a bank card doesn't change anything - they still have the account number and sort code and will still get their money. I have no personal experience with these companies, thank god, but have read enough stories about them on here to know that's exactly what happens.

[Deleted User]

Fair play, I read through the thread Tixy provided and it seems, unless I read it wrong, that Wonga is one of the companies that does take money from a bank account even after a debit card is cancelled. There seem to be other examples of some companies, don't know if Wonga is one of them, even taking money from different bank accounts at the same bank. Both of those activities should be illegal in my view. Anyhow, it obviously isn't worth the risk and opening a new bank account at a different bank, hassle or not, I concede is the only option.

Additionally, as someone else said, I would make sure to be up at around midnight and logged into online banking the night before his benefit payment shows up. This is when bank transactions usually go through. I would immediately transfer the money to a different bank account of someone I trusted and ensure it was to an account where the transfer was done instantly or within 2 hours. The online banking service should state this at the time. If he doesn't have online banking I would make sure I was at the bank when the doors opened that morning. That's all if it's too late to change the bank account that his benefit payment goes to of course.

ExNicotineQueen

ploddingon wrote: »

I think he knows full well the payment won't go through. If he had an overdraft faciltiy he wouldn't be in credit on his bank account by a few pence, especially considering how skint he said he was.

Hence why I said unauthorised overdraft. Some banks, depending on the amount being charged and your history with the bank, will allow the payment to go through, even if it means you end up going into an unauthorised overdraft with your bank and then the bank will start piling on their own charges.

What I'm hoping hasn't happened is that Wonga have taken the money, OP's bank account is -£403.77 in the red, OP's benefits money gets paid in next Wed and gets eaten up by the deficit before he can even think about doing anything so the end balance is -£268.77 before the bank add on their charges which will only spiral as the OP doesn't have the money to clear this, let alone the bank charges on top, and OP is left with no money for food, essentials etc if they are 100% relying on their benefit money.

[Deleted User]

When I said overdraft facility I meant both authorised or unauthorised. He seems the sort of person that would have found out a long time ago. From my experience, unauthorised overdrafts are in reality actually authorised overdrafts, as the bank has secretly set a fixed overdraft limit in place where card payments can still go through. It isn't done on a whim transaction by transaction. I got stung with that a while back by complete accident. If that isn't an authorised overdraft, then I don't know what is! Yet another practice that should be illegal. Something tells me our M.P.'s and 'supposed' democracy (guffaws loudly) aren't at all fit for purpose.

ExNicotineQueen

ploddingon wrote: »

When I said overdraft facility I meant both authorised or unauthorised. He seems the sort of person that would have found out a long time ago. From my experience, unauthorised overdrafts are in reality actually authorised overdrafts, as the bank has secretly set a fixed overdraft limit in place where card payments can still go through. It isn't done on a whim transaction by transaction. I got stung with that a while back by complete accident. If that isn't an authorised overdraft, then I don't know what is! Yet another practice that should be illegal. Something tells me our M.P.'s and 'supposed' democracy (guffaws loudly) aren't at all fit for purpose.

But if you haven't set up an overdraft with your bank, an actual arranged overdraft where you can see the figure on your online banking and bank statements, if the bank allows a card payment to go through and you have pennies in your bank account, this will take you into an unauthorised overdraft because even though the bank's decision put you there and they allowed the payment to go through, because it wasn't arranged beforehand you will get charged for using this facility. I'm not sure if the charges are still the same now since all the bank reclaiming fees has gone on, but it used to be something like £35-£40 fee for dipping into an unauthorised overdraft.

[Deleted User]

My fault for not explaining myself properly. You are right in everything you have said. All I am saying is that, short of philosophically 'knowing', I am very confident that this chap may have already tried using an overdraft he didn't have and failed. In any case, the banks don't tend to have secret, unauthorised (in reality authorised) on basic bank accounts or for people with bad credit.

ExNicotineQueen

Either way, I hope the OP comes back and updates us.

skintandscared_2

It would probably do the OP a favour if the bank allowed the payment to go through as an unauthorised overdraft. First off, the bank charges are unlikely to be higher than Wonga's charges. And secondly, when his benefit arrives in his account, the bank are not allowed to use that to offset an overdraft and he will still have access to the money.

Having said that, I doubt very much that the bank would let the payment go through and Wonga will just keep trying. He'll have to try and intercept his benefit before Wonga do, because I doubt they will be forced to repay it in the way a bank would! Another poster (with a payday loan from another company) has just posted that he's been charged £141 for "attempts" to take money from his account - 47 attempts at £3 a go... :eek: )

ExNicotineQueen

skintandscared wrote: »

And secondly, when his benefit arrives in his account, the bank are not allowed to use that to offset an overdraft and he will still have access to the money.

Easier said than done, if the bank account was in an unauthorised overdraft, any money coming in would be eaten up in repaying the balance, benefit money or not. The OP would probably have to go into a branch, make numerous phonecalls to try and sort it and it definitely wouldn't be something that would be resolved as quickly within a day.