payday loan company trouble

hayley21985

Hi everyone, im posting in the hope that i can get some advise/past experience from people here,
I took out a loan with wonga.com to help with a holiday me and my partner were going on, shortly after our return (and the repayment date) we split up and he moved out.
I paid back the loan, but due to no longer sharing rent and other bills, i found myself too short of money to pay everything, so i took out another loan....this snowballed uncontrollably as my outgoings were pretty much the same as my incomings, so at no point could i afford to go without the wonga loan, unfortunately, the loan amount became the same as my pay amount and i turned to payday uk in order to pay my rent.
Everything was out of control, so i cancelled my bank card and notified both immediately that i could not pay and needed to set up a payment plan.
Recently, money was withdrawn from my account, appearing on my statement as a card payment (the card used to take out the loan had been cancelled however) both companies have assured me that they did not take it, with payday uk saying it could have been a payment that has come out late.....the bank cannot tell me so i have no idea if my account is safe.
The taking of that amount caused me to become significantly overdrawn with my bank as the account was actually empty.
Payday UK have said my offer is to small (dispite sending a budget plan wish shows i cannot currently pay more) and that my account is no longer on hold, so repeated attempts will be made to take the amount owed, and interest will no longer be frozen.
Wonga do not reply very fast so i have no idea if they have accepted my amount currently.
Sorry for the long email, im at my wits end and drowning in debt, any advise will be much appreciated

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Cancelling your bank card does nothing. They have teh SC and AC number so they will just dive in and take it anyway.

sorry but they do. The best advice that is given on here is to change your bank now and then set up a payment plan with them.

iolanthe07

As above. You must change your bank account to another bank that is not linked to the one you have now. When they can no longer raid your account, you can start to negotiate with them about a repayment that you can afford. TBH, it is really a very bad idea to take out pay day loans for luxuries like holidays.

Apples2

hayley21985 wrote: »

I took out a loan with wonga.com to help with a holiday

Cracking use of such a high risk loan. Still, lesson learned I hope

hayley21985 wrote: »

The taking of that amount caused me to become significantly overdrawn with my bank

It was actualy because you kept borrowing money you couldn't repay.
You are seeing the dark side of these daft loans, you pre-approved the withdrawl of the money from your bank now at the time of signing up for the loan.
You have just discovered how this works, they can (and will) continue to take as much as they can, whenever they can up until they get all their money back.

Difficult to have sympathy when this all started because you felt like taking a holiday.

hayley21985

thanks for the helpful replys, i will take the advise and change my account today.
im not asking for sympathy, and i would like to note that i did not take a loan to enable a holiday, i had been the victim of card fraud which removed my half of the holidays spending money (the holiday itself had allready been paid for) my partner was unable to find the extra, so i withdrew a small loan from wonga.com. I would also like to add that i am not naive, had my partner and i not split up, the amount would have been repayed with ease and there would have been no reason for me to take a loan.
The loan escalated due to desperation, i was at risk of loosing my home and was struggling to repay debts (argos card, catalougue etc for items bought for the home when we moved in together) that my partner saddled me with.
I can understand people frustration, but evidently this happens to many people, for various reasons.
I thought the point of these forums was to gain advise, not for your reaons for taking a loan out to be remarked upon.

blacksta

Apples2 wrote: »

Cracking use of such a high risk loan. Still, lesson learned I hope
.

A cracking case of need over want assessment.

Tixy

Have a read of this thread - Dealing with Payday Loan Companies
which explains about opening a new account with a totally different unconnected bank and withdrawing all funds from the bank that the payday loan company know about.

Once you have done and prevented them accessing your money you can then set up repayment plans. Wonga tend to be fairly quick to accept if your payment plan is fairly short (less than a year), I think payday uk are perhaps a bit more difficult.

But just stick with paying what you can afford each month (but don't give them the details of your new bank account, or give your new bank account details to any more payday loan companies - so don't take out any more pdls. The tactic of opening a new account only works if you don't take out anymore pdls, as often different named pdl business are actually the same legal company.

hayley21985

thanks Tixy, i would never dream of taking another pdl, the way it escalated was so frightening,i wish i had sought help before they got to the scary amounts they are now, but i was down and depressed and just trying to manage, as my outgoings exceed my incomings the amounts i am offering them are very small, which is why they are refusing my offers, i wish i could just clear them but my rent alone takes more than half my wage
i will have a look at that thread for definate and will change my account, however it looks as though i cannot close my existing account due to being overdrawn, so im assuming they will take more and worsen the overdraft, still i have to protect my wage so am off to change account,
thanks again for your advise.

Tixy

If you are struggling to get them to accept reduced payments or if you have other debts (such as the overdraft) then you might want to contact one of the debt advice charities and perhaps consider a DMP.
IMPORTANT - Where to seek professional impartial advice about your debts.

In terms of the overdraft, they'll try to make money out of it, but at some point your bank will stop paying them (and recall the overdraft) and at that point they'll be more likely to negotiate with you.

If you are not at your overdraft limit your bank will let payments go out until the overdraft limit is reached.

hayley21985

i havnt got an overdraft at all, i repaid it months ago and had it removed, so theyv basically just taken money thats not even mine so have to repay bank with their charges on top for all the direct debits trying to take money that is no longer there. Absolute nightmare,i have approached cccs about a debt management plan and am awaiting the paperwork,
thanks again tixy, will have a browse through those threads now

mellonicoley

Hi Hayley, have you posted your SOA on the debt-free wannabe board? The guys on there are really helpful and should be able to give you some good advice on reducing your outgoings.