wonga advice

danaharrison

hi all,

my friend and neighbour has got herself in a bit of a pickle with wonga. due to her having no internet i have offered to post this for her.

her problem is this, after months of having to extend loans from wonga and interest on interest she realised wot a nasty trap wonga is and decided to stop using them. they were litterally taking all her wages each month so that to survive she would have to immediatly take another one out and extend the remainder. last pay day she withdrew all her money from the account and waited for them to call her as she had no credit on her phone. she told me what she had done and i advised her to only offer a standing order repayment plan as i have heard the horror stories on here about them.

to cut a long story short they bullied her into a direct debit and a repayment plan to last 3 months at around £150 a month. as predicted they cleared her account as soon as her money went in and left her with £5 to feed herself and pay all her bills :mad:.

she is gonna call them on monday to try to get the money back, is there any chance this will happen? wot steps should she take before calling them? i have told her to call the cab and trading standers before calling but is there anything else she should be doing?

its not that she dosent want to repay the loan, she is more than happy too but she wants to do it in a way she can afford, if u understand wot i mean.

thanks in advance for your advice x
dana

vax2002

what did she spend the money on ?
Can it be sold and used to pay the debt off.

danaharrison

she took out the loan when her now ex bf threw her down the stairs and broke her arm, and left taking everything of value with him and she was left with his share of the bills to cover and no money to do so.

so no i really dont think there is anything that could be sold to cover it. she was just in a bad place and it was an "easy" way out.

camuk81

Dana, just get clarification did she do a direct debit or did she do a card authorisation?

If its direct debit she can reclaim this and any charges under the direct debit indignity act.

If its a card payment she needs to speak to the bank and cancel the authorisation.

danaharrison

camuk81 - thats great advice, ive never heard of it. im fairly certain it was a DD, would she reclaim through the bank or through wonga? im popping round for a brew in half an hour and i will tell her then and double check its a DD. gonna have to write it down cos i will never remember the name of it lol.

thankyou everyone for the help so far x

camuk81

The direct debit indemnity act is probably one of the most under utilised act.

When you get a bill for say £30 and they take £300 speak to your bank,

Though some are better then others. My husband had a fight with Halifax I had to coach him what to say to the bank lady. They finally understood and he was refunded over £1k when someone took monies without authorisation!

I tend to phone the company and explain why I have done this so I don't get a returned debit charge as quite a few a getting sneaky at this

camuk81

Just as an after thought maybe she should look at a second account with another not affiliated bank to put her salary into till she resolves this.

Some banks on here have been know to transfer funds between accounts to pay PDL companies

dancingfairy

Firstly she needs to get a new bank account asap. Try co-op cash minder or a Barclays basic bank account. Make sure that she makes it crystal clear that she wants a basic bank account only. O.k they don't come with as many facilites but they should be available to everyone as there is no credit check (bankrupts get them so unless she has id problems she should be able to get one).
Next she needs to get onto her work and any benefits people and get her next payments put into her new account so that she has control over her money. She should get hold of Wongas details and make sure she sets up a standing order from her new account for the amount she can afford (check you can do standing orders from the new account). Under no circumstances should she set up a Direct debit or use her card to make a payment as they could argue it's a continuous payment authority.
Hopefully Wonga will give the money back. I do not know where she stands on this. There is something called the first right of apportionment where if benefits are taken to pay debts you can argue that it's for your living expenses but I'm not sure whether this extends to other amounts of money. Claiming under the Direct Debit guarantee with the bank may be the best way though as suggested by camuk.
As soon as the money is back in her account she should immeadiately withdraw it and pay it into a new account as soon as possible. Heck if she has to keep it in cash for a few days then that is what she should do.
Best of Luck
df

danaharrison

thanks for the advice guys, ive passed it on to her and she will get on it first thing in the morning.

as always your the best x