Wonga/Moorcroft debt please help

Boggy1981

After months of no sleep and stress I know it's now time I sought out some advice regarding my current financial situation.

About 4 or 5 months ago I stupidly took out a wonga loan for around £400. At the time I could afford to pay it back but I subsequently lost my job making it impossible to make payment.

Wonga continued to add 3 months worth of fees and interest on top of the loan, even though I notified them of my situation but I didn't recieve a reply from them until some months afterwards.

My debt with them is now just over £1000

I recieved an email from them saying my debt had now been passed to a company called Moorcroft and that all communication should go through them, however a few days later I recieved an email from Wonga asking for evidence of my benefit awards and bank statements.

A day later I recieved a letter from Moorcroft asking me to confirm that I live at my current address (I have moved since the initial loan was taken out).

I am currently recieving housing benefit and Jobseekers allowance and only have around £20.00 per week left over for food and supplies for my 2 year old son who stays with me at weekends, so it is impossible for me to enter into a repayment plan at present.

I am terrified that bailiffs will be sent and take the only 2 things of value that I own, my PC and my TV.

I cant imagine having to sit in an empty room with no entertainment for my son and no way of replacing anything taken.

I know I've been stupid for dealing with Wonga in the first place but I'm desperate for help and find most of my days are spent worrying about a knock on the door.

Are Wonga or Moorcroft likely to get a court order to send bailiffs or is it just scare tactics ?

Should I keep ignoring Moorcroft and try to deal with Wonga or just ignore all of them and hope they go away ?

Please help

matttye

Bailiffs are a long way off - if they're ever even going to be in the picture at all.

Wonga would have to take you to court, obtain a CCJ, the judge would make a judgment that orders you to pay in affordable instalments, and you would then have to fail to comply with the judgment before bailiffs would be instructed. A judge will never order you to pay more than you can afford.

Don't just ignore the matter though, contact a free debt charity like Stepchange. They should be able to get Wonga to agree to freeze interest and accept £1 token payments towards the debt until you find work.

The worst possible thing you can do is ignore the problem. If Wonga did take you to court and you just ignored the court papers, there would more than likely be a default judgment made against you and repayments will be set a lot higher than you can actually afford, because the court will not have been told by you about your income and expenditure. The court needs this information to be able to set affordable repayments.

emmmski

Boggy1981 wrote: »

After months of no sleep and stress I know it's now time I sought out some advice regarding my current financial situation.

About 4 or 5 months ago I stupidly took out a wonga loan for around £400. At the time I could afford to pay it back but I subsequently lost my job making it impossible to make payment.

Wonga continued to add 3 months worth of fees and interest on top of the loan, even though I notified them of my situation but I didn't recieve a reply from them until some months afterwards.

My debt with them is now just over £1000

I recieved an email from them saying my debt had now been passed to a company called Moorcroft and that all communication should go through them, however a few days later I recieved an email from Wonga asking for evidence of my benefit awards and bank statements.

A day later I recieved a letter from Moorcroft asking me to confirm that I live at my current address (I have moved since the initial loan was taken out).

I am currently recieving housing benefit and Jobseekers allowance and only have around £20.00 per week left over for food and supplies for my 2 year old son who stays with me at weekends, so it is impossible for me to enter into a repayment plan at present.

I am terrified that bailiffs will be sent and take the only 2 things of value that I own, my PC and my TV.

I cant imagine having to sit in an empty room with no entertainment for my son and no way of replacing anything taken.

I know I've been stupid for dealing with Wonga in the first place but I'm desperate for help and find most of my days are spent worrying about a knock on the door.

Are Wonga or Moorcroft likely to get a court order to send bailiffs or is it just scare tactics ?

Should I keep ignoring Moorcroft and try to deal with Wonga or just ignore all of them and hope they go away ?

Please help

Hi

My OH has a debt with Moorcroft, so one thing you might want to be aware of is that they do visit your home address, not in the capacity of a bailiff but to arrange a payment plan if they can't get hold of you by phone etc, so be prepared for a visit.
On the plus side OH's experience of them has been good , they don't make unrealistic demands , he currently pays £30 off an 8k debt, he was originally paying more but had to reduce due when our 3rd child was born , Moorcroft were fine about this , I get the impression that as long as there is an arrangement in place , however small the payment , they're happy.Speak to them and find out.....Hope this puts your mind at rest a little , good luck.

fevlo

Moorcroft will generally send a letter headed "Home Collections Division" befor they send anyone round and even then it will detail a time scale for the visit.
Your also under no obligation to allow them to visit so a quick letter removing their "implied licence under english common law" to visit you at your property would quickly put a stop to a visit and if they did turn up you have good grounds for a complaint.
I had a Moorcroft rep turn up when i was out after I had sent numerous letters stating they where not to come to the house. I complained and ended up with a cheque for £100 as an appology.
Dont panic, communicate with Moorcrft in writing or contact one of the free debt charities such as StepChange.
The worst thing you can do is do nothing, if your communicating with them they will have no reason to send anyone round.

Boggy1981

Thanks for the advice. After sending off my financial information yesterday, including proof of benefits, I recieved an email from Wonga this morning offering a £10 per month repayment plan for 6 months until my situation changes. This will be tight but it seems fair.

I really want to do all I can to get them off my back and don't want the stress anymore.

Now that I am dealing with Wonga directly is there any need for me to contact Moorcroft and verify my new address with them, or have any dealings with them atall ?

matttye

Boggy1981 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. After sending off my financial information yesterday, including proof of benefits, I recieved an email from Wonga this morning offering a £10 per month repayment plan for 6 months until my situation changes. This will be tight but it seems fair.

I really want to do all I can to get them off my back and don't want the stress anymore.

Now that I am dealing with Wonga directly is there any need for me to contact Moorcroft and verify my new address with them, or have any dealings with them atall ?

As long as you can afford to pay your bills, eat and still pay them £10 per month then go for it. Are they going to freeze interest? If not, then your debt is going to increase rather than decrease.

In the correspondence you received from Moorcroft, did it say that they had bought the debt from Wonga or they were acting on Wonga's behalf? If the latter, then you don't need to contact Moorcroft, but if the former then you should try to ascertain who now actually owns the debt before you agree to any repayment plan.