CashPlus - A Warning!

NekoZombie

Hi All;

been having serious problems with cashplus, prompted when I changed from the activeplus ( a charge of £4.95 a month) to Flexiplus (£1 per transaction). Goodness knows what is happening to their systems, but I suggest you all keep a very close eye on your balances if you use this card. I have written to them with the below:




CashPlus
Customer Services
PO Box 52768
London
EC3P 3WR


05/06/07

Dear Sirs

A/c No .........

Following the telephone call I made to you yesterday, I am very concerned about the discrepancies on my account, in particular transactions that do not appear on my statement at all and yet have been debited. I would therefore like you to send a full statement of account from the first transaction date through to my last transaction in June, so that I can check and confirm all transactions. I would have done this myself online, but your system only provides transactions since 06-04-2007. As you do not provide a hard copy of monthly statements, it is my belief you have an obligation to allow access to at least a full year of transactions online.

I was also surprised to find that I have been charged a transaction fee on 02.06.07 for a transaction made in April, a point at which I was paying a monthly service charge of £4.95. As I mentioned to the customer adviser I spoke to yesterday, I do not believe this is fair, as the fee also applied to the original transaction date. Admittedly, she refunded this amount back to my account, but I see I have been charged another transaction fee today, 03.06.07 for £1. It is unclear what this is for as I have not used my card for a while. This seems to be very sharp practice, and is not the first time I have had to complain about your apparent policy to charge as many times as possible for the same transaction. On Friday 01.06.07, my balance was £85 approx. I made no transactions apart from a refund over the weekend, as the pin on my card is barred. Yesterday when I checked my balance online it was £57 approx, then £63, today it is now £77.04. It seems very difficult to keep track of what is happening on the account, particularly when I cannot see any transactions to prompt these changes to the balance. I do not see how I can reasonably be expected to keep track of my finances using your current system.

I seem to have had to make a lot of contact with your offices recently; to expect someone to do this on a premium rate number is unreasonable, and should the service you provide not improve in terms of efficiency and transparency I shall feel forced to complain to the FSA. Thus far, I have found the service you provide incredibly unreliable, and I have serious concerns about placing any further funds in your care.

I request a response to the concerns I have raised within 7 days, after which I may have to consider cancelling my account due to poor service on your part.

chimaera_2

I had concerns about the comapny when i started to file an online application for one of there cards, but when they started to ask for my passport number and driving license number i decided to hold fire, but there appeared to be no cancel button on the application pages, so i hit the cross on the window.

However a few days later a bar coded letter for payment of my application turned up !! and evry few days since i have been recieving letters and emails reminding me to pay and activate the account.

In the end i had to resort to a letter threatening a report to their governing body, since all contact has stopped and the application cancelled.

I think for the time being i will rely on cash and friends to make any card payments for me after i have given then the money.

Chimaerea

NekoZombie

My OH has pointed out:

Due to the above discrepancies and lack of online information, I have been forced into telephoning your offices a great deal recently. To expect someone to do this on a premium rate number is unreasonable, particularly as it is often the most economically vulnerable who use your services. I feel very strongly about this and should the service you provide not improve in terms of efficiency and transparency I shall feel forced to complain to the FSA. Thus far, I have found the service you provide incredibly unreliable, and I have serious concerns about placing any further funds in your care.

NekoZombie

chimaera wrote: »

I had concerns about the comapny when i started to file an online application for one of there cards, but when they started to ask for my passport number and driving license number i decided to hold fire, but there appeared to be no cancel button on the application pages, so i hit the cross on the window.

However a few days later a bar coded letter for payment of my application turned up !! and evry few days since i have been recieving letters and emails reminding me to pay and activate the account.

In the end i had to resort to a letter threatening a report to their governing body, since all contact has stopped and the application cancelled.

I think for the time being i will rely on cash and friends to make any card payments for me after i have given then the money.

Chimaerea

Yes, I noticed they wanted that information but didn't worry about it too much. However, what they have been doing recently is just dodgy. I mean, how can you take money of someones account with no record of the transaction?? :eek:

allofadither

Thanks for that info Neko. So far I haven't had any problems, but then I haven't been using the card a great deal. I do agree that phoning the premium rate number is very costly :eek: when you have to listen to all those options and they keep you waiting ages.

I shall keep a very close on eye on things from now on

wherediditallgo

Well done on sending such a good letter, Neko - please let us know what response you get. Your OH is right to advise on inserting that line - it is precisely those who are financially vulnerable who can't afford to lose money like this. A friend has just got one of these cards, so I'll pass your warning on to her. She's only had it a couple of weeks & has just changed to Flexiplus, as she only intends to use it once or twice a month at most.

NekoZombie

allofadither wrote: »

Thanks for that info Neko. So far I haven't had any problems, but then I haven't been using the card a great deal. I do agree that phoning the premium rate number is very costly :eek: when you have to listen to all those options and they keep you waiting ages.

I shall keep a very close on eye on things from now on

I would suggest keeping it that way, dither. From now on, if I have a particular purchase in mind, I will put the funds on the card and spend exactly that amount. That way my balance is much easier to track.

wherediditallgo

chimaera wrote: »

I had concerns about the comapny when i started to file an online application for one of there cards, but when they started to ask for my passport number and driving license number i decided to hold fire, but there appeared to be no cancel button on the application pages, so i hit the cross on the window.

That seems odd - I watched my friend fill in her application online (I wanted to see what they asked for before I applied for one), & they definitely didn't ask her for any of that. Her passport has expired & she can't drive, so she couldn't have got a card if they'd asked for this info. She got the gold cashplus Mastercard within a few days of applying - is that the same one you're talking about? I've just tried an applicaton with my own details & it's not asking me for that info either.

NekoZombie

wherediditallgo wrote: »

That seems odd - I watched my friend fill in her application online (I wanted to see what they asked for before I applied for one), & they definitely didn't ask her for any of that. Her passport has expired & she can't drive, so she couldn't have got a card if they'd asked for this info. She got the gold cashplus Mastercard within a few days of applying - is that the same one you're talking about?

Yes, its the cashplus card - the only gold mastercard on the market. they asked me for passport details too- and I provided them. It was meant to be a check against fraud, but I still had to provide further documentation through the post.

wherediditallgo

Gosh, maybe they slipped up with my friend then - she applied on a Thursday & had her card by the following Tuesday, with no request for additional documentation whatsoever. Maybe they just ask a sample number of applications for that extra info.

allofadither

wherediditallgo wrote: »

Gosh, maybe they slipped up with my friend then - she applied on a Thursday & had her card by the following Tuesday, with no request for additional documentation whatsoever. Maybe they just ask a sample number of applications for that extra info.

I wasn't asked for my passport or driving licence numbers either. And my card arrived very quickly too. Perhaps you are right WDIAG, maybe the 'system' just asks for extra info once in a while, or maybe they are being discrimanatory in some way