Customers locked out of accounts at Pockit, Curve and other prepaid cards - MSE News 26 June 2020 at 5:19PM edited 26 June 2020 at 6:09PM in Budgeting & bank accounts 47 replies 3.5K views

MSE_Petar

Read the full story:

Customers locked out of accounts at Pockit, Curve and other prepaid cards as FCA freezes operations at card issuer Wirecard

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EssexExile

Is my money safe?
It should be – even if you're unable to access it at the moment. Wirecard is authorised under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011. Under these regulations, it’s required to ring-fence any money you deposit in a bank account that’s separate from its own.

But isn't the "ring fenced" money the money that's missing?

catmansam

Surely the FCA could provide more information, if they have enough evidence to suspend the UK operations, then why can this not be communicated to those impacted (i.e. the Pockit customers)?

eskbanker

catmansam said:

Surely the FCA could provide more information, if they have enough evidence to suspend the UK operations, then why can this not be communicated to those impacted (i.e. the Pockit customers)?

To be fair, the FCA have issued a statement that goes into more detail than MSE's summary, but there's obviously a limit to what they can state definitively at this stage.

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/requirements-imposed-wirecard-authorisation

ceremony

EssexExile said:

Is my money safe?
It should be – even if you're unable to access it at the moment. Wirecard is authorised under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011. Under these regulations, it’s required to ring-fence any money you deposit in a bank account that’s separate from its own.

But isn't the "ring fenced" money the money that's missing?

I could be wrong but I think it depends on the operator.

Curve cards are a card that link to your other bank accounts. When I'm travelling I leave my real bank cards at home and take the Curve card. I then use the Curve mobile app to choose which card I want to spend money on. It means that if I lose my wallet I've only lost one card and it's easy to deactivate. The money is still in my real bank, Wirecard isn't touching it.

With U Account, Wirecard operates the payments, but U Account hold the money in a Barclays bank account so it should be "safe" from this, even if it takes a fair while to get back.

I'm not sure how the other prepaid card people operate though. If topping up a travel money card gives the money directly to Wirecard that's a situation I'd be less hopeful about.

harsh_but_fair

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53198409

colsten

ceremony said:

 When I'm travelling I leave my real bank cards at home and take the Curve card. I then use the Curve mobile app to choose which card I want to spend money on. It means that if I lose my wallet I've only lost one card and it's easy to deactivate. The money is still in my real bank, Wirecard isn't touching it.

Slightly off-topic: it seems an overly risky approach to take just 1 card with you when travelling, or even when going to your local shops or pubs etc. I do use Curve myself but there is no way I would rely 100% on it (or any other card). On a day like today, you would be left high and dry, even if you still have your Curve card 

ryan92

I currently use the Tymit credit card which is issued by Wirecard.
That has also been suspended on the back of today's news too.

ischris85

colsten said:

ceremony said:

 When I'm travelling I leave my real bank cards at home and take the Curve card. I then use the Curve mobile app to choose which card I want to spend money on. It means that if I lose my wallet I've only lost one card and it's easy to deactivate. The money is still in my real bank, Wirecard isn't touching it.

Slightly off-topic: it seems an overly risky approach to take just 1 card with you when travelling, or even when going to your local shops or pubs etc. I do use Curve myself but there is no way I would rely 100% on it (or any other card). On a day like today, you would be left high and dry, even if you still have your Curve card 

I often thought about getting the curve card but put off getting one when reading severals threads like the below:

https://community.curve.app/t/curve-made-some-strange-transactions-that-took-large-amount-of-money-from-my-account-has-anyone-else-experienced-this-in-a-past-few-days/20292/19

jjames1985

EssexExile said:

Is my money safe?
It should be – even if you're unable to access it at the moment. Wirecard is authorised under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011. Under these regulations, it’s required to ring-fence any money you deposit in a bank account that’s separate from its own.

But isn't the "ring fenced" money the money that's missing?

As I understand it, not exactly.

My understanding of it (and I may be wrong) is not that customers ringfenced money has vanished, but that they have overstated, to the tune of  €1.9bn, the amount of ringfenced money they have. This was presumably done with the intention of making the company look like they're doing a lot better/are a lot bigger than they actually are to draw in investors.  So the genuine customer deposits should still be safe, but getting access to them is going to be a problem for the time being.

SaveMeMillions

It is affecting my Sainsbury's Multi Currency Cash Passport too.  Message on their web site says all cards "temporarily suspended".  They give a number to ring (same as the phone number on the card) - just done that and the person there had no idea what I was talking about, all he could do was confirm my account is still active. My card says it is issued by R Raphael and Sons, not Wirecard....  what is the connection with Wirecard?