Wonga Cock Up

[crispybacon]

Hi All

 

I took a loan out with Wonga earlier this month. Appreciate that its not the best thing to do but I have awful credit record and needed urgent repairs to my car which I couldn't afford otherwise.

 

I had sufficient funds in my bank when Wonga tried to take my payment but it was refused.

 

I only found this out due to my debit card being blocked and when I rang up my bank was put through to their fraud department.

 

Apparently when Wonga tried to take the payment it was referred to their merchant bank for authorisation, when they should have contacted me to go through some security checks which they did not do.

 

As they did not do this my bank put a block on my debit card to prevent fraud. I had the block removed and rang Wonga up, told them what happened and made a debit card payment over the phone and thought nothing more of it.

 

I then received an email from Wonga saying that I had not made the payment and they were going to apply a £55 charge to my account.

 

I rang them up and have been told this is still valid as the initial payment was not taken.

 

I explained what happened regards the merchant bank thing, that there were sufficient funds. Wonga blame my bank for this, my bank are blaming Wonga and I am stuck in a middle with a charge.

 

I am obviously not going to pay this but wanted to know where I stand legally?

 

Thanks in advance for any help

 

Crispy

[Dichotomy]

Hi Crispybacon,

 

This sounds like something that can be reviewed by a manager at Wonga without having to jump to "where you stand legally".

 

Try speaking to the manager on Monday and see if you have some success there. Often times the people on the phones have to stick to the rule book where a manager has the ability to be a bit more flexible.

 

Let us know if you have some success with this route.

[leila1]

I Have just returned from the bank. The same thing has happened to me I took a small loan out agreed a payment date for it to be taken back as I knew I would have sufficient funds in the account that day. My bank was in credit on that day however Wonga state that for some UNKNOWN reason the bank was declining the transactions even though there were more than enough funds in my account to repay on the promised date like my agreement originally said. Wonga .com then stated that they did take some payment two payments of smaller amounts that day although the bank was declining it??. So basically to sum it up I had more than enough funds as promised so the money should have been taken out without any charges right! WRONG.... Wonga took 2 payments leaving the outstanding balance at 8 pound MY BANK WAS LEFT IN CREDIT ALSO. then they charged me 40 pound for not being able to take the full amount and told me I need to speak to my bank as they are responsible. I had to put extra money in to pay the charge or it would accrue 17.50 pounds each day it was not paid.... so i put in the money to pay the charge. Checked my account to see the payments were all clear and it was saying you still owe us money please call us as soon as possible. so I called wonga after 15 minutes on hold!!! I was told by a wonga representative that FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON AGAIN THERE WAS 82 PENCE LEFT OUTSTANDING ON THE ACCOUNT they had taken the charge out minus 82pence AGAIN MY BANK WAS IN CREDIT. the guy on the phone then said oh I don't know why its outstanding or didn't take the full amount ILL WIPE IT OFF YOUR ACCOUNT AND THEN IT WILL BE CLEAR!!!!!!!. this was at 4.45 pm so if I hadn't of got through to them before 5pm they would have charged me another 17.50 for the 82pence outstanding. I was also told that after this was cleared wonga attempted to take 40 pound again out of my account then put it back.... which means the money is lost in a loop for 3 to 4 days which is the money i get to live on and feed my kids!!!. I would like to know how to reclaim these charges as it wasn't my fault that the funds were not taken and the bank are taking no responsibility and neither is WONGA.COM. Also how far can i take this watch dog??? tv? newspapers i dont think they should be getting away with this...

[sillygirl1]

Get in touch with your bank and ask them to set you up a new account as Wonga may not have done what they said and start taking money again.

 

If necesary go to the police and ask to speak to somebody in the Economic crime unit...

[Tigerbat]

wonga are a [problem], they only want to corner you and charge you ridiculous interest amounts. i borrowed £520 and now they claim i owe them £950. they said they would not charge me interest cause i’m having financial difficulties. The lady i spoke to asked me to call them today to make a payment of £80 to extend my loan and i would not be charged interest and they would come to a payment plan arrangement with me ONLY if i called. So i tried calling them all day, spent £20 listening to monotonous elevator music. They never picked up or got back to me although i contacted them through the website several times asking them to call me. They never contacted me and never answered my calls on purpose and hence they eventually forced me to make the automated payment online because it was almost 6pm and no answer. So, after making the payment online, my payment has been inflated by £200!!!!!! DO NOT USE WONGA. They are true [problematic] and thieves.

[hammyhound]

They are the worst, I took out a loan of £250 to pay for car repairs, OH then lost job so thought about essential bills first. Spoke to Wonga who at first were very nice and said oh don't worry we can extend so you pay £175.00 for 3 months. I told them that not only did I not have £175 for 3 months but that meant an extra £275 in interest. They told me to read the small print and that they could charge this extra amount.

 

This was last January. I "lost" my debit card just in case and told them I would set up a standing order. They refused to give me their bank details. It has been passed through different companies - one of them is the same company just a different name. Not heard anything since. I am prepared to go to court over this as I feel that I tried to pay them but they refused point blank any amount. The loan now stands at £1,900 (so theoretically £1,650 is charges). Not nice people.

 

HH