WDA took my money!

[shortwoman68]

I took out a loan with wage day advance and fell into financial difficulty and after alot of texts and emails, I arranged to pay them £20 per month (owed £197). I paid the agreed amount on 19th of this month, then I found out today that I had £64 missing from my account. I contacted my bank and they told me that wage day advance went into my account on a previous authorisation and first took £44, then two amounts of £10, all in two days without my permission. I am fuming and have asked the bank to cancel my debit card and re-issue another one so they do not have my card details. I have also now cancelled the standing order that I previously set up with them as they in effect 'stole' money from my account. Can I report them to the Financial Services Ombudsman for this as I did not agree for them to take any money from my account.

Edited June 23, 2012 by MARTIN3030

[sequenci]

Hello there.

 

Sorry to learn about your frustrations, you should certainly consider a formal complaint re: WDA as they agreed a repayment plan which they didn't stick to. The problem with payday loans is that you give these organisations special permission to take payment via the debit card, this is known as a 'continuous payment authority' - which means they could try and take a payment as often as they would like. As such, the first thing you should do is contact the lender (and the bank) to discontinue this authority ASAP. You may find that changing debit cards doesn't stop the problem. Often people have to actually move banks. Certainly do try and complain, but you might find that the FOS raises the payment authority argument. Do report WDA to the OFT, too.