Hi ThereJ

ust hoping for a little advice please.

I was with a DMP and all was going well (I have a different thread about this).

To cut a long story short, they messed me about and I have now managed to set up payment arrangements with 10 of my 11 creditors with very little fuss.

The one that isn't playing ball is Wonga.

Firstly they didn't respond to e-mails and I kept sending them the same e-mail for 4 weeks.

Eventually, on 4 April I decided I would write to them and copy in the OFT and their trade association.

I then received a response to my e-mail:

Dear Thanks for getting in touch.

If a debt management firm is making a repayment proposal on your behalf,

please ask your selected debt management company to send any correspondence to our specialist debt management team.

Our debt management team will assess the proposal, and require details of your income and a breakdown of your expenditure

The email address is:

xxx the postal address is Wonga.com

Hardship Team PO Box 66147;

London NW1W 8PF.

We will freeze interest and charges on your account for a period of 38 days from the date of this email.

We will also stop sending any collections related correspondence during this time.

If we have not received an acceptable payment proposal from your debt management company in this time,

then collections activity will re-commence and interest will start to accrue.

Up to a maximum of 60 days of interest charges may be applied after the agreed repayment date.

Thanks,

Collections department

I replied with the following: -

Thanks, a debt management specialist is not dealing with this on my behalf

- my original e-mail of 8 March outlines that I am no longer using XXXX

as they had not been making payments to my creditors on my behalf.

I sent the completed I&E with a proposal on 20 March which I re-attach.

Thank you for agreeing to freeze charges and interest on the account for 38 days.

I hope an arrangement can be put in place during this time.

Regards

I received this on 5 April

Hi,

We have used the information you provided to evaluate the circumstances of the customer.

We really do appreciate your current financial difficulties;

however, on the basis of the information you provided,

We also need a list of creditors and the amounts outstanding with them,

please provide us with your reason for your current financial hardship,

along with any evidence to support that fact.

We do require the following:

REDUCTION IN SALARY- Salary

Receipt Bill prints or proof of debt ;

P45 if currently unemployed or Proof of Benefits

.Wonga.com

Hardship Department Sheffield

S95 1AR 0844 842 9110

What should I do now

- surely they can't ask for this and they are using delaying tactics??

Sorry for the long thread - any advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Dont give them that information!! They are not legally required to see it, only if a court/judge says so. That is your personal information in which they have no right to see.

I also am having problems too, loan due at the end of the month but cant pay it so I emailed them. And all im getting is their automated emails to say my query is best dealt with over the phone even though ive told them countless times i will only deal with my account by letter or email.

They send me and I and E form to complete but i wont be in the country at the time. The I and E form is also a form that is not legally required unless a judge/ court asks to see it.

Thanks - any idea how I should reply please?

Reply by saying thanks for their email regarding further documentation in order to successfully set up a repayment plan. However, this documentation is private and confidential in which Wonga have no right to see unless requested to by a judge/ court. Therefore you are unable to provide the documents. Also mention that the I and E form is sufficient, considering this form is also a request from wonga and you are not obliged to fill it, unless requested by a judge/court...But you have filled it and sent it back to them for compliance.

Thanks, I'll give it a go......

They wont like it...Theres a chance it could make them worse somehow...

So what do I do then? It's bad enough already and I don't want it to be worse!

Youre I&E form is sufficient enough. Theyre not entitled to see anything else. Keep pushing that you want to repay xx.xx a month....they should back down x

Who is your dmp? If they are worth anything then they should be on wongas back.

dont think she/he is using one renegaide for wonga

hi I am not using a Dmp now -

have gone it alone. Maybe why they're not playing ball?

Ok. Lets start from the top. What exactly was the reason they gave for not enterjng into a repayment plan? I have a nice letter cor you to send depending on the answer.

My loan has not reached default yet. It is not due to default until 30th April. The told me to fill in an I and E form 3 days before, but I am not in the country at that time.

Ive informed that Im not legally obligied to fill in the I&E form, unless a court of law, or judge says i have to. Still I have had no response from them.

Hi Renegade - thanks for your reply. They are messing me about. Didn't respond to any e-mails for a month, I sent a detailed I&E to them, they keep e-mailing stating that 'it seems clear the best way to deal with this is over the phone', ignoring my requests to deal with it in writing. I then wrote to them complaining that I am trying to deal with my finances, etc. and agree a repayment plan but they are making it very difficult. I copied in the OFT and then subsequentl got a response from them asking me to fill in their I&E form. I replied stating that I had already sent them one that was detailed and I asked them to consider the contents of that. They then replied wanting a whole raft of other stuff like who my creditors were and how much I owe each of them, details of my salary, bill prints or evidence of my debts. All of my other creditors have accepted my offer of repayment and they have now all received the first payment from my self managed DMP. It just seems like I'm going round in circles with them and that they are trying to make my life difficult so your help is much appreciated. Cheers.

Ok. Ill be home around 3pm today. Ill help you write a nice complaint to them.

Ah, that's brilliant - thank you Renegade.

I cannot believe Wonga are putting you through all this hassle, I had an amount outstanding with them of approx £1250 and they agreed to a repayment plan after two emails. They must be changing tact as they were far the most easiest to come to a repayment plan with out of all the payday loan companies I had the misfortune to deal with.

Been a little busy tonight. Will get the letter up asap

My goodness - I don't know whether I am coming or going with these guys. 2 e-mails received today from Wonga Escalations. First sent at 10.02am says "Thanks for letting us know that you'll be making payments to your wonga.com repayment plan via standing order. This is great, but please bear in mind that it can take 3-5 working days for a standing order to arrive with our bank. Therefore please do allow for this delay when setting it up. For example, if your payment to us is due on the 25th of each month, you’d be safest to set up the standing order for the 20th of the month, if your funds allow. If you have any concerns, please ask your bank for advice when setting up the standing order. Or if this sounds too uncertain, you’re more than welcome to ask us to take automatic payments from your debit card, or even make manual payments yourself, early on the morning of each payment date. You can make payments online anytime online, or by contacting our collections team on 0800 316 6745 at any time, we’re open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We look forward to receiving your next payment". Next one sent at 10.03am says "We always aim to help you settle your loan as quickly as possible. Acknowledging difficulty in repaying is half the battle, so we really appreciate you getting in touch and discussing a repayment plan. We do appreciate your current difficulties but, in order to help, we need a better understanding of your financial situation. To do this, we need you to complete an online income and expenditure form which can be found at http://www.wonga.com/financialassessment.aspx. You’ll be able to view and complete it three days before your repayment date. Please note it won’t be available to you before this time. Once you complete the income and expenditure form, you’ll be given an opportunity to propose the repayments you can reasonably make. If, from the information you’ve provided, these payments are acceptable/reasonable, your repayment plan will be set up within seconds. If not, we’ll suggest reasonable repayments using the information you’ve provided, which you’ll be able to confirm by responding to our email. We’ll only be able to suspend interest and charges, and stop attempts to collect payment for all or some of the outstanding balance, once you’ve successfully set up a repayment plan. Please note: interest, charges and attempts to collect payment for all or some of the outstanding balance will only be suspended once you’ve successfully set up a repayment plan". I just don't get it at all and I had an e-mail from them last week saying they would freeze interest and charges for 38 days. This is driving me mad!

Report them to the OFT for breach of OFT guidance. DOnt say you will and then not do it. They MUST be reported. Im going over the thread now to write that complaint letter.

Thanks Renegade - I've already done it! Complaint lodged last week and also made one to their trade association.

City

By definition, a trade association is designed and set up solely to represent their members. I doubt you'd gain any independent oversight from any trade body as it's not in their interest to censure their own members, who pay them a nice fat fee each year?

Well done complaining to OFT, after 8 weeks (or if Wonga provide a final response sooner), get a complaint off to FOS.

Keep us informed.

Thanks Toptrapper. I know - just thought it was worth copying in everyone I could think of! It was only when I sent the complaint that they actually bothered to respond to my e-mails. Don't worry, the FOS will be next on my list for these guys, especially as I note they have been given notice to improve their practices and abide by the OFT guidance - of course my experience of them is totally contradicting of what the guidance says.

Certainly a good idea raising awareness with their trade body and I would be interested in their findings consideirng the OFT lens being trained on their members.

I lodged a complaint with the Consumer Finance Association regarding one of their members - it was dismissed out of hand, they stated it was without merit and frivolous. FOS, they investigated the same complaint with the same evidence I provided the CFA. FOS upheld it and reduced the amount owed from £540 to £40.

There is the other aspect that as a chargeable case, the PDL paid £500.00 for the courtesy of FOS giving them a shoeing so they had to pay for their own incompetence...............

Theres a reason they are called legal loan sharks.