wink bingo

[meecha]

hi all

i am a member of wink bingo and on 6/6/10 i won £300.02. i made a withdrawal but had still not recieved the money in my account.

 

i logged into live chat an hour ago and was told that the money had been paid to an account with a bank that i no longer use. they apparantly paid it into that account simply because they chose to. i had the debit card as a registered card but when i changed banks i just registered the new card and have been funding from that card for the last 7/8 months. the T&C say that they will pay into account that is funded from. i argued the point that they should have paid into the account i had used to win the £300+ but they say they didnt have to and its my fault for not asking them to delete the old card. i asked where in T&C it says you must tell them to do this and i was told it was a matter of logic and they expected people to know this. obviously i am an idiot because i genuinely didnt realise they wouldnt use the card i have been using for months.

 

the problem i have now is that the money has gone into an account that was closed by barclays for being £500 overdrawn. i had letter from them saying i can no longer use the account. wink bingo are saying that the money was recieved by barclays. there is no way barclays are going to give me the money back!

 

do i have a leg to stand on? more annoyed at wink staff tellin me to have a good day when i had just explained how upset i was!

 

many thanks for taking time to read

meecha

[sillygirl1]

Report them to Trading Standards, that should help get some redress.

 

As far as the banking situation goes you can write to the banking ombudsman and state that this company are taking liberties.

[meecha]

thanks sillygirl! have made an online complaint with consumerline. i am really annoyed about this but dont hold out much hope :-|

[Conniff]

the T&C say that they will pay into account that is funded from.

 

Is the card they have paid into (Barclays) still in date?

[meecha]

Hi Conniff

 

the debit card they paid to was cancelled at least a yr ago when i lost it. i was issued another card with completely different number but Wink are saying Barclays have accepted the money. am not sure if this means it has just gone into the account regardless of debit card number. also not sure how Barclays have accepted money into an account which has been officially closed. but well..... we are talking about barclays lol

[Conniff]

The Barclays account you refer will be closed, but still extant. Unless you told Wink that the card was no longer in use, then their terms and conditions does allow them to place deposits into it.

 

Payments to credit / debit cards will be credited to cards previously used to fund bingo accounts

 

As you are allowed up to 5 cards, unless that card actually expires, they won't be aware that it has been cancelled and no longer in use unless you tell them.

 

If there is an outstanding balance on the account, the issuing bank will naturally accept payments into that account and you should ask them for a statement to confirm that the £300 payment has in fact been credited to it.

 

If the Barclays statement doesn't show a credit of £300, then you should copy that statement to Wink.

[meecha]

will def be in touch with barclays but again i dont hold out much hope. thanks very much for your help Conniff

[buzby]

There are two issues here. Firms like these (and even PayPal) are advised of your Bank Accout details and your card number. They cannot TAKE payments from a bank account (unless they have a direct debit) but get round this by using your card details. To pay back winnings, they cannot credit the card, only the bank account - and it is a straightforward BACS transfer.

 

By changing banks, you needed to advise them of the NEW account number, not simply your new card but the account details it was connected to for BACS payments. In the situation you describe, only giving them the new card number would result in what actually happened, they can take from the card number they hold, but when crediting, will do so to the account you advised them of. (There are times when cards DO change, but bank accounts still remain the same).

 

The fact you moved the account becasue you left your old bank is not an issue for them. They paid in good faith to the account whose details you provided. Their obligation to you has been discharged. If this turns out to be incorrect, you need to go to the bank who recieved the funds and ask them to give it to you. If they don't your action would be against the bank, not the bingo firm.