WDA complaint resolution help

[sherbit99]

Hey hoping someone can give me some advice.

 

 

I got myself into a stupid situation taking payday loans out. At the time I didn't feel that I had a right to complain and felt really embarrassed about it all. Now I have paid everything back I decided to email wageday advance to raise my grievance. The situation with this company was for three years I took 6 loans out consistently by rolling over between 4-8 times per loan. It was just so easy as they would text me a few times a month offering the extensions and stupidly I did. After initially raising the complaint I then managed to login to the old account and it said I still owed them £300 even though it was settled with a third party a year ago. I called to enquiry and they would only let me speak to collections, so I got a settlement notice to prove I had paid and added this to the complaint.

7 weeks on they have provided me with a resolution agreeing that rolling over 8 times wouldn't have helped financially and have offered to pay me back for 3 rollovers plus 0.8%.

I really wasn't expecting to get any offer but don't feel that rolling over for 4 months at a time is any better than 8. They have also updated my details so I don't owe them anything but completely ignored the stress it put me under getting the settlement notice.

If I accept there offer can I still refer it to the FOS or should I just decline. If it is declined by FOS could I end up with nothing? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[silverfox1961]

Hi and welcome to CAG.

 

I am a little confused. Are you saying that you took out 6 seperate loans which you then rolled over 4-8 times? IF that is the case, I would be pushing for more of the rollover fees to be refunded.

 

While there were no rules about how many times they are allowed to rollover any debt (at the time), this seems like unfair practice to me (could be wrong though)

 

In the meantime, I would be sending them a SAR to get all the data they hold which hopefully would include contact made with you.

[sherbit99]

Yip, between 4 and 8 rollovers for 6 loans over 3 years, must have been crazy.

WDA agree that

"In your complaint you mention the rollover option given to yourself. I can see on your loan, loan ref xxx issued on the 21st June 2011 this was rolled over eight times, each rollover costing £91.25 totalling an amount of £273.75 I do not feel the amount of rollovers you received would have helped your financial circumstances and balance with ourselves at that time”.

This confused me as the amount calculates to 3 rollovers meaning that anything above 5 rollovers wouldn’t have been beneficial? The resolution itself is terrible as they haven’t included my FOS rights either.

I have replied to WDA asking them to reconsider the settlement amount.

I have also spoken to the FOS who advised if I accept the resolution there would be no reason for them to step in. He sounded really positive about allowing them to look into the case. So if I am not given another resolution, I am sending all my evidence, including screen shots of their errors, loan agreements etc to the FOS.

 

Just a waiting game now.

 

 

 

 

 

[acid53]

hi,I've just had a similar experience with WDA where in their final response they have replied with a load of gibberish about the loans, dates and amounts. I do not know if this was because they have poor record keeping or being disingenious. Thankfully, I have kept all emails and bank statements - in my case they rolled over my initial loan 10 times thereby paying almost £600 in rollover fees against an initial loan of £200I am in the process of escalating my complaint now to FOS.BTW, do you recall the extension method - I have a link in some historic emails to extend my loan but cant fully remember what information they asked for?

[sherbit99]

Hey acid53,

Good to hear that your taking on WDA as their practices are shocking.

My extensions were made by replying to their texts on most occasions and sometimes doing it on their site. They never asked for any additional information they just got me to confirm my details for security before rolling over never asking me for any income/expenditure details except on my initial loan.

They have already confirmed in their resolution that their affordability check is done based on what you tell them. I don't feel that this is an appropriate method and think the FOS would agree.

[acid53]

hey sherbit, yes have both WDA and Uncle Buck in my sights with the FOS for excessive rollovers and lack of affordability - only when I looked through my bank statements did I realise the scale of rollovers these guys permitted and encouraged. I got some nonsense back about WDA using a bespoke scoring system...full of cr*p!!Have you complained about any other lenders to FOS?

[sherbit99]

I'm still waiting for resolutions from quick quid and Wonga. Two more weeks and I can refer to the FOS.

This is definitely a lesson learned.

[acid53]

Most of the decisions I have seen on the FOS website seem to be upheld where there are excessive rollovers but also seen a few weird decisions go the other way so fingers crossedGiven the news about minicredit, you just wonder how long some of the smaller payday lenders will stay in business