Wirecard - advice needed

subway

hi, many of you will be familiar with the german virtual mastercard, wirecard, that was popular a few years back as an alternative to 3v etc.

i am having serious difficulties with this bank and need some advice on how to proceed. i hope somebody with some experience can help me as i am a little lost on where to start.

to outline the situation
i applied for the "physical" incarnation of the wirecard in 2008 and paid the annual 24.90 along with the issuing fee. the card was valid for 12 months
at the end of the year my account was empty and i was no longer using the card. i received no emails from wirecard or any other information.

a few months ago i received an SMS from the bank explaining that my account was in arrears of 50eu. i mailed and told them i had no charges and that they should close my account as i would not be paying them.

they refused and i let it slip my mind through work, college etc.

fast forward to 2 weeks ago and i receive another SMS. this time advising the charges were now 75eu and i should pay immediately.

so i got in contact with them again (everything via mail)

the breakdown of the costs are as follows :
25 eu per year fee for the use of the physical mastercard

as mentioned previously, the card expired 1 year after the initial issuing so i asked how could they charge me if the card was expired.
their answer, "they will issue a replacement card once the fee is paid"

i have repeatedly asked them to see the flaw in their logic, that they bill me for a service repeatedly that they are not providing (and now cannot go back and provide) and are now requesting full payment for the service (even though it was never provided). they do not dispute that they did not provide the cards, they do not dispute that they are charging for a service not provided, they simply state that these are the fees they charge

i could ignore this, but i dont want a black mark against my credit and i dont want legal charges etc.
i had initially planned to take them to the SCC in ireland, but want advise if this is the correct route to take etc.

thanks in advance for any advice provided

ElNino

I doubt if they would pursue you for €75 as their legal costs would be much higher particularly from Germany. I would send them a registered letter saying what you said above. I don't think that you can take them to the Small Claims Court as you haven't paid them.

subway

thanks, I'm worried that i will get a mark on my credit record if i dont pay them so really want to put it to bed.
is there more of a risk they could just pass it on to a debt collector and mark my record.

dudara

The questions is if this was outlined in the T&Cs that you accepted when you signed up to the service.

subway

as outlined above, the terms simply say there is an annual fee for the card.
ive reviewed the terms and conditions i can find and there is no mention of automatic re-issuance however, i do accept that this may be considered a normal practive and is not my issue.
indeed, if i had been issued a card, i would have no dispute.

my problem is that they automatically bill for the reissue of the card (under the assumption there is a balance on the account) and then issue the card.
however, when there is no money, they put the account into a negative balance and wait for a payment or top up before issuing the card.
since i never topped up they never issued a card.
they repeated this process 3 times and do not dispute that they have never issued me with any replacement cards

subway

i dont like bumping threads, but i really need help with this.
anyone out there who knows how i should proceed?

vector

I also received a text in the past few weeks saying my balance was "-75.xx"
and in broken in English that I should "remedy my account" or something like that.

I actually posted a snail mail cancecelllation letter in 2010 I think it was, but when I email WireCard they reply with stock replies in bad english, one reply actually suggests I should contact the German police if I believe my letter was stolen in the post or something along those line!

What a load of tosh, my only worry is that because this company has the word "Bank" in it's name their word appears stronger than mine.

What should we do?

subway

im at level 2 now...
this requires a hand written letter to be sent in outlining your complaint.
at this point they will send it on to a supervisor.

the frustrating thing is, i was under the impression it had been escalated weeks ago
i had asked numerous times for supervisor responses to questions and each time they responded with an answer so i assume they had checked it out.

i will let you know how i get on, the only reason they even informed that it wasnt properly escalated was when i asked them for their ombudsman contact as per the bafin page. they seem to be paying attention now so i will update if i get a resolution.
if they dont cancel the charges i will continue on to bafin and will only pay once they have ruled (bafin is ther german financial regulator)

subway

success!
guess they arent that bad afterall

Thank you for contacting the Wirecard Service Team.


We regret losing you as a Wirecard customer. Your account has been closed as
per your request.

We would like to inform you that we also reimbursed the outstanding balance.

vector

well done...

about the "reimburse" bit; are they going to send you a cheque, or do they mean they are writing off the EUR 75?

subway

balance set to zero, i've never paid them a penny (account was at zero when they started charging me)