A company called 'Complete Savings' are stealing money from my bank account

[Scoot75]

Has anybody heard of this company? I have never signed up to them but they've got my bank details somehow. They are taking money out of my bank account and I don't know what to do.

Their Customer Service said there is nothing they can do to help. I cannot afford this money. They have literally left me with £1.26 in my account this month until I get paid on the 17th.

Can anyone advise me please? Thanks.

Have you contacted them as previous posters have said? Others got their money back quite easily.

@magicstar1 I have emailed them and got a reply saying it could take up to 7 days to get back to me. Customer Services aren't interested. I have contacted them on Twitter and am about to contact every single one of Moonpig's management team to draw their attention to this fraud.

@Scoot75

They've taken £195 from me. Thieving bastards .

Is that £195 in one go, or in monthly subscriptions?

£195 in one go is especially outrageous, but if its months and months at £10/20 a time, you really do need to keep a closer eye on your accounts to pick up things like this much sooner.

One of the newspaper financial columnists will be interested in this.

Also Martin Lewis on Moneysavingexpert. Tag him in your tweets.

@NoSquirrels good advice - thank you.

@Scoot75

I would NEVER sign up to something like this.

Im with you; I was in exactly the same boat & I didn't agree to anything either (and if you have accidentally clicked a pop up, that doesn't constitute consent to take your money either). I was told by complete savings that somebody in the household (my 13month old son!!) must have signed up to it. I eventually worked out I was somehow ensnared been when I purchased something from La Redoute. The internet is full of similar tales. What I noticed is it wasn't classified as a DD in my banking app, so I hadn't spotted it straightaway and wasn't getting an alert to tell me money had gone out. I believe it was a continuous payment authority, but I had not authorised anything like that. Either way, I hadn't consented to them having my bank details or taking the money. I've gone onto to La Redoute to try & recreate the transaction to see exactly how they do this, but I genuinely can't see it! Also skimmed through the Ts&Cs & also see no reference to Complete Savings. They do say however (in their Ts&Cs) that I only have a contract with them &no other 3rd party does, so I think if you ask Complete Savings which retailer they got your details from, go & confirm the same which will also help if needed). In the first instance, just stand your ground and demand your money back. I got a full refund. I asked to know who they were regulated by and that I would be reporting them. Complete savings told me they weren't willing to disclose that information (?!) but did arrange a refund in full. It's really put me off online shopping tbh.

Sorry, hadn't read your updates before I posted

Aside from fraudulently taking peoples' money, what is it that this company actually do? I mean what service are they allegedly providing for a weekly/monthly subscription?

Oh I've just read the link above. So they are like a Top Cashback type of thing but you actually pay them for the privilege? Bloody cheek.
Good luck getting your money back OP.

I must be the only person here who knowingly has an account with them 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

I signed up and I think the first month was free? But then it was £15 per month afterwards. There are two types of rewards - one is a 10% cash back with a limit of around £250 per month (I think) and a monthly bonus of £15 which can be claimed once per month.

My online Asda shop allows me to claim the monthly bonus so that cancels out the fee. And there are a few retailers on there that I use very regularly, so every month I get £20+ extra from them on top. I bought a couple of big appliances from AO recently and another from Currys and 10% off the price of those was a very big chunk. I’m really happy with them.

But what I will say is their replies to enquiries can be quite slow now. They didn’t use to be, but there’s been a very noticeable slowdown in response to queries. But when they do reply they’re generally helpful.

Really sorry to hear they’re operating a shady sign-up process. That wasn’t the case for me, it was made very clear what I was signing up to (after an Asda shop). I just thought I’d comment to say they are a legit organisation - but obviously if they’ve not informed you about deducting money then you need to talk to them and ask for a refund/cancel the direct debit.

I think there needs to be a simple piece of legislation, an amendment to the Consumer Rights Act, to say that the process for cancelling a subscription must be the same as the process for signing up to it. So of you can sign up with a couple of clicks, you must be able to cancel in the same way and do not need to email, or phone someone and go through 20 questions why would you like to end it (hard stare at The Times and The Daily Telegraph).

So do they obtain your payment details from the host site? That seems particularly shady, and I wonder if there are any GDPR implications? Certainly I think any sites that host this, and pass on your payment details should be named and shamed, no matter how much they buried included the right to do this in their terms and conditions.

@MostNamesAreTaken I think they must do. I never sign up for anything, not even a Newsletter. There is no way on earth I would have agreed to giving a random company £15 for a service in a country I don't even live in and couldn't even benefit from.

I think you're doing all the right things, but it's very important that you speak with your bank asap too. If you speak with them urgently, they might be able to block any further payments while it's being investigated.

Their T&Cs say that to be eligible you must be a resident of the United Kingdom with a UK registered credit or debit card and a UK bank account/IBAN. Do you have a UK bank account OP? If so, and your account is being debited via a continuous payment authority then as a first step to stop further payments you can ask the card issuer to stop them. Anything taken out after you ask the issuer to stop the payments is an unauthorised transaction and they will have to refund them.

I'm pretty sure GDPR rules are broken then. Name some companies and I might go on a fishing trip over half term, get some screen shots etc to build up a solid case (or not if nothing ontoward is happening).

I am fed up with big corporates thinking the law is optional.

If you're not a UK resident then you're not even eligible for the scheme, so that's fairly straightforward.

Looking at their T&Cs, you should have received a membership pack from them, containing the start date of your membership. I'm assuming this didn't happen?

@ElftonWednesday

I think there needs to be a simple piece of legislation, an amendment to the Consumer Rights Act, to say that the process for cancelling a subscription must be the same as the process for signing up to it. So of you can sign up with a couple of clicks, you must be able to cancel in the same way and do not need to email, or phone someone and go through 20 questions why would you like to end it (hard stare at The Times and The Daily Telegraph).

@ElftonWednesday I couldn't agree more!!

I'm autistic and don't deal with phone calls very well - there are times when they feel just too overwhelming and I can't face them. So I deliberately choose providers where I can manage my account online. Recently took house insurance out with Bradford & Bingley but the quote doubled at renewal inexplicably. I was expecting a small increase as I know they discount to get you signed up but I wasn't going to pay double. Anyway. I found a much cheaper quote elsewhere, so wanted to cancel. There is literally no way to cancel on the online portal, no way to email - the single only way to cancel is to call them and speak to a sales assistant whose job is to try and persuade you to stay.

It really pissed me off. I could do everything on my account online - apart from refuse the renewal. I took it out online, I want to cancel it online. I don't want to be forced to speak to someone. I find it really unethical.

I think it's incredibly easy to do . I have seen something similar on when I ordered from iceland . It isn't clear unless you read the small print that it isn't a genuine discount on your shop, or next shop from iceland and it's just a box to tick. If it was sometime ago it might have even been a box you had to untick.

How are they taking it? Direct debit or standing order. If either then first step is to cancel these with Your bank. If direct debit google chargeback process you may be able to get the money back this way but you need to use certain words when you ask the bank so make sure you swot up.

If you never signed a Direct Debit mandate, they have no authority to take the money and the bank shouldn't be letting them, so you'd have grounds to complain to your bank.

@ferneytorro They're taking it from my card. It looks like a normal shop transaction.

OP, your card may have been skimmed. Best thing to do would be to contact both your bank as well as the police. File a report. This is theft, plain and simple.

@CaptSkippy I've just heard back from Moonpig. They said if I don't like it, then I can take it up with Complete Savers. Given that customers are giving their credit card details to Moonpig and NOT Complete Savers, then surely Moonpig are responsible?

It's not about who is repsonsible, it's about blocking those payments and reporting theft/fraud.