Cardholders of Jaja complain of long wait times and horrendous service

A smartphone-based credit card provider which bought the accounts of Bank of Ireland and the Post Office last year is being flooded with complaints from frustrated customers.

Holders of credit cards provided by Jaja, many of whom had no idea the start-up ran their cards until hitting problems, have rounded on the company in recent weeks.

Complaints have poured in since the company moved Post Office cardholders over to its own systems at the start of October, and things appear to have gotten worse.

Those who have spoken to This is Money have reported having to wait close to six hours on the phone to report a £10 fraudulent transaction, technical errors leading to hundreds of pounds going missing and credit card refunds worth thousands of pounds failing to be credited to their bank account. 

In one instance, one customer who wanted to cancel their card after the dreadful customer service received was told he would have to write a letter to the app-based credit card provider, and that he would be contacted after up to six week wait.

Jaja began migrating customers over to its own credit cards at the start of October, after it bought credit card accounts from AA, Bank of Ireland and the Post Office in June 2019. 

Post Office cardholders who applied for accounts after then have their cards provided by Capital One.

Jaja bought the credit card accounts of Bank of Ireland and the Post Office in June 2019 and migrated them over to its own systems at the start of October  

But while Jaja has paused new applications for its own cards to focus on these existing ones, the start-up, which made an £8million loss in 2019, has been deluged with complaints since then.

Of 682 reviews left on the website Trustpilot, 95 per cent are classed as ‘bad’, with the company averaging just 1.1 stars out of 5. 

One reviewer described the service he had received ‘as the worst I have ever experienced’.

Our sister title Money Mail reported on customers’ problems with the company last month, with some being hit with unexplained late payment fees, and the problems appear to be mounting.

‘My £500 overpayment has gone missing’ 

Issues with Jaja’s app meant Daniel Robinson overpaid his credit card bill by £1,000. The company still has £500 of his money and he can’t get it back

Daniel Robinson, from the North West, had no idea his Post Office card had been taken over by Jaja until he began having problems with it this month, having never had any previous issues in the six years he had been with the Post Office.

When trying to settle his credit card bill of around £500, his Jaja app took the payment three times, but he said they never appeared on his statement.

Although he initially claimed back £1,000 in overpayments after disputing the transactions through his bank, Jaja then disputed one of the claims to claw back £500 of his own money, which Daniel said the company had subsequently lost track of.

He remained £500 down when he spoke to This is Money on Tuesday. 

He said: ‘I have a girlfriend who works on the NHS frontline and right now we are over £500 out of pocket, which is a lot of money as we have only just got a new house.’

He added: ‘I didn’t choose to bank with them and wasn’t warned either. I was still using my Post Office card without knowing Jaja had taken over, and the statement just moved over without my consent.

‘The Post Office used to be brilliant, Jaja are awful.’

It appears a far cry from the fintech which claimed to offer a smooth experience, no complicated forms and approvals in less than three minutes when we profiled it ahead of the launch of its credit card in March 2019.

‘I can’t get hold of £2,900 in refunds’ 

Another customer, Gemma, from Northern Ireland, has also been trying to claw back her own money from Jaja after four refunds for two cancelled holidays totalling more than £2,900 were deposited onto her new card last month.

However, although the refunds from Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic are clearly shown on her in-app statement, she has been repeatedly told by Jaja’s customer services that they cannot see them.

Gemma, from Northern Ireland, received £2,900 worth of airline refunds to her Jaja account last month but has been unable to get her money back

She said: ‘Since then I have spent hours trying to contact Jaja. When you eventually get through, you’re told refunds are nothing to do with customer support and are then told to phone a different number, who then tells you there’s no reason why the first person can’t deal with you.’

Having made eight phone calls of up to 50 minutes each she said staff on the phone were passing the buck and said: ‘I’ve never experienced a credit card like Jaja and the experience has totally put me off it. 

‘I’ve stopped using Jaja for any purchases and will cancel it in future.’

‘I had to write a letter to ask to close my account’ 

However, even cancellations appear to be proving a problem. Mark Davison, 53, from Berkshire, was forced to write a letter to the company last week asking to cancel his card, and that it would be 4-6 weeks before he was contacted by someone who could help him do so.

He had not used the Post Office card which Jaja replaced since last February, he noticed a £10 suspicious transaction made out to ‘Mangopay’ which he didn’t recognise but was forced to wait hours on the phone when reporting it.

The company has received awful feedback on Trustpilot, with 95% of reviews classed as ‘bad’

But even when he was told by the app-based credit card provider the transaction had been cancelled, it still showed up on his in-app list of transactions and the removal was only confirmed on his December statement.

He told This is Money his experience with the company had been ‘abysmal’, while it was also echoed by one recent Truspilot reviewer, ‘Scott M’, who wrote: ‘All I want to do is close my account, I’ve not used the card in three months and the balance is zero, they just won’t close it.’

In response to the three cases we highlighted and the negative Trustpilot reviews, a Jaja spokesperson said in a statement: ‘Following the recent transfer to Jaja and the subsequent issuance of new credit cards to our customers, some have had difficulties registering for our app and online servicing. 

‘This increased the number of calls to our customer services centres, causing longer waiting times than normal for some customers. 

‘We are also aware there have been some processing delays, which are being resolved. We have increased our staffing substantially to improve the situation and would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused. We are working hard to put things right for the customers impacted.’