PayDay allegedly hides under glitch to defraud customer

Financial fraud is gradually becoming a pandemic in the Nigerian economy and has been a worrisome challenge to overcome. The issue of financial fraud is of varying types and is perpetuated by individuals and even corporate bodies as the case may be. More recent is the financial fraud perpetrated by a popular financial technology company, PAYDAY on one of its unsuspecting customers.

Favour Ori, Payday CEO

PayDay is a neobank that claims it allows customers to make swift borderless payment services for individuals most especially Africans, thereby connecting its users with vast opportunities around the world in split seconds.

A customer of the PAYDAY banking app, who happened to be the victim of financial fraud, disclosed to us that he has been unable to make withdrawals with his bank account. The customer who wanted to withdraw one hundred dollars was told that he needed to leave at least the sum of one dollar on his card before he could make withdrawals. Meanwhile, the customer had the sum of one thousand, one hundred and sixty-eight Dollars ($1168) in his card as balance.

The victim, who doesn’t want his name mentioned, said he laid a complaint to the company using their customer care service provided by the application, with the hope of a swift response and solutions to his challenge. He was assured that the issue will be resolved within the next 24 to 48 hours.

Upon further inquiry after the expiration of the 48 hours, which the bank promised to resolve the issue, he was told that card withdrawal, a major means of withdrawal with the bank, was suspended due to technical issues.

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At the time of filing this report, the victim noted that his account has been emptied, despite the bank’s claim of suspending card withdrawals. He disclosed that no one had access to his phone or account, since this issue started with his bank and that it only could have been the bank, who emptied his account without his consent and knowledge.

It will be recalled that earlier in March 2023, Payday was looking to raise $1.5 million to grow its product and engineering team, expand its operations and get the required licences for those expansions. The app has enjoyed a run of decent publicity in the last few months, making the most of being named one of Starlink’s payment partners for the Nigerian market.

While some admitted that the fintech company may be going through alot of issues technically, others also alleged that it cannot contain its promises to its customers.

The company has also been marketing its virtual cards, which allow people to make payments for foreign transactions. Currently, many Nigerian banks have a $20 monthly limit on foreign transactions for naira cards. Many bank cards also don’t work for simple things like Spotify subscription payments, opening up a market for virtual cards that make these possible. But virtual card operations can be tricky, and risks abound. Fraud and dealing with chargebacks can make it more trouble than its worth, but it remain an easy channel for customer acquisition.

While most of these companies hold their numbers close to their chests, market leaders are emerging and there may be consolidations on the cards for those who don’t become market leaders. TechCabal reached out to Payday via email and the company declined to share any comments for this report.