FAQs
General frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions about the online event account and the Wigadoo Virtual Pre-paid MasterCard®
What is Wigadoo?
Wigadoo is the stress-free way to organise time with friends when money is involved.
Wigadoo helps make it easier for you to organise a group of friends and to get them to pay for group plans. We are there for whenever you want to get together with your friends and need to sort out money in advance. It's for getting friends together to go on ski trips, evenings out, day-time activities, weekends away, holidays, festivals, concerts … the list goes on.
We offer a simple solution that targets the key pains in getting a group together, especially handling cash and getting people to commit.
By making it easier for everyone involved we hope to make plans more likely to happen and get more friends coming along.
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Why is it called Wigadoo?
Wigadoo is about you and your friends going and doing more stuff together. In other words, its about when "we go do" fun things together. We liked the sound of "we go do!" but Wegodo looked a bit naff so we messed around with it and spiced it up a bit and … Wigadoo was born.
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Why would anyone want to use Wigadoo?
What's wrong with the old way of doing things? Are you kidding? If you're asking this, you either you have someone else doing the organising for you or you don't expect much help as an organiser.
If you're the organiser in your friend group, you have a nightmare trying to work out how many people are interested and how many people to book for. And people always delay as long as possible to commit. You then have to book something, usually paying for it upfront, and then try to get enough people to sign up. After all that you then have to try to get all of them to pay you back. It's time consuming, stressful, frustrating and you're risking being left out of pocket. Rough.
It's not even great for friends. They want to know who else is definitely going and make sure their friends will be there. Most people want to go but only if their friends will be there. There's no way for them to be sure so they either take a risk and sign up early or cross their fingers that the event doesn't fall through and they can sign up later.
Wigadoo fixes this.
No one pays up front for everyone else and risks not being paid back.
It saves loads of time in getting the group signed-up and paid for.
It takes the stress away because when people sign up you know you'll get their money as soon as you get enough people.
It's easier to sign up because people can see who else is definitely going and they can sign up at the same time as friends.
Because of this, groups form faster and get larger so often we find it gets cheaper per person than it otherwise would as group discounts kick in.
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What are the costs?
We at Wigadoo don't like to make you pay for nothing. So if no money changes hands, you don't give us a penny. If you do end up collecting the money through us, we charge you a small amount to transfer and receive money and create your online event account and the Wigadoo Virtual Prepaid MasterCard® for your event. The organiser pays nothing. Participants pay 50p if they pledge with a debit card or you are collecting less than £50 on a credit card. If you are collecting over £50 and they choose to pay by credit card, they pay 3% of whatever you're collecting.
Is it worth it? Definitely!
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What are the benefits?
There are lots! Here are just a few...
Wigadoo means no one gets messed around. No one person has to pay up front and risk not being paid back. No one has to spend hours stressing about everything and chasing friends for cash.
It's so much easier for your friends. Paying online gives them the convenience they're used to and makes them more likely to pay up as soon as you invite them.
Groups organised through Wigadoo are more successful. If you use Wigadoo there is a higher chance that your plans will actually come off. Using Wigadoo means groups of friends start forming earlier, grow faster and get bigger.
Because Wigadoo groups normally get bigger, this often means a lower cost per person.
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Are my card details stored on Wigadoo?
The simple answer is no. No one at Wigadoo can ever access, see or retrieve your card details. We use a specialist company called SecPay which has been built specifically to process and store card details. They have partnered with all of the UK's big banks and card providers (HSBC, American Express, Barclaycard etc.) and passed all of their rigorous security checks to be able to provide this service.
When you use Wigadoo again, it will seem to remember your card details so that you don't need to enter them again and can sign up quickly to events. In actual fact this is SecPay remembering them for you and not us.
If you want your card details deleted you can just go to your My Stuff page and delete them from your profile page at any time you choose.
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Who can become a member of Wigadoo?
Eventually, anyone will be able to use Wigadoo.
However, right now as we are testing the site, the person who is proposing a plan has to be over 18 and based in the UK. This is just so we can check they are who they say they are.
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Can I trust Wigadoo?
Wigadoo has gone out of its way to make sure that it is secure and uses state of the art technology to make sure your payment details are protected. Using Wigadoo is safer than buying things with a card on the high street. We use the latest Verified by Visa® and MasterCard® Secure Code technologies to ensure your card is safe.
If you're pledging to pay you have to be sure that you know and trust the person who's proposing the plan. We will do a check to make sure they are who they claim they are but we can't make any guarantees about what they'll do with the money. That's why Wigadoo is only for friends and for friends who trust each other. Wigadoo is no different to you giving money to a friend in real life and then trusting them to spend it on the plans laid out in the invitation. Trusting friends is fine but steer clear of any strangers asking you for money.
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Who's behind Wigadoo?
Wigadoo is backed by a number of angel investors who have built and sold some of the most successful internet businesses in the travel industry today. To learn more about Wigadoo's management team see About Wigadoo for more details.
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Can I invest in Wigadoo?
For the time being, Wigadoo is a private company so unfortunately you can't invest in Wigadoo shares on the stock market.
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What is the online event account?
The account is actually a Prepaid MasterCard® account for transactions made online or over the phone.
What does that mean? Well, that means we generate an account for your group that comes with a MasterCard® account number (and expiry date and security code) so that you can spend the money instantly online or over the phone. As well as pooling your friends' money into one place, you get the convenience and security of MasterCard® to spend it.
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What is a Virtual card?
A virtual card is simply a card without the plastic. When we issue you your online event account and account number, an image of your virtual card will appear on the screen and will have all the information you need to make a card payment online or over the phone. The card will be in the organiser's name, registered to the organiser's address, and the organiser will get the sixteen digit number, the expiry date and the security code. This will all be stored in your event control panel so you can come back and get your details at any time. These card details are unique to your event and can be used to buy goods and services online or over the phone at over 24 million locations worldwide.
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What is a prepaid MasterCard® card?
The main difference between a prepaid MasterCard® card and a MasterCard® credit card is that you can't go into debt with it. With a prepaid card you load money onto the card first and then spend it.
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Why does Wigadoo create online event accounts with Virtual Prepaid MasterCard® cards?
We do this to help groups collect, store and spend money for events. Using the online event account and the Virtual Prepaid MasterCard® means that as soon as you collect money, it can be spent immediately on purchases for your event online or over the phone. It also means that the group's money is kept separate from the organiser's money so it's easy to keep track of how much money there is to spend.
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Is the Wigadoo Card a credit card, and can it go into debt?
No and no. The money you and your friends pay into the online event account is the total money available for you to spend. Once this has run out, you cannot spend anymore and the online event account will automatically expire.
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When does my online event account expire?
Your online event account expires when you have spent all the money loaded onto it or 12 months after the card is issued. This date is printed on the front of the card image in your event Control Panel.
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Can I pay money into my online event account over time?
No. Your online event account is designed to be used to collect the money for your event in one go and then to enable you to spend it.
You can only collect money from each participant once. This means that you cannot take more money than you have initially collected from a participant, even if this was less than the amount they pledged. However, you will be able to collect money from new people signing up.
If you need to collect more money from people who've already signed up, you can just set up a new event and collect more through the new event.
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What if I'm running multiple events at the same time? Does all of the money go into one online event account?
No. Each event you run gets a separate online event account. This makes it much easier to keep the money for each event separate.
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I thought all cards now had to be 'Chip and PIN'. Why is there no chip on my Wigadoo Card?
'Chip and PIN' is only needed when you go into a shop and not when you buy online or over the phone. Because the Wigadoo card is a virtual card you don't need a pin.
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Can I use my Wigadoo Card to withdraw cash from an ATM machine or to get cashback in a shop?
No. Because the Wigadoo card is a virtual card, you don't have any plastic so you can't get money out of the hole in the wall or to get cashback. If you need to get cash from the card, you can transfer the money from the card into your bank account and then take the money out of your bank account.
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What if I want to pay for something that can't be bought online? Or what if they don't accept credit cards?
If whatever you need to buy can't be bought with a MasterCard® card or requires a physical card, you can transfer the money from your online event account into your bank account. You can then use your own bank card or take cash out from your bank account to pay for it. There is a small charge of £2 for moving money from your online event account into your own bank account.
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What should I do if some of the costs I need to cover can be paid online and some can't?
You can use your Wigadoo Virtual Prepaid MasterCard® to buy whatever you need online and then transfer the remainder into your bank account so that you can pay for it with your bank card or cash. There is a small charge of £2 for moving money from your online event account into your own bank account.
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What happens if there's money left on the card at the end of the event? Can I get a refund?
If there is money left on the card, you can simply transfer it to your bank account. There is a small charge of £2 for moving money from your online event account into your own bank account.
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Where is my group's money actually held?
Wigadoo does not store your group's money. It is held in Newcastle Building Society who operate the online event account and Wigadoo Virtual Prepaid MasterCard® on behalf of Wigadoo.
This means that your money is not at risk if Wigadoo goes bankrupt. However, you should be aware, that if in the very unlikely event that Newcastle Building Society went bankrupt, you may lose any money that you have in your online event account that had not been spent. This is only money that you have collected and not spent. If people have pledged but you have not collected it, there is no risk.
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