Advice needed should I tell them get bent? (wonga.com)

Liz_L

Hi this is the first time I have posted but I look at these forms for advice a lot. They have been really helpful in the past.

I stupidly got into a lot of trouble with payday loan companies in the past and am slowly clawing my way out with repayment plans.

The only company who is causing me greif is wonga.com. What with rolling over and havnig to take more out each month to cover my rent I ended up taking out a loan for £843.

I realised that this could go on so I cancelled the card and contacted them telling them I couldn;t afford to repay.

Over a month the amount I owed went up up to £1557 and was growing every day. I ended up agreeing to a 3 month repayment plan on their website just to stop their charges whereby I pay £519 a month - much more than I can afford

Through borrowing a bit of cash from my boyfriend, not paying other bills, selling stuff and living on a shoestring I have managed to make 2 repayments but the 3rd will completely overstretch me and I need to catch up with other bills.

Over the course of about 18 months they have had hundreds of pounds of interest out of me and in the repayment plan they have had £1040 for an initial loan of £843 and I am tempted to cancel my debit card and tell them to go hang.

I can't see any judge in the world agreeing with their APR of over 2000%

On the repayment arrangement section of ther website it says this

"You need to ensure that there are sufficient funds available to cover the payments. If we are unable to collect any of the scheduled payments, your arrangement will be terminated and the full sum plus any accrued ("frozen") interest will become due. This will come to more that the amount that we have agreed to accept in settlement by virtue of this agreement. This offer of settlement is wholly WITHOUT PREJUDICE to our rights in Court should the arrangement not be completed."

According to my account section that amount would now be £1418.83 which to me is riduculous since they have already had over a grand of me.

I guess what I am asking is am I better off swallowing the £519 and dealing with the ramifications of defaulting on pretty much everything else (but at least other lenders can be reasoned with) or should I jsut tell wonga to go hang?

Sorry this is a bit long - I just wanted to make sure I gave you as much of a complete picture as possible.

Thanks for reading

MyLastFiver

If you can possibly do it, make the final payment and get them off your back. You've scrimped and saved to make two of the payments. If you miss this one, everything you have paid will just get added back on in interest and charges.

Of course I am not suggesting you miss payments on essential services or secured borrowing in order to meet the payment.

Yes they are greedy and yes their charges are immoral, but you signed up to that when you took out the loan. Bite the bullet, pay them, get them off your back and enjoy a good night's sleep.

DarkConvict

PayDay loans are small short term emergency loans, if you fail to pay it back in a month you are hit with higher rates. At a low APR they are not profitable and also due to lending so quickly are high risk, this is the reason for the high rates. But i don't argue they can prey on those in finanical problems and quickly turn £500 into £5000 debt.
Legally there is nothing you can do about it as they are regulated and the rate is advertised.
Your best bet is to contact local credit unions that help you pay back these stupidly highly apr loans.

Mikeone

You definitely need to get these sharks off your back, and getting rid of your commitment to them as soon as you can. With such abhorrent rates, any further relationship with them will affect your entire financial arrangements.


However, you should do this as smartly as possible. Post your SOA and the DFW crew can take a look and suggest sensible ways for you to cut down and free up the cash you need to pay off Wonga.

I was involved with CTP companies for many years –they were the first thing I had to sort out.

Best wishes, and good luck!

ybebly1

hi does anyone know how i get these to set up a payment plan ? i've tried emailing them and they said i have got to ring them i really want to keep things in writing any adivce ?

sfordy69

Hi. i too am currently being hounded by wonga. I took out a payday loan over Christmas for £350. In January, my working hours decreased and my payment failed. I emailed wonga who told me they understood my situation but still wanted their money - which then stood at £450.

I write and emailed - offering repayment, and was told I had to ring them - but i emailed again stating that they hadd a repayment offer in writing. I have now been told that they will accept payment in 3 instalments which i really can't afford - howver they have also taken the entire contents of my account this month - over £250 towards their charges / interest. the bank said they were allowed to do this as they had my card details and could take what they wanted. and Wonga say they will take more on the final payment to cover admin, etc.

Can anyone help???

bargainbetty

sfordy69 - cancel the card, and ask for a new one from the bank. Tell them you lost it. Hopefully that will invalidate the old card, and they will be unable to deduct extra. Offer to pay by cheque or over the counter for the remainder of the term.

If you do not make the payments with these shysters, they will slap more charges on - that is how they make money, and sadly, you sign up for it when you take them out.

kinglewis121

ive been in this situation i really have and can understand where you are , in these sort of posts people are quick to jump on the "you took it you pay for it you greedy so and so" but i dont think they really understand what its reallly like , i took out about 8 payday loans none of them ever over 180 but wonga was one of them, at the time i earnt 740 quid a month full time , and almost all of that went on interest and rollovers eventually after living on nothing for my hard work i said id had enough because i had been paying nearly all my wage on the interest i had none spare to pay any of them off so i had been in the cycle for almost 13 months ,

so last month i had cancelled my card so not a penny could be touched , although i didnt run i simply mailed and emailed the companies explaining id never missed a payment for over 12 months and that i wouldnt run from my debt but would they please throw me a bone and let me have a repayment plan most of them agreed 1 month loan being the kindest , but wonga was the only pain , but to be honest i cant possibly see you being turned down for a smaller plan since youve paid them over 5 ton a month for two months just ask them if you can shrink it a bit for the next few months?

i hope you get out of this let us know how you get one

Lew x

DarkConvict

The problem isn't the payday loan, but failing to pay it back within the 30 day time period before the high interest kicks.

Budget for the month, If you cant afford something, don't lend money, wait for the following paycheck before buying it. As above a common issue is they borrow money but then get hours reduced and they can't pay it.
Interest kicks in, then your budget gets trashed with having to pay a fortune in interest, there is seemingly no way out of it. Something like pawn brokers where they secure it against an item is usually a better approach incase something goes horribly wrong.

Edit

I feel i should add in i have had a very anti-credit upbringing, can't afford it don't buy it, along with the fact i have saved i am lucky not to be in a bad position. I've not had a 'bad' month in terms of lots of problems but my mercilious paperwork and investigations i do before buying meant i have savings so if stuff does so wrong, i can afford it if i broke my glasses, boiler broke, car broke and lost my job all in one month

LDJ2009

I have Wonga's bank details and a landline number for their collections team if that will help in anyway.

At least you could pay what you could afford and this would count in your favour if it did ever get taken further.

For info, i believe Wonga stop interest and charges being applied after 60 days of the loan defaulting.

Chillout5892

Boy oh boy! What a cautionary tail. I'm on a long term DMP which leaves me skint with no savings. I had thought if an emergency arose, (I mean it will do sooner or later) New short term loan companies may be of limited use.

I've re-evaluated that. I think not this side of my grave, may be a better conclusion.