Problems with loan from Wonga

Joyfalula

On Saturday 13th of February i made my first application for a payday loan from company called Wonga. The website stated that once you have been verified the money could be in your account within 15 minutes. I filled out all the application details, emailled over a scan of a bank statement and provided details of my current employer. 4 days later i received an email saying i had (finally) been verified and i could proceed by accepting the loan agreement and the money would be with me within the hour. Despite the delay in the verifying process i was happy to go ahead with the loan until i check it out properly. They charge a specific amount of interest for each day the loan money is held by you but when i checked the agreement i was about to accecpt, i noticed that the interest had not been reduced accordingly even though 4 days had passed since the initial application. I sent Wonga an email asking them to amend the agreement to reflect todays date and therefore show a lesser amount of interest and/or allow me to make a fresh application that starts from today. After many vague and short emails from them they basically told me they are not able to amend the agreement and that i should phone 0871 288 5704 to cancel my agreement. I telephoned the number and explained that i didnt wish to cancel, all i wanted was for the interest to be amended accordingly to which the gentleman on the phone said that all he could do was send an email to the team to ask them to contact me VIA EMAIL. At this point i was started to lose my rag because i just explained that i had spoken to the "team" via email all day and i was unable to reach any conclusion! I then said ok fine ill cancel seeing as no one is willing to help or advise me, he said he could only do that by sending an email to the team who would get back to me via email (the same team who i had been emailling myself all day and the same team who told me to contact him to cancal) ARRRRGGGGH!! :mad:

I dont think what i am asking is unreasonable at all. Im wondering what others think of this situation and what experiences others have had with this company and what i should do now....

Thanks in advance!

dougyd

My honest response would be to cancel the agreement and find another way to get the money other than taking out a pay day advance.

Believe me, they lead to a whole world of trouble.

maximillion7

Hi

I am glad I read your post. I came across it one day after applying for a very small wonga loan just to tide me over until next payday. I didn't realise it would take 4 days for them to verify my bank statement. I assumed their decisions were meant to be at the very least same day. I called them and their response was very rude, talking to me as if I were a moron. She eventually, after much patience on my part, said I should know by the following morning. Then offered to put me through to the verification deptartment, at which point I was left hanging at 10p a minute. That was 2 days ago, and I am still waiting. ( for verification that is.... I'm not still on the phone lol ) I emailed their 'verify' address to tell them I was not going to pay a 15 min transfer fee of £5 after 4 days of waiting for verification and to cancel my request. After 4 days it would be pretty pointless anyway. Still no response. I copied my emails to their CEO Errol Damelin, and no response from him either. I am sure that their service would be worthwhile if immediate funding was available as stated, but 4 days verification makes the whole exercise pointless. I won't bother with them again.

maximillion7

P.S. Apparently, if you have taken out the loan, according to their blurb, you should be able to login to your account, and pay off the loan early on your next payday. So all this stuff about not being able to change the agreement is, according to their website, nonsense. As soon as you are able, just login, and pay it off early, and you should get your 4 days interest back.

RobertoMoir

What I think of this situation is:

1) The majority of people who get payday loans probably shouldn't.
2) Never do business with companies that have stupid, cutsey or whatever names. They'll be far too busy thinking of ways to advertise themselves using some kind of stupid advert where every word used starts with the same letter as the company name and/or rhymes with it to be professional.

Two good reasons not to get involved imho.

scooterb

I used wonga once, i was short of cash one saturday and needed a few ££ till monday, anyway i was on the net a seen they had an iphone app i downloaded it stuck in the info and within 1hr had money to do me till monday. I dont think i wouldn't use them for more that a few days worth of a loan a week max

maximillion7

RobertoMoir

Hmm. Sounds like you are not, or ever have been, strapped for cash. Payday loans have their place. No different to asking a mate for a sub till Friday, other than the interest/costs involved. I would have been happy to pay £10 for a £50 sub for 10 days. If only to stop me, and my kids, from starving. There is no reason to assume, that once the loan is paid off, that I would be in a worse off situation. It's just a temporary sub. That is wonga's basis. But the argument is not how much the sub costs, but their false adverts as to immediate payments.

maximillion7

Scooterb.... you were lucky. They normally only accept 15% of first time applications.

RobertoMoir

maximillion7 wrote: »

RobertoMoir

Hmm. Sounds like you are not, or ever have been, strapped for cash.

I have been, actually, but I'll admit not that strapped for a good while now.

If you consider the statement in my signature you'll see that despite not having debt problems of my own for some time I am actually pretty experienced in debt problems and managing debt, and while its been as an "interested bystander" rather than a "victim" I've probably seen as much debt problems, if not more, than most people you'd meet on the street.

maximillion7 wrote: »

Payday loans have their place. No different to asking a mate for a sub till Friday, other than the interest/costs involved. I would have been happy to pay £10 for a £50 sub for 10 days. If only to stop me, and my kids, from starving. There is no reason to assume, that once the loan is paid off, that I would be in a worse off situation. It's just a temporary sub. That is wonga's basis. But the argument is not how much the sub costs, but their false adverts as to immediate payments.

You're absolutely correct when you say that, of course, but a lot of people who use payday loan companies are people who have real debt problems and end up dragging themselves deeper into the muck. There are countless situations told here and I've seen it elsewhere where people get into the habit of using those advances and subs, then they need them, then they need a bit more... and they're in a serious debt spiral before they know why or how.

As for the point you make about the thread being about their poor service, you're correct once again, but as far as I'm concerned that's amply covered by point #2 in my reply. I was perfectly serious when I said that.

maximillion7

Thanks for your reply RobertMoir. No quibbles with that response. But the question as to the integrity of Wonga still applies. Why oh why do they need 4 days to verify a bank statement? And what purpose does it serve anyway? With todays' electronic/internet/equifax instant verification interrogations available immediately to hand, I cannot see the need for such a delay. It's as if they are taking the p**s, and I see no justification for it.