'Fact: borrowing £100 at Wonga's APR costs more than the US National' blog discussion

Former_MSE_Penelope

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "Fact: borrowing £100 at Wonga's APR costs more than the US National Debt (over $14 trillion) after 7 years!" Blog.

Please click 'post reply' to discuss below.

2sides2everystory

Four hours since the blog, and what's this ... a stunned silence ? Or has it gone completely over the heads of most Wonga customers ?

Compound interest? Whassat?

Must be safe cos they advertise on prime time telly - safer than Meerkats wiv funny accents - better than that - in fact safe as a business run by Grandma and Grandad, ain't it? Wouldn't hurt a fly now would they, and always giving you crisp twenties at the drop of a hat too?

torbrex

Type Wonga into a search engine and one of the hits is sure to be this site as it is mentioned here so often and people will be reasured to see Martins name associated with it, they wont bother to read the details but instead take it as a recommendation and rush out to get a loan that they cant afford.

Rafter

Great objective post Martin.

Totally with you that APR is irrelevant here and that what is needed is some limit on compounding for payday loans or any other unsecured debt to prevent 'debt poverty' like the example from facebook of someone borrowing <£100 but oweing nearly £1000. Bonkers and shouldn't be allowed legally or ethically.

Is education enough though. Or do we need some sort of lending code in this country that prevents unethical financial businesses from exploiting consumers in this way or risk losing their lending licenses.

Either that or a government health warning on products that don't meet certain standards that they can seriously damage your wealth.

R.

Percy1983

Is it just me who has little sympathy for the cases of growing interest.

To be honest if I signed up to a set of terms and conditions I expect to feel the full wrath of said terms and conditions and as I signed up I have nobody to blame but myself.

2sides2everystory

Born in 1983 Percy? You've been groomed to think the way you post but were never actually fully equipped to protect yourself were you? You reckon you are now streetwise to Ts & Cs. Any hard knocks on the way?

Do you know how to calculate or even just to estimate compound interest at the sort of rates Wonga charge? Do you yourself know exactly how to independently arrive at that 14 trillion figure Martin has calculated?

If so, you are one amongst maybe 2% of the population whose Maths is good enough to help them protect themselves. If you are amongst the 98% then you must be deluding yourself to some degree that you know what you are signing from day to day.

tagq2

Percy1983, not everyone is intelligent, healthy, non-desperate, etc. A market only works when it comprises informed individuals making rational decisions, not when caveat emptor is substituted. There exist responsible lenders who will properly check your credit-worthiness, charge you an interest rate appropriate to the amount of time for which the balance is outstanding, or not send you into a debt spiral from which there is little hope of recovery - but few will do all three.

The state-provided Budgeting Loans and Crisis Loans are appropriate for low-income living or emergency borrowing, though unfortunately their availability is being constricted. It would be far more sensible to simply charge a nominal interest rate which results no loss or profit for the government. These loans aren't exactly easy to escape from as the government has the power to deduct from other allowances.

If so, you are one amongst maybe 2% of the population whose Maths is good enough to help them protect themselves. If you are amongst the 98% then you must be deluding yourself to some degree that you know what you are signing from day to day.

Quite. I'm a mathematics graduate and I've still misinterpreted financial T&C. Although sometimes it has ended up with the other party admitting that the wording is unclear, I am proud to be able to admit to being an imperfect and sometimes trickable human.

Percy1983

Well if you haven't already, please click the e-petition link which should be near the top of the browser window you are currently looking at. That should be a step in the right direction.

I do believe more than 2% can figure somethig as simple as, I am £100 short to pay a bill, if I borrow £100 until next week it will cost me £15, will I have £115 next week?

I just see it time and time again, people get into trouble but its never their fault, what ever happened to people taking responsibility for there own actions?

IrishGypsy

Percy1983 wrote: »

Well if you haven't already, please click the e-petition link which should be near the top of the browser window you are currently looking at. That should be a step in the right direction.

I do believe more than 2% can figure somethig as simple as, I am £100 short to pay a bill, if I borrow £100 until next week it will cost me £15, will I have £115 next week?

I just see it time and time again, people get into trouble but its never their fault, what ever happened to people taking responsibility for there own actions?

I think the real problem Percy is that while potentially more than 2% can figure it out, eeds must for many and for a lot of people they're desperate and turned down by multiple 'regular' loan sources (banks etc). Also, not everyone is financially astute, so they can be 'tricked' into thinking the opposite of what is actually true. Or they could be like many customers I've seen over the years and just not really care what they're signing for!

Example: My mum used to use the Provident door-to-door borrowing so she could pay for our Xmas presents in the 80's and only now do I realise how long it took just to pay that borrowing off. She done it because she felt she had no other choice (I reckon I was a damnding little tyke when I was a few years old ).

Now, with my financial background in banking behind me, I'm much more savvy in regards to borrowing (it's all either free or at 7.9% - the highest permanent credit card APR I hold). But I only learnt from my job in the finance industry. When I was younger I didn't understand it properly (as good as my maths was) and went nuts with credit cards (a debt I'm still paying to this day in fact). I just didn't fully appreciate or even understand the repucussions of borrowing money.

And having just found out that my wife is pregnant with our first child (:D), I plan on teaching my kid money skills, something I really wish I had, but fully appreciate that my mum just didn't have the same level of education that I've had, so didn't have that knowledge to pass onto me.

And no doubt quite a few of the UK population are in a similar position. And as smart as some people may be, the T's and C's aren't exactly designed to be written in plain english...

djnumber1

READ THE SMALL PRINT :mad:
the things your not told by wonga!!!!!!
if you have finacial difficulties while you have a loan with them and do not contact them quick enough they will empty any account they have on their system when your days is up and repayment requested.
so if you borrow the max which is about £400 and extend the loan for the maxium of 3 times then cant afford to pay them back yes this is over £1000 owed :eek: and they will take it from any account they have on file (they would sell your grandmother!!!)
and lets face it the people using these sites are normal people already in finacial difficultie as it is easy to get money all wonga request is that you have an email