MSE News: Wonga busted by the FCA: 330,000 to have their loan wiped

CerealKiller

vicarondo wrote: »

When you log into your account, is it still showing?

Haven't looked but they said will be cleared by end of the month.

DevCoder

crispyballoon wrote: »

From MSE article 'Wonga busted':

As a result of the FCA's review, Wonga has today introduced a new 'lending criteria', which it will use before granting loans. The payday lender says it can't give too much information on what the new criteria is as it's "commercially sensitive", but it says it's scrutinising loan to income ratios.

So, they are working out who gets written off and who doesn't based on criteria that they aren't going to make public.

So how do we know if they're doing it correctly?

Theres a reason lenders don't make their accept/decline affordability criteria and algorithms available to the public. And it's not for nefarious reasons.

Ph12hd

Hi, thought I'd let u guys know the emails have been sent re the write offs. I had one just now, confirms balance will be reduced to zero & credit file amended

graceyyxx

My repayment plan is still showing on my account.

ViolaLass

huntz wrote: »

Loan to income ratios are meaningless. Someone could be indebted up to the max with no room to pay back and they will still lend? That's not correct.

Probably total loan i.e. all borrowing.

mollymegan

vicarondo wrote: »

Scary isn't it! Have you recieved any emails? X

zilch at my end, feeling disappointed tbh, only 4 payments left but these last payments seem the hardest, so near and yet so far, could do with a break.

DevCoder

huntz wrote: »

Loan to income ratios are meaningless. Someone could be indebted up to the max with no room to pay back and they will still lend? That's not correct.

Which is why loan to income ratios include outgoings before the final ratio is calculated.

Ph12hd

You may have already read or heard in the news recently about an announcement on 2nd October from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regarding changes to our lending criteria.

We can confirm that you have been affected.

The changes mean that we have new ways of testing whether customers can afford the loan they want to take out - these are called affordability criteria. We have investigated your case and we believe you are one of the customers who have been impacted as a result of these historical affordability issues.


What happens next

We will automatically clear any outstanding debt you have with us and your balance will be set to zero. This will be done by the end of October 2014. You do not need to do anything.

We are working with the relevant credit reference agencies to remove records relating to this loan from your credit report. We expect this will take between three to four weeks to be completed. This will be done automatically and there is no further action required from you.

Key Facts
for customers
We have committed to a major customer forbearance programme in light of changes to our lending criteria

We have identified you as being affected by affordability issues and so we are clearing any outstanding debt on your loan

Please do not make any further repayments

You do not need to do anything. We will contact you to confirm that your balance is zero.

For further information, you can find out more on the lending criteria changes

If you are currently making repayments to us, such as by Standing Order, please do not continue to do so. We recommend you contact your bank to cancel these repayment arrangements. Please be assured that, should a repayment be made, we will refund this amount to you.

We will contact you in due course to confirm that your balance is zero.

If you are in an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) or your debt is being managed through a Debt Management Provider it is your responsibility to inform the person managing your debt of these changes.

On behalf of our Chairman, Andy Haste, and the rest of the team at Wonga, we recognise that we may not have always made the right lending decisions and for this we apologise. We intend to be sure in the future that we only lend to customers who can reasonably afford to repay their loans.

You can find out more about these lending criteria changes here. Alternatively, please call our customer care team free on 0800 042 0210 or if you are calling from a mobile on 0333 003 0830.

Yours,

Tim Weller
Interim CEO, Wonga Group

f1widow

I am pleased to say I've had my email and it's the same as gracyxx 's

vicarondo

CerealKiller wrote: »

Just had an email. My debt has been written off

mollymegan wrote: »

zilch at my end, feeling disappointed tbh, only 4 payments left but these last payments seem the hardest, so near and yet so far, could do with a break.

Maybe we will recieve something yet; sounds like they are only just filtering through now