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

chanz4

so thechief, if they had not loaned you the cash how would you of got by?

ncarring

Reasons to celebrate this decision:

- Wonga have cynically made huge amounts of money from people who were already in debt and put them even further down the pit
- Wonga's advertising suggesting they're a friendly cuddly company who are nice to old people - just the kind of audience who may have difficulty repaying and want an extra bit of money at Christmas or similar
- Wonga's (and other payday lenders') extortionate interest rates, which mean people are often taking out new loans to pay the interest on their existing ones. OK so this is the same as the top one, nearly.
- Wonga's criminal activities sending letters from made-up lawyer companies to frighten their debtors even further.

Reasons to bemoan it:

- you're a Wonga stakeholder
- you're someone who lives constantly in debt and Wonga were the cheapest form of money you could get your hands on (really?)
- er ...

I imagine (perhaps optimistically) that the FCA looked into Wonga's finances and didn't levy this sanction without checking that it wouldn't endanger Wonga's business terminally, which may not be in everybody's interest. Hopefully they will clean up their act and continue to be successful within rather tighter guidelines.

johndawgylt

Hi, after reading this thread, I logged into my Wonga account and my account is 595 days in arreas and I owe £953.48.

Does this mean I will be contacted to have it written off? I take it it will be wiped on my credit file too and not go down as a missed/bumped payment or outstanding debt?

Thanks

Thechief_2

595 days and it hasnt been passed over for debt collection??? Mine was passed over a long time before that!!! So they change there policies regarding that too???

KJJ_68

Absolutely chuffed to bits that this has happened. Companies like Wonga appeared at a time like vultures preying on people at there weakest. A truly immoral business model and one that always horrified me, Having been seriously in debt I know the perils of this, you start tinking that by borrowing money you can pay your way out of your debt, and they knew exactally what they were doing too.

Hopefully the regulator will now be gunning for the others.

Thrugelmir

KJJ_68 wrote: »

Hopefully the regulator will now be gunning for the others.

The direction of travel suggests the world of credit in the future will be very different. Other companies have also adopted variations of the Wonga business model i.e. Northern Rock. Going to require a change of culture and attitude towards debt across the board.

jobdone1

I am lost with all this, Are people living beyond their means by way of keeping up with the jones or are they that skint and get zero help they have to go to payday loans. Its concerning because if wonga write this debt off what's going to stop the borrowers taking new debt by whatever means.The best option is to help these people with compulsory commitments to debt charities, councillors or any support group that can get them on the right path and ultimately any benefits rightly claimed where needed to support them. I know emergency's crop up and this service is used but we all need to get the right support and not be left out in the cold, just writing the debt off is only the start but other support needs to follow.

ncarring

It starts with people being given credit cards who haven't learnt the meaning of "credit" yet ...

ncarring

Monkeyballs wrote: »

Personally, I would rather see banks offering very short term loans which would have interest rates in-line with their regular lending rates available to their customers but it's unlikely to happen as it probably just isn't worth it for the banks to do so - very little money for the same effort it would take to loan someone say £10+ which is much more profitable... Until this happens then Payday lending will go on unfortunately...

Banks have been burnt over the last 20 years by lots of bad debt that earnt them criticism in their turn for not making thorough enough checks first.

Banks have high overheads and small loans don't really fit their business model.

Payday lending - fine. Immoral advertising and extortionate interest rates that aren't made clear - not.

ellay864

Never taken a loan with them but they took £300 off me due to a fraudulent loan. Have had no other instances of ID theft, no other dodgy payments made - just Wonga. First I knew was a letter to a name I didnt recognise at my address congratulating me on my loan, then 3 days later 5 payments of between £60 and 70 each were taken out. I e-mailed and tried ringing them on their no-help line but no response for 10 days, at which point they just said that they understood it was all sorted (I had contacted my bank who refunded me instantly) and not to hesitate to contact them if they could help me further!