Wonga on brink of collapse

Willing2Learn

TrickyDicky101 wrote: »

Yep you're absolutely right - instead they'd have been in hock to some loan shark who would have broken their legs instead.

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

If Wonga one of the market leaders goes bust then others in the same market may follow?
Where will the uncreditworthy go then? - Back to back street money lenders?

The uncreditworthy will mostly go without. That is what they did before PDL companies existed. There would be the occasional person who used a back-street loan-shark but most people just did without...or saved...

iolanthe07

The fifties and sixties meant a lot of necessary items in the home were bought on the never never.


Yes, but lending was much more responsible in those days. My first credit was for a Sobell reel to reel tape recorder when I was 18, but I had to put one third down and pay the rest off over a maximum of two years. The same was true for big ticket items, too, even cars. So people only bought on the never-never after they had saved a decent deposit.

dekaspace

Wonga at one point were advertising at Freshers Fairs targetting the young and naive, whilst the students taking the loans up were to blame in many ways Wonga did so knowing they were easy targets and scalp them for far more than actually owed.

PixelPound

Whilst wonga seems to have beared the brunt, there are other legalised loan sharks out there, still marketing themselves as able to get you through to pay day and having the APR in very small print not immediately obvious.

People who manage their money who can afford loans will get decent rates, even including some who get double digit interest. The 1k%+ interest is all aimed at those not able to get credit elsewhere, or don't think of consequences - borrow £80 and pay £100 back in a few weeks is perfectly affordable without realising that means you are £100 down the following month and may once again run out.

buythedip

bxboards wrote: »

Because I believe that people who are genuinely working have no need of such loans in the majority of cases. Look right now, with historicaly low interest rates, and a minimum wage people are or should be much better of now than they have ever have been previously. What we define as 'poverty' here is laughable compared to genuine poverty in some 3rd world countries.

You must live in a different Britain to me with high rents and inadequate housing, the proliferation of zero hours contracts and surging food bank use.

Or maybe you thought you were commenting on the Daily Mail website?

ffacoffipawb

If it does go bust it will be because it lent itself a tenner.

Seriously though the desperate will now go to local 'friendly' loan shark which is even worse and more dangerous.

On the other hand, do the entitled fecckless deserve any sympathy?

okidoodle

Do you actually know anybody that has used Wonga? Or have you been reading the Daily Mail again? Although if it makes you feel superior to people that have taken out payday loans, knock yourself out.

I know someone who is on disability benefits for back pain and depression and has payday loans, buys designer clothing for her grandchild (she's 35) from the catalogues on tick, has multiple items from Bright House including giant TV with sky and two x boxes (because her godawful daughter smashed one up in a temper tantrum), is constantly robbing peter to pay paul and yet manages to have a constant supply of weed and baccy. The only reason I know her is that she was doing odd jobs for cash for my other half who was doing up a house, like sweeping up, polyfilla-ing bits of wall etc. She's not disabled in the slightest, she's just too chaotic to hold down a job, but yet thinks that a giant TV and converse trainers for a two year old are priority purchases.
She used to give me !!!! because I have a ten year old TV, no sky package (just netflix and amazon, don't even pay TV licence), I have white goods that I either got from charity shops or out of my grandparents' house when they died, and most of my baby's clothes came from second hand bundles on facebook. She's not even an unusual case- this is pretty normal behaviour in my experience, and I do work with people in deprived communities. Advertising and peer pressure is unfortunately the biggest scourge on deprived areas making people think that it's better to get yourself in expensive debt than to be seen to not be able to afford things.

Robisere

iolanthe07 wrote: »

The fifties and sixties meant a lot of necessary items in the home were bought on the never never.


Yes, but lending was much more responsible in those days. My first credit was for a Sobell reel to reel tape recorder when I was 18, but I had to put one third down and pay the rest off over a maximum of two years. The same was true for big ticket items, too, even cars. So people only bought on the never-never after they had saved a decent deposit.

Absolutely correct! Although the only thing I ever bought on HP (as it was them called) was a new car, which I paid up on time. When I sold it, I never bought another new car, until I became disabled and received a Motability car, for which I have always been grateful.


I have to agree with those who speak of people in serious debt but buying expensive items whilst on benefits. I know more than one like that. I believe that Brexit, especially a hard Brexit, will lead to problems for people like that. The checks and examinations of disabilities are bound to get harder and the cuts will go deeper, as money gets tighter. The only people who will really suffer, will be the genuinely disabled who are denied help. When the number of EU workers here reaches a critically low level, fruit and vegetable picking and packing jobs should be passed to the unemployed who are capable of working, or lose all benefits.

[Deleted User]

Big article in a sunday paper about bright house charging 99.9% apr on reconditioned goods and people ended up paying 3x what they could have bought for new, in my view that puts them in the same category as wonga etc
People also forget that used properly wonga loans could be less expensive than unauthorised overdrafts.

newatc

No sympathy for Wonga as a company and perhaps their difficulties will help the other legal loan companies offer profitable realistic loans treating their clients as customers and not cash cows.