Wonga Defaults

Barutd

I'm sorry but the sarcastic and condescending tone of some of the replies constitutes being a keyboard warrior to me, I certainly hope you wouldn't speak to people like that in the real world!

I am not wanting to 'live on a bed of feathers' or 'rewrite history' at all. I am trying to stand up to an organisation that have lied and cheated customers for years, including in this case because;

• They failed to notify me that the loan had been reinstated
• They did not adhere to the guidelines to which they signed up
• Most importantly, I HAVE DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE that I attempted to pay several times before the defaults were applied and it was the ineptitude of their customer services department that prevented that.

I have explained that last point a couple of times, I just think some of the keyboard warriors on here are choosing to ignore it because they have made their mind up that this is ‘just another default post’. Yes, I read them before I posted this thread, so I know how people are treated who ask those sorts of questions. That’s why I tried to explain my situation rather than just ask my question, but I either didn’t do it well enough, it’s been completely ignored or people think it’s perfectly correct for a company not to make a payment method available then add defaults to someone’s credit file. I suspect (hope) it’s a mixture of the first 2.

Aside from all this there is another issue here, kindly highlighted by Tarambor. The financial Ombudsman has instructed payday lenders to remove records of the loans from customers credit files where irresponsible lending was proven. When I complained to Wonga however, I was niave and had never sought advice on how to complain. This resulted in me missing the deadline for escalation to the Financial Ombudsman as set out in their guidelines. So I have been held to a set of industry guidelines, yet according to Tarambor, Wonga don’t have to adhere to the regulatory guidelines they voluntarily signed up to, that’s optional. I completely accept that I made mistakes in the complaint process too and that the time frame was most likely included in the companies final response to me. This is a none argument though, because I could equally say that Wonga should have read the guidelines they signed up for too!

So, is this not a blatant case of one rule for one and another rule for someone else? I thought one of the things this forum would stand for, given its origins, would be to help the man (or woman) on the street stand up to those kinds of double standards. Instead there seems to be an attitude of, 'that’s how it is so you’ll just have to put up with it', and I think that’s a shame.

Anyway, thanks for the 1 or 2 snippets of advice I gleaned from amongst the rest of the replies, I shall just have to pursue my complaint myself.

System

They only have to remove records for INDIVIDUAL SITUATIONS where irresponsible lending was proven, not everyone who was a customer. Unless it was judged Wonga had lent irresponsibly to you then they did not have to remove the entries. Just because you get a decision of irresponsible lending from other lenders doesn't mean that all lending you took out was done irresponsibly.

[Deleted User]

I think the defaults are fair - let’s call it “Irresponsible Applying”

DCFC79

Get yourself onto Judge Rinder, he will get to the nitty gritty of it.

I believe the defaults were fair but carry on with your complaint and let us know how you get on.

ndf9876

Tarambor wrote: »

They only have to remove records for INDIVIDUAL SITUATIONS where irresponsible lending was proven, not everyone who was a customer. Unless it was judged Wonga had lent irresponsibly to you then they did not have to remove the entries. Just because you get a decision of irresponsible lending from other lenders doesn't mean that all lending you took out was done irresponsibly.

I don't think it was compulsory; the removal of records from the credit file was down the Ombudsman (or Adjudicator) looking at the case.

shak100a

Payday companies never take you to court.

Barutd

DCFC79 wrote: »

I believe the defaults were fair but carry on with your complaint and let us know how you get on.

So you think it is fair for a company to not allow you to pay a loan, then issue defaults, what a strange thing to say. I reckon you might change that opinion if a creditor of yours (if you have any) was to do this to you, lets hope you never find out.


With regards to the irresponsible lending. This was all around the same time and Wonga, were somewhere in the middles of the firms that I borrowed from. I rolled over and increased amounts probably more with them, than any other lender. So, while I agree that I Wonga were not judged to have lent to me irresponsibly. That was down to another mistake from myself during the complaints process, rather than a decision from the FOS. It is pretty clear from the subsequent cases that I won, that Wonga was guilty of this and that I would have won at FOS.... but I didn't so its not really a consideration, it was just some background to this case.


I also agree that it could also be classed as irresponsible borrowing. Until you have been trapped in the situation however, you just can't understand the feeling of entrapment and embarrassment that you feel. It just kind of snowballs and before you know it, you can't see a way out. I'm not asking for sympathy, god knows I wont get it off the likes of !!!, but that's the way it was. So yes, of course there is an element of blame on the borrower, I've never shirked my share of the responsibility, but firms have a responsibility to ensure they do not operate irresponsibly as somebody in a desperate situation will not act responsibly. They were making money from the misery and suffering of people and no matter what you think of the people who got themselves into the situation in the first place, that is never right.

MEM62

Barutd wrote: »

So you think it is fair for a company to not allow you to pay a loan, then issue defaults, what a strange thing to say. I reckon you might change that opinion if a creditor of yours (if you have any) was to do this to you, lets hope you never find out.

With regards to the irresponsible lending. This was all around the same time and Wonga, were somewhere in the middles of the firms that I borrowed from. I rolled over and increased amounts probably more with them, than any other lender. So, while I agree that I Wonga were not judged to have lent to me irresponsibly. That was down to another mistake from myself during the complaints process, rather than a decision from the FOS. It is pretty clear from the subsequent cases that I won, that Wonga was guilty of this and that I would have won at FOS.... but I didn't so its not really a consideration, it was just some background to this case.


I also agree that it could also be classed as irresponsible borrowing. Until you have been trapped in the situation however, you just can't understand the feeling of entrapment and embarrassment that you feel. It just kind of snowballs and before you know it, you can't see a way out. I'm not asking for sympathy, god knows I wont get it off the likes of !!!, but that's the way it was. So yes, of course there is an element of blame on the borrower, I've never shirked my share of the responsibility, but firms have a responsibility to ensure they do not operate irresponsibly as somebody in a desperate situation will not act responsibly. They were making money from the misery and suffering of people and no matter what you think of the people who got themselves into the situation in the first place, that is never right.

Hopefully, these days more people know what they are getting themselves into when they take loans from payday lenders. For many, their fate is sealed as soon as they take their first loan because that is the first step on the downward spiral.

Hopefully, others considering payday loans will read stories such as yours and avoid them in the first place. The general rule of thumb being, if you have to resort to the sub-prime market for a loan, you really shouldn't be borrowing money.

[Deleted User]

So Wonga made you go to them and apply for a loan?

They made you fill in the application for with all your address and bank details?

No - that was you.

Barutd

!!!, you really are a massive ... ! I have repeatedly said that I take responsibility for my actions. It is you that seems unwilling to accept that these companies had a massive part to play in the whole sordid affair. I'm beginning to think you worked/work for one of these companies. I wouldn't mind but it's actually not that relevant to why I am actually complaining about this default, you're just after an argument. Looking over some of your replies to previous threads too, it is quite clear what sort of person you are. I'm sure you think you're fantastic, but you're nothing more than a keyboard warring Troll. That much is made abundantly clear too by your post to year count, you obviously have nothing better to do with your life than come onto this forum and post inflammatory comments. I feel sorry for you.


MEM62 - Yes hopefully, you're right. The business model of these companies is designed to keep people lending from them and trap them in a spiral of debt, which is why they have been targeted by regulators. They know that they only appeal to people who are struggling in the first place and are going to struggle to pay off the loan and not have to get one the next month. So they then have repeat customers who continue to pay them interest and charges every month, never being able to get out. Then another unexpected bill comes and they have to increase the loan and it so it goes on.


I got into it 6 months or so after I first moved out of my parents house. An unexpected bill came in, so I went to my bank to ask for just £500 to pay it and repay over 12 months. It was in about 2010, so not long after the financial crash and, even though I'd been with my bank 6 years, they wouldn't lend to me because I had no previous credit history. These companies were pretty new then, so I didn't understand what I was getting into and I was young and naïve. That isn't me passing the buck, that's just a fact. As you say though, once that 1st loan was taken, I could not get out. I think my first increase came when Christmas came and it was all too easy to just get another £100 or so.


So I was stupid, never denied that, but when the whole business model of a company is set up to take advantage of the stupidity and desperation of people, that is just plain wrong.


...but anyway, like I have said numerous times now, that isn't why I am complaining about this default.