Wonga no longer

[fiisch]

Am I the only one that feels slightly sorry for Wonga?

Yes, they made money off the less wealthy, but they didn't force anyone to take up their loans at extortionate APRs. They disrupted the loan industry with a niche idea that filled the gap - many of their former customers celebrating their demise would soon complain if the payday loan industry went under altogether.

[abu1]

Wonga get bad press but they provided a valuable service to those with low credit and unable to get loans from the greedy bankers, or wanted low amount to borrow.

They are much cheaper then borrowing from loan sharks trust me. plus its regulated and have a contract. Loan sharks are not regulated and therefore you can be paying for years to come.

[SimonMac]

You had to follow through didn't you!

The reason for the collapse are a large number of valid compensation claims.

Close but no cigar, the reason for the collapse are a large number of valid compensation claims.

Claims management companies (which made up 10% of claims, and now make up 90%) know that Wonga have to respond in 8 weeks, so they batch up thousands of claims and send them all at once knowing that Wonga cannot process them all in time, so Wonga has to accept ones that it would normally reject.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45355958

[sasguru]

Close but no cigar, the reason for the collapse are a large number of <s>valid</s> compensation claims.

Claims management companies (which made up 10% of claims, and now make up 90%) know that Wonga have to respond in 8 weeks, so they batch up thousands of claims and send them all at once knowing that Wonga cannot process them all in time, so Wonga has to accept ones that it would normally reject.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45355958

You're not saying that vetran (sic) doesn't know what he's talking about? Shirley not

[meridian]

Am I the only one that feels slightly sorry for Wonga?

Yes, probably.

Yes, they made money off the less wealthy, but they didn't force anyone to take up their loans at extortionate APRs. They disrupted the loan industry with a niche idea that filled the gap - many of their former customers celebrating their demise would soon complain if the payday loan industry went under altogether.

Sure, they disrupted the (often closed) loan market and opened it up to people that would normally be turned away.

However, by their very nature those are more likely to be financially vulnerable people. Wonga chose to take advantage of this vulnerability.

There is a middle path to take, to provide a loan market for financially vulnerable people without ripping them off with extortionate APRs. It’s not as profitable though (as the demise of Wonga shows)

[barrydidit]

When I worked for Provident in Bradford they were one of 3 'trade names' under the same roof ...

What the fick has that got to do with Wonga? You mean Provident, Satsuma and Glo were three trade names operating under a totally unrelated business, in 3 different markets and in a different city?

Same could be said of most financial institutions.

[sasguru]

What the fick has that got to do with Wonga? You mean Provident, Satsuma and Glo were three trade names operating under a totally unrelated business, in 3 different markets and in a different city?

Same could be said of most financial institutions.

I used to think that Nige was just another thicko like vetran (sic), but his interjections have become so bizarre I think he's actually senile.

[vetran]

Close but no cigar, the reason for the collapse are a large number of valid compensation claims.

Claims management companies (which made up 10% of claims, and now make up 90%) know that Wonga have to respond in 8 weeks, so they batch up thousands of claims and send them all at once knowing that Wonga cannot process them all in time, so Wonga has to accept ones that it would normally reject.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45355958

so lately the claims people outwitted Wonga by batching claims - my heart bleeds.

Actually a quick pop over to the financial ombudsman does prove illuminating

Financial Ombudsman Service - ombudsman decisions

try searching for "WDFC UK Limited" (trading as Wonga) and upheld. Interestingly enough there are 30 pages of upheld cases. With 20 cases per page that is about 600 cases the ombudsmen upheld, do you think the ombudsman batched them up to pick on poor old Wonga?


Whilst I understand there is an area in the Market for well managed Payday loans I don't believe Wonga is it.

https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2...after-7-years/

[barrydidit]

Wonga suck, but it's important to understand the maths behind how APR's work. APR is a dumb tool for measuring lending which is repaid in less than a year. The shorter the term, the worse the APR for the same borrowed amount becomes. More regular scheduled payments will make the APR higher for the same amount borrowed.

In an example i've seen, a £100 loan repaid over 13 weeks would have an APR of ~1500%, the same loan repaid over 3 monthly instalments would be ~900%. Much better? In both cases, the interest would have been identical ( ~£40). Which most people would understand to be about 40% interest.

Wonga's colossal APR comes from the fact the whole loan should be repaid within 30 days. Since 2015 the total interest and charges was capped at 100% of the loan amount anyway. Their real sharp practices come from timing their CPA's to repeatedly target customer's cards on benefit payment morning, adding missed payment fees etc

[GreenMirror]

Am I the only one that feels slightly sorry for Wonga?

Yes. And I hope the rest of the leeches go to the wall soon.