Wonga.com going bust

I had them as a client until recently. I felt sorry for their IT teams as the CTO kept changing every five minutes and they kept lurching from problem to problem. Very inefficient, wouldn’t listen to good advice and had a culture of blaming suppliers for their own failings. I wish most of the people who’ve lost their jobs the very best finding new work but won’t be sorry to see the company go. Thank goodness I got all my invoices paid before parting ways!
 
adolf hamster said:
thank god, one less parasitic company feeding on the vunerable.
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Yeah, I'm surprised this company and others like them were left to go as far as they did to be honest.
I always find it odd when claims are allowed for business done before the rules/law was changed however, that never seems quite right to me, but hey ho, good to see the industry being ripped apart.
 
DarrenM343 said:
Yeah, I'm surprised this company and others like them were left to go as far as they did to be honest.
I always find it odd when claims are allowed for business done before the rules/law was changed however, that never seems quite right to me, but hey ho, good to see the industry being ripped apart.
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indeed, not a nice idea to have the law working retrospectively, but i suppose it just highlights the fact that what was being done is considered criminal even if at the time it might have been technically legal.
 
StevieP said:
Who'd have thought that a business lending money to people who have no hope of paying it back would fail!
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Indeed, Add to that, who would have thought that such a company would have to charge very high interest rates to cover the high fixed costs or organising loans for small sums and the additional costs of the very high level of defaulters.

Conventional lenders simply either refuse to lend people money under these circumstances at all or make relatively high "Set up charges" to make the borrowing of small amounts of money impractical.
 
What I don’t understand is the people claiming compensation for irresponsible lending, what would they have done if companies like Wonga wouldn’t lend to them?

It’s all well and good taking advantage of getting money they otherwise wouldn’t be able to obtain and then complaining later.
 
Broken Hope said:
What I don’t understand is the people claiming compensation for irresponsible lending, what would they have done if companies like Wonga wouldn’t lend to them?

It’s all well and good taking advantage of getting money they otherwise wouldn’t be able to obtain and then complaining later.
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The people using these loans already have negative money so there's no real downside to grabbing any available source of money and chucking more debt that can't be repaid onto the pile.
 
Anyone would think Wonga held a gun to people’s heads and made them take loans.

Fed up with companies taking the blame for other people’s irresponsilibility.
 
Caracus2k said:
All the people here disparaging these sort of loan companies should remember that the massive interest rates they charge(d) were/are a reflection of the delinquency/default rates of the loans they made.

I'm not suggesting that such businesses should not be heavily regulated of course but they provide a service that would otherwise be filled by the black economy.

Can't say I'll miss their adverts however.
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Also bear in mind that the loans are supposed to be short term. If they charged 5% APR or even 30% for a <30day loan they wouldnt make anything and it wouldnt be a business.
 
There are two main differences between Wonga and their ilk and loan sharks.

1) Wonga ran a legal business
2) Wonga charged far higher rates of interest
 
Government changes laws to punish companies taking advantage of government steering the economy into a debt ridden economy

Can't really blame these companies in a capitalistic society where getting debt is actively encouraged by the government in order to falsely inflate growth of the economy

It's like we learned nothing from 2008
 
I visited their company a few years ago to meet some of the founders. They were based near London zoo behind a small gate you entered what was an old Georgian house. Putting aside their debatable business model, they actually ran quite an innovative business. I know they annoyed many in the financial sector however and some were gunning for them so this was only a matter of time. Always remember it has they had a Tesla sports car on charge inside the their parking area with a cable running out of a bay window. Nice offices and proper business run with some clever people but world changed.

Too add you would be surprised who some of the customers of businesses like this were. Quite surprising really but the vast majority were the 'time rich'.
 
adolf hamster said:
indeed, not a nice idea to have the law working retrospectively, but i suppose it just highlights the fact that what was being done is considered criminal even if at the time it might have been technically legal.
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Claims are civil not criminal.

I can claim you've wronged me and it's lost me money. I go to a court, say my piece and it is decided how reasonable my claim is.

You might not have broken any criminal law but you can still lose.
 
Nobody was forcing people to take the loans out and the interest rates were clearly there for anyone to see before they signed on the dotted line. And anyway, those interest rates were aimed at people using the loan in the manner for it was intended, i.e. a short term to tide them over to pay day. If people decided to not pay the short term loan back in a short term and kept accruing silly levels of interest then they're ******* idiots who deserve whatever comes their way.
 
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