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Articles about Wonga

Wonga used to be Britain's largest payday lender. It went into administration in August 2018. Around 400,000 customers had their affordability complaints upheld, but only receive 4.3p in the £ of the refund they should have had. The company was finally dissolved in December 2020.

Why the FSCS doesn’t cover payday and other lenders

In 2018, when Wonga went into administration, people started asking why the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) can't still look at Wonga complaints? And if FOS can't, is there is a guarantee system that would step in if Wonga fails, such as the FSCS? This has become more important every year since then, with most of the major payday lenders failing, including the Money Shop, QuickQuid, Sunny and … [Read more...]

February 6, 2022 Author: Sara Williams Tagged With: For debt advisers, High cost credit news/policy, Payday loans, Wonga

Wonga – what happened during the administration

The administration of WDFC, the legal company who operated the Wonga brand, was completed in August 2020. The company was finally dissolved in December 2020. See Companies House records for details.     Background to the administration - rising complaint numbers A payday loan is "unaffordable" if repaying meant you had to get into more debt, by borrowing again or getting behind … [Read more...]

April 21, 2020 Author: Sara Williams Tagged With: High cost credit news/policy, Payday loans, Wonga

Wonga – the adminstrators’ report – March 2019

The Wonga Administrators’ six month progress report to end February 2019 was emailed to creditors on 27 March 2019. The creditors include the so-called "redress creditors". These are the customers who complained to Wonga saying they were given unaffordable payday loans. Collecting outstanding loans When Wonga went into administration, the Gross Loan Book totalled £77 million. So far … [Read more...]

March 27, 2019 Author: Sara Williams Tagged With: Wonga

How the Wonga administrators will handle refunds – the Proposals

The Wonga Administrators sent a letter in late October to some of Wonga's creditors with their proposals to handle the administration. These include: background on the events before administration; how to decide the payday loan affordability complaints that have already been sent to Wonga; and how to encourage other customers to submit a complaint. These Proposals were agreed by a … [Read more...]

October 31, 2018 Author: Sara Williams Tagged With: High cost credit news/policy, Payday loans, Wonga

Lessons to be learned from Wonga – 6 policy challenges

It's now a few weeks since Wonga went into administration. This seems like a good point to ask some difficult questions about the lessons from Wonga and what should be done to reduce consumer harm in future. Much of the media coverage has gone as follows: Wonga was the worst - then the FCA fined them and made them write off debts in 2014 and introduced good payday loan regulation in 2015. … [Read more...]

September 24, 2018 Author: Sara Williams Tagged With: High cost credit news/policy, Payday loans, Wonga

Wonga refunds – what happened before administration

This page covered the complaints and refunds process before Wonga went under on 30 August. Events in August 2018 August 4 - Wonga forced to ask investors for £10million in funding as the cost of affordability complaints increases. 26 August - news reports that Wonga was in trouble. Sky News reported that: Directors of the payday lender Wonga could appoint Grant Thornton as the … [Read more...]

June 17, 2016 Author: Sara Williams Tagged With: Payday loans, Wonga

Do a million need payday loan compensation?

On 2nd October 2014 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that Wonga had agreed to compensate an estimated 375,000 customers where Wonga's "affordability" checks are likely to have been inadequate. The common reactions were first that Wonga was being made an example of to warn other payday lenders and second that this was a huge number of refunds... But should many more people get … [Read more...]

October 6, 2014 Author: Sara Williams Tagged With: High cost credit news/policy, Payday loans, Wonga

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