Debt Camel

Answers to questions about debts and credit ratings - in plain English!

Wonga – administration ended, company dissolved

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 on bills or other debts. So you may have repaid all your loans but still have a good claim for a refund of the interest you paid.

When Wonga went under there were over 200,000 people with current loans from Wonga – many of them had a good case for the interest to be removed from their balance so they only repay what they borrowed.

The Administrators proposals set out the reasons why Wonga went into administration. These were the increasing number of affordability complaints, especially from Claims Companies, and the decision by the Financial Ombudsman that FOS could look at loans over 6 years old, going back to 2007.

There were 24,000 affordability complaints awaiting a decision by Wonga and 9,500 complaints against Wonga with the Financial Ombudsman when Wonga ceased trading on 30 August 2018.

Details on the Administration

The Administrators have made various progress reports (available from Companies House)  and statements during 2018-20:

  • in October 2018, the Administrators published their Proposals, detailing how they planned to handle the administration. Creditors voted to approve these Proposals.
  • progress report to end February 2019;
  • Witness Statement in April 2019;
  • progress report to end August 2019.

An online claim page was set up in April 2019 for Wonga customers to submit claims for refunds. The deadline for sending in a claim was 30 September 2019.

The Administrators assessed all claims using an automated tool. This took account of:

  • all loans, including those over 6 years old
  • how large a loan was compared to a customer’s income;
  • how often someone borrowed without significant gaps;
  • whether there were indications of hardship such as missed payments;
  • if there is a balance outstanding for the right of set-off.

Where it decided one or more loans were unaffordable, it calculated how much interest should be refunded and added statutory interest at 8%.

In August 2019 the Administrators starting sending emails to people saying whether their claims have been successful or rejected.

In September, the Administrators sent an update on progress up to end August 2019. Key points include:

  • at end August, 389,621 claims for unaffordable payday lending have been accepted by the administrators;
  • the total value of these claims is c £460million – an average of c £1,200 a claim.
  • £23m of outstanding loans have been collected. The Administrators say that outstanding loans are being taken into account and given the right of set-off where the customer has a claim for unaffordable loans.
  • The remaining loan book will not be sold to a debt collector.

At this point the Administrators were saying that payments would be made by 30 January 2020.

29 January 2020 – administrators announce 4.3p in the pound

On 29 January 2020, the Wonga administrators announced that they will be paying 4.3p in the pound to unsecured creditors, including all the 400,000 people who are owed a refund for unaffordable lending.

The administrators have now given the final numbers:

  • they assessed 401,202 claims as being valid;
  • of these 358,129 are being paid 4.3% of their assessed compensation value;
  • the remaining 43,073 also owed a balance on a loan to wonga, so their compensation has been used to clear or reduce that balance.

What happens next:

  • the money should be paid within the next 4 weeks. This has come as a surprise as people had been told it would be paid by the end of January;
  • the loans that are being refunded should be removed from your credit record in the next 6 weeks.

My comment – ripped off by Wonga and now let down by the regulators

The administrators told people they would get “significantly less” than that amount as there would not be enough money to pay the claims in full.

But many people will have been hoping for more than 4.3% and are very upset.

It is not the administrators’ fault there is so little money to be divided between so many people. It is the fault of the regulators – first the OFT and then the FCA – that they allowed Wonga to break the rules saying that affordability should be checked

And now the regulators have failed to ensure that these Wonga victims get the compensation they should have. When a PPI firm went under, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme stepped in and people with PPI claims got paid in full. But the FCA has not extended the FSCS to cover payday lenders.

This isn’t just a problem for the hundreds of thousands of Wonga victims. Borrowers from many payday lenders have been unable to get proper compensation after the lender has had to close. This will apply to QuickQuid, the money shop, Payday UK and Payday Express borrowers as well.

The FCA needs to rethink this and provide a safety net for people who were mis-sold unaffordable loans.

Readers comments – Shock and disappointment

This a brief overview of the hundreds of comments below this article.

Some people are happy to be getting anything:

  • “I am only getting just shy of £25 but for the sake of completing a 30 second form it’s not too bad.”
  • “I will be getting £79.93 of the £1854.17 I was owed. Better than nothing!”
  • “£35 out of a possible £800. I wasn’t expecting much anyway. I’m more interested in having the 25 wonga loans removed from my credit file.”

The administrators had said people would get “significantly less” than the claim, but many people were hoping for at least 10%:

  • “I got mine £88.67 – claim was £2057.05 – I was expecting at least a couple hundred.”
  • “Claim was 3034, getting 130. By considerably less I didn’t think it would be over 95% of it. That is ridiculous.”
  • “To receive £44.10 from a claim of £1023.00 is insulting to be honest.”
  • “Owed £1499, getting £63…what an absolute joke!”
  • “4.3% is an absolute disgrace. Although people are trying to be positive they shouldn’t have to. The people who made all the profit here would spend the biggest payout anyone has received on an evening out and not think twice about it.”
  • “Gutted…. was hoping for at least the 10% speculated.”

This reader blamed not just Wonga but the regulators:

  • “Over £11k accepted reduced down to £480 – my job, my marriage and 4 years of desperation followed by years of rebuilding my life – that’s what the regulators consider that to be worth! Shame on everyone involved in Wonga and the lack of regulation of lenders like them !”

Some are just are delighted that Wonga has gone under:

  • “Heads up everyone…We have won in the end! They can no longer be a hindrance to any of us any more!”
  • “Mines going to charity. Best thing to have happened is for them to have gone bust”
  • ”Thank you Wonga you paid me to continue gambling, I lost everything. Good riddance.”

Many people are also disappointed and shocked that they aren’t being paid by the end of January. Some people getting these refunds are still in difficult financial circumstances and had planned to use the money to pay a bill or some debts.

February 2020 – some clarifications from the administrators

The remaining loans

The administrators have confirmed that no further payments are being accepted and the debts will not be sold to a debt collector. So you don’t have to worry about being taken to court or bailiffs.

But the debts are not technically being written off. They will remain on your credit record for 6 years from the default date on your credit record. If you don’t know what this date is, I suggest you check it now.

In practice, now the company in liquidation, if you contact a credit reference agency and say your Wonga debt is incorrect, you can ask the credit reference agency to “suppress” the record as Wonga can no longer say what the right entry should be. See How to correct credit records if the lender has gone under for details.

No deductions are being made for tax

The Administrators have said:

“the Joint Administrators have agreed with HMRC that the payment may be treated for tax purposes as set wholly against the interest and fees element first, and statutory interest second. As a result, where the distribution paid by the administrators to each customer does not exceed the interest and fees claimed by them, no withholding tax will be required to be deducted at source from payments made by the administrators in such cases.”

The simple version of this is:

  1. the administrators are not taking off any tax.
  2. there will, therefore, be no tax to have to reclaim.
  3. the vast majority of people will not have to pay any tax on any part of of the refund even if you are a higher rate taxpayer. The amounts don’t have to be declared if you complete an annual tax return eg if you are self-employed.

A small number of extra payments

A small number of customers were owed money by Wonga for a different reason, for example they may have overpaid on a loan.  These extra amounts are also being paid out and you will get 4.3% of them too.

If you were not using a claims company, you should have received a single email at the end of January which mentions both amounts.

If you were using a claims company you should have received two emails, each about one of the amounts. If you have only received one email and it mentions a claim which is smaller than the amount you expected, you can contact the administrators, it may be this is the “extra” payment.

Bank account issues

I asked the Administrators why some people are still getting emails asking them to update their bank details. They say:

These emails will be in response to customers’ requests received by the Customer Care team prior to 29 January 2020 providing a secure method by which customers can update their bank account details. Customers should respond to these emails.

I asked the Administrators what will happen if they make a payment and it bounces back to them because the account is no longer open. They say:

Where updated information is available from customers we will attempt to reprocess bounced dividend payments via electronic transfer. Alternatively, we will issue a cheque to the address held on file.

A blogger contacted the Administrators on the 14th February to ask why she hadn’t been paid and was told:

 “I can confirm that the joint administrators have commenced distribution of dividend payments to unsecured creditors, including those with redress claims. Given the volume of transactions that need to now take place, the administrators cannot guarantee an exact date when individuals will receive payment but are aiming to complete transactions within the next two weeks.”

February and March – payments started but with problems

I was told by the Administrators on Friday 28th February that 90%+ of payments have been made and they expect to make the rest of payments over the next two weeks by BACS. About 22,000 the following week, about 13,000 the week after. It looks as though the 22,000 group got their money. It’s not clear to me how many of the 13,000 group have.

Many people in the comments below this article were reporting probems. These included people whose bank accounts had never changes. Problems included:

  1. confusion over whether a claims company has been paid or they will be;
  2. Wongasaid payment was sent to a claims firm that hadn’t been used;
  3. Wonga said a cheque was sent to a house you no longer live it;
  4. Wonga said a payment has been made to your bank account but it hasn’t arrived ;
  5. Wonga has said a payment was sent to an old bank account despite new bank account details having been given and co0nfirmed as having been received.

On 2 March the Administrators said the payment process was taking longer than expected and payments would continue to about 40,000 people over the next 2 weeks:

The Joint Administrators have now attempted to make dividend payments to over 410,000 creditors… In addition to the payments that were not made we have had approximately 40,000 payments returned to us due to incorrect customer bank details recorded on file with Wonga. We will now begin contacting these customers whose payments were returned, by email, to obtain correct and up-to-date bank account details.

The dividend payment process is taking longer than anticipated and payments will continue to be paid during the next two weeks.

On 19 March the Admistrator’s announced:

The Joint Administrators have now attempted to make dividend payments to over 443,000 creditors representing 98% of the creditor population. This includes payments to creditors whose payments were briefly held back from the initial payment phase whilst additional validation checks were completed to new bank account and/or address details that were provided. The Joint Administrators now continue to focus on the remaining small population of unpaid dividends in order to complete the payment process.

From here on progress was very slow, impeded by lockdown.

End August 2020 – administration ends – do you still have a problem?

Have you not been paid?

The Administrators final report blames the payment problems of Wonga’s poor systems and on creditors who did not update their bank details when requested to. But as many comments below detail, people who had never changed their bank account or who had updated their bank details several times and had each confirmed also experienced prolonged delays.

At 28 Auguest when the administration ended, there were still c 49,000 payments with a total value of £632,000 that had not been made – an average about of £13 per payment. About 70% of these were for amounts owed before the administration, so not affordability complaints.

The Administrators have passed the £632,000 to the Insolvency Service. If any creditors want to claim an unpaid amount, they should email CustomerServicesEAS@Insolvency.gov.uk.

A problem with your credit record

If there is a problem with your credit record then you now need to contact the Credit Reference Agency where the problem is showing – Experian, Equifax or TransUnion. Say you can no longer get an answer from the administrators as the firm has been dissolved so you would like the CRA to “suppress” the credit records (list them) as they are inaccurate.

This problem could have been an error by the administrators, who failed to delete the record. It could be an error by Wonga before the administration: the loan date or balance or default date is wrong – you want the default date to be as early as possible so it drops off sooner – or Wonga may have failed to add a default date.

If the CRA refuses, send the CRA a formal complaint and this can be sent to the Financial Ombudsman. In practice people are getting these sorted with the CRAs without having to go to the ombudsman.

More Debt Camel articles:

Refunds from large loans & car finance

Payday Loan Refunds

Refunds from other payday lenders

part of a credit card

Is your credit card limit too high?

Comments

  3. Isla says

    I have no idea how much of my payment is tax that I can claim back. I didn’t receive anything with a breakdown as I didn’t receive the email in October telling me how much I had been awarded. The redress is £11,486.70 and the payment will be £495.17.

    Reply

    • Judith Curtis says

      Hi Isla, Sara,

      I would be interested in the result of this.
      I have claimed back all tax so far, don’t know what tax has been deducted? I appreciate we have not rec’d the full amount, but wonder where we stand if they have offset it?
      Interesting point of view?

      Reply

      • stephanie says

        please can someone help with claiming the tax back on payday refunds as i had a couple of refunds including ppi refunds but not got a clue where to start or even what to do im not working due to disability and my husband has retired we are on low income do we qualify someone please can you give some advice many thanks

        Reply

        • Michelle says

          I’ve never understood how they can tax it. It needs to be assigned to your NI number to be credited to your tax account. If that were the case you’d automatically get a refund at the end of the tax year. I got a refund when a pension I had folded and I was repaid my contributions – as it was a pension they knew my NI number

          If you have proof of a tax deduction then a call to HMRC should sort it out fairly quickly though at this time of year expect a long wait before you can speak to anyone

          Reply

          • stephanie says

            i did phone tax office but they still instist i have to fill a form in waiting for it to arrive for me my husband has received one but we both no clue what to put down or where 😵

          • Sara (Debt Camel) says

            You have to complete R40 form. I have asked the administrators if they are sending tax details

  4. Anthony says

    Whilst I wasn’t expecting a huge percentage payout , and whatever I get is a small bonus at this stage, I seem to remember a figure of £45 million being available for these payouts, yet it seems only £23 million is actually being paid out.
    If I’m close with those figures, does that mean the administrators are taking £22 million (almost half the pot) for their work?

    Reply

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      It means some of the figures were not correct. We will have to wait for the next administrators progress report for details.

      Reply

      • Steve says

        The figures are in a link in the email we were sent.

        Intercompany receipts 45,262,533.38

        Payments
        Administrators’ fees 2,200,000.00
        Administrators’ expenses 29,225.32
        Legal and professional fees 937,340.44
        Trading payments and other realisation costs 15,882,078.36
        VAT irrecoverable 1,024,983.34
        Customer refunds 45,205.27
        Cashback payments 71,701.74
        Bank charges 58,701.97
        20,249,236.44
        Balance as at 28 January 2020 (Before first and final dividend) 25,013,296.94
        First and final dividend to unsecured creditors 23,090,071.32
        Funds retained to discharge future expenses 1,923,225.62

        Reply

  5. Paul says

    Hi Sarah,

    If you got a minute could you please advise on how I could if possible claim against ‘Lloyds bank overdraft charges’?? As I have read a few articles online that states that anyone can make a claim if you feel you’ve been paying to much bank changes over the past x amount of years?

    Reply

  6. Ricardo says

    The Joint Administrators are now in a position to declare a first and final dividend of 4.3p in the £.

    You will receive a payment of £104.17. This payment represents 4.3p in the £ on the agreed claim value of £2416.53 (Accepted Claim Value) which is made up as follows:

    1) £2271.74 (Accepted redress claim value)

    2) £144.79 (Credit balance owing as at 31 August 2018)

    Note: Company records indicate that you were owed £144.79 by the Company as at 31 August 2018, making you an unsecured creditor in the administration. The amount owing to you is due to either an overpayment of a loan prior to the appointment of the Joint Administrators, or a remediation/compensation payment which the Company attempted to pay you prior to the appointment of the Joint Administrators that failed to reach you. The amount owing to you as at 31 August 2018 is unrelated to your redress claim.

    Not sure what they mean in the last part.
    Also think emails were sent quite late to the scheduled payment date then to announce it will take more time to pay.

    Most info still in darkness. Now people will swap checking the Emails into their bank accounts.

    Very cold and unprofessional approach.

    I would also advise people to look at previous loans they took in different companies.

    Reply

  7. Trevor says

    I received my email stating final payment of £148.01 which is fair enough even though the original amount would have been £3433.49 🙁See below :

    Total interest and fees on loans
    £2,828.82
    Total compensatory interest
    £1,269.67
    Less previous write off(s)
    £665
    Accepted claim value
    £3,433.49

    In regards to claiming the tax back and completing the R40 form, do I put down the full values as above?

    Reply

    • Michelle says

      You haven’t been paid the full values. They were taking tax at source where applicable but I don’t believe tax is due as we didn’t receive even the interest and fees and tax is only due on the compensatory interest.

      Reply

  8. Steve says

    I’m in the same boat as alot of you waiting for an email with my 4.3% amount… I’ve been on hold to wonga for 45mins gonna wait it out to talk to some one even if it takes 2hrs, I’ll update you guys that haven’t recieved their emails as soon as I’ve spoken to some one

    Reply

      • Steve says

        Right guys after 1 and a half hours of being on hold I finally got through and spoke to a helpful member of the wonga team, they took my case number and investigated why I hadn’t recieved my email yet, but couldn’t find a reason, my claim is valid and apparently I will get paid out, they have now escalated my claim to the administrators. She said sit back and I will receive an email.
        Maybe those who are in a similar boat as me… waiting on an email with their pitterful 4.3% confirmation should ring in and get their claim esscilated as I I just did…. trouble is your have to be prepared to sit on hold for well over an hour.

        Reply

  10. Sacha says

    I had an email yesterday but didn’t actually see it it at first so I had to search in the search bar for it and it came.up this morning! I have £117 back from a £2637.99 redress.
    So keep looking and searching. Also said the money will be paid maximum 4 weeks from the email , if not have to contact them!!
    Thourght it might help

    Reply

      • Dave says

        I appreciate the frustration, but the email says “expected to be the end of January” – the word expected is a loose term, granted, however, it doesn’t say payment would definitely be made on 30th January.

        Going public or posting on social media isn’t going to make any difference. We will all be paid eventually, the four week timescale is likely to allow themselves some breathing space.

        Reply

  13. C says

    If an email has been received saying that this is separate to your redress should I receive another email from my original claim?

    Reply

  14. Dave says

    Just read this from a news article:

    Administrator Grant Thornton UK LLP confirmed it has begun sending correspondence to all unsecured creditors, including 358,129 eligible redress claimants.

    It will pay a final dividend of £23m, representing 4.3p in the £1 on agreed creditor claims totalling £535m

    It was expected for the claims to have grown but how did that drop from over £47m to £23m, they’ve slashed the original figure in half! I feel like we’re still getting screwed

    Reply

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      The number of claims at first sight looks as though it has dropped but there is a good explanation for this.
      They accepted 401,202 claims as being valid and calculated the compensation;
      But of these, 43,073 owed a balance on a loan to wonga which was more than their compensation, so their compensation has been used to clear or reduce that balance.
      So only 358,129 borrowers are being paid out of the pot of money.

      The 47m was never a real number, that’s why I always refused to make any estimates about the likely % payout.

      Reply

      • Michelle says

        So unfair – it means those of us who had managed to get out of debt and pay Wonga back (my last loan was in 2014) have subsidised those still in debt. I know payday loans is a relatively new area for administrators but an idiot can see how wrong that is! Those loans should have been paid until this month so that we were all treated the same!

        Reply

        • nicola says

          Hey Michelle
          I agree, my settlement was 11k – I got just under £500. I did pay all my loans off in full as I eventually did a DMP. Which to be fair, helped me out and got me straight (if anyone is in debt, I suggest using this).

          They even told me I had ‘overpaid’ them – which they just recently declared to me on one of the loans.

          I do feel like that we were all completely violated and abused when we were in such vulnerable time of our lives. I hope that these firms do all get shut down, it is sickening how much money we all paid out, when we so terribly desperate, it makes me feel sick.
          Wonga and the other payday loan companies should be ashamed of themselves…

          I am gutted for everyone that we didn’t get the full reimbursements that we truly deserved. But lets hop that this never happens to anyone else again!

          Nicola

          Reply

        • Alison says

          This just adds insult to injury really doesn’t it. Not only did we pay our own extortionate rates of interest but those of us who did pay every penny back (I did too Michelle) were also paying off everyone else’s. This is so wrong.

          Reply

          • Sara (Debt Camel) says

            That is the same with every lender in the world. People who repay debts cover the costs for people who were unable to repay.

    • Colin says

      I’m hoping that is just to cover their backs and we’ll be pleasantly surprised to get something in the next few days!

      Reply

  16. chris says

    has anyone been in touch to see if some people are to receive payment tomorrow ,

    first an last message but i will take this chance to say thank you sara very consistent and helpful advice throughout

    thank you

    Reply

  17. Goochey says!!! says

    Just confirming I received my email last night !!! And I must say very disappointed ? I just feel we have all been misled throughout the process of these claims .. Specially when they started and I was told my claim was just under £7,300.00. !!! And with the email I received last night telling me that I will be getting only £313.34 back from the administrators 😂 And I do agree to the earlier comment !!! That I do agree with , The administrators will be the 1st to be paid and they will not lose any money , only ourselves !!!and yes I do agree The government needs to step in to sort this problem out ,as wonga made enough money off ourselves !!! I’m very disappointed also when we have received the email yesterday saying we will have to wait up to another 3 to 4 weeks before we receive any money Owed!!! When we were originally told we would be getting paid out on the 30th of January 2020 ?I just don’t think it’s fair on customers being treated like this and it’s not acceptable !!!😡

    Reply

    • Melissa says

      I think your anger is misdirected – If there were no administrators, there would be no money given to anyone. They had to work through a long and complicated legal process in order to identify what funds were available and who was owed money. The fee they will have taken will not have made much difference to the overall dividend payouts.

      The claims portal allowed customers the opportunity to submit a claim even if previous complaints had not been upheld. This was all pretty new territory in administration.

      The real point is, that none of us should have ever been allowed to get in to this situation in the first place, even after the government addressed unaffordable lending in 2014 they still didn’t do enough to protect financially vulnerable people from getting into huge amounts of debt.

      Reply

  19. Chris c says

    A lot of people saying 45 million is not the real figure but I have last night’s email clearly the breakdown and the balance amount is 45million before Deductions its all clear on last night’s email

    Reply

  22. Shaun Overy says

    why are all the fees and deductions so high , it takes away half the pool before the little people are paid . My award is 155. Which won’t help my situation. So I decided to give it to citizens advice for the work they do

    Reply

  23. Angela Coen says

    I knew the consequences of borrowing when I did, and luckily I got myself out of the trap.
    My claim was valued at £3600, and I’m receiving £150 back…it was unexpected….it was money long gone, and I wont lose any sleep over it lol ..
    My little compensation is a bonus and will go towards my outfit for my sons wedding 👌

    Reply

  24. Scott says

    Absolutely disgusting, my original compensation was for just under £9000 and now all I’m going to receive is just under £400, after my solicitor fees I’ll get under £300, this company has still left me in so much debt until today and I thought this was a chance to get free.

    Reply

  25. Laura says

    It’s worth noting for everyone feeling like they have been screwed. If Wonga continued to trade for a week longer there would have been absolutely nothing left in the pot. MAny like I had agreed refunds at the FOS when they went into administration, had these continued to have been processed and paid the bank accounts would have been even less as they had stopped lending. It is what it is but making out there has been criminal activity on part of the professional administrators is ridiculous. The emails also always said AIM to have paid by 30th but everyone got carried away with interpretations and hearsay but they have said 4 weeks so we just need to wait, we have waited this long, for me 2017 so a month is nothing

    Reply

    • chris c says

      Do you not think that by starting to email people as their call centre closed with the bad news they didn’t know that it all sounded a bit sleazy I may be wrong but that is my interpretation of their behavior. Its hard not to play the blame game however Im glad it will soon be over and people will get their money. Good news folks if you had quickquid a few years ago we get to do it all again yay :(

      Reply

      • Laura says

        I think people are reading far too much into it and before anyone asks my figure was just over £16,000 so I’m as upset and everyone. I could have bet my hat it would have been sent without standard office hours as to minimises risk of crashing systems. What difference would it have made if it was sent at 2 pm ?
        I would read up on QuickQuid so you are not disappointed they are completely different as they don’t have assets to sell abroad and tbh if you check companies house the money in the bank says it all

        Reply

  26. S.j says

    Total disgrace.
    establishing people were Financially vulnerable agreeing an amout due in refund then not only not paying anywhere near the agreed amout but not paying out by the date they said. Totally taken advantage of people and continuing to do so! Hope they sleep at night!

    Reply

  27. James says

    Sara can you contact the administrators on our behalf to see if payments will start tomorrow? You can then update us all and at least we know it’s moving

    Reply

      • K WILLIAMS says

        The fact that they have said in writing that we will get our payments by the 31st in previous emails, surely this is legally binding and if we do not get it can we charge them interest?

        Reply

        • Wendy says

          Unfortunately they did not say definitively by end of January. Need to read between the lines and when they say aim, hope to, expect then no guarantees. Like everyone would of been nice to received the little money there as struggling atm. I have not got email yet. All very frustrating!

          Reply

          • julie says

            They did in my email?
            Claims

            Our claims portal is now closed and we cannot accept new claims.
            All assessments emails have now been sent.
            If your claim was successful, payment will be at the end of January 2020. We will only know the amount you will receive just before making the payment. We will email you as soon as we have a confirmed amount.

  29. Ryan says

    I’m deciding to be positive.

    I’m getting something back at least (£120 from a £3000 refund) but I believe the main thing we should all be grateful for is that the loans will be getting removed from our credit reports. I had 30 loans in total, 27 of them have been accepted for refund which means 27 Wonga loan reports will be gone from my credit report, that alone is worth way more than the £120 refund they will be giving me.

    Here’s to the future folks, lets not keep talking about the past :)

    Reply

  30. Andy says

    Although perhaps a silly thought , ( not sure how to phrase this properly)

    Perhaps the gov should step in (slightly) what with the failings of the bodies meant to oversee this, the regulators I mean and gov should match what was paid in effect giving people the same sum again in a vague form of compensation for financial regulators failings.

    Compared to some waste it would be s drop in the ocean really but those who say got like 10 to 50 could at least know they would get that again effectively doubling it. It would really help some claimants a lot I think.

    Please no one say much about protection of public funds the waste at national and local (council) levels is eye watering when you look into it.

    Reply

  32. Jamie Donnelly says

    Just got off the phone to wonga after being on there for nearly one hour and a half…Emails are still being sent out in the coming days he reckons

    Reply

  33. S Brown says

    I was given the figure of £2775 and you can do the maths on the small sum I will get. The worst thing is seeing how much ridiculous interest I paid and it spiralled into a whole payday mess which I am still trying to get out of today. I was mentally unwell at the time and made some daft decisions. I should have gone to payplan or stepchange when I struggled paying a bank loan but I just didn’t have the knowledge. I just hope this is clamped down on so others don’t have the same problems in the future but there are still companies out there doing this, Uncle Buck, Cash4UNow and the minute you struggle with repayments they add on more charges.

    Reply

    • Mrs & mr SD says

      Completely feel your pain!! Exactly my point too. It just terrible how we’ve all been let down because we were in a vulnerable place. Should of been a law against it along time ago but I hope lenders like these should be clamped down as well.

      Reply

  34. Lewis says

    Their site says ALL emails have been sent, I had a claim for 3200 but got an email saying £2.22 and I’d received 10p! I’m guessing those who have received emails and ones like mine, that is it!

    Reply

    • claire says

      I had exactly the same, my agreed claims was £2691 but my email this morning said my claim was £24.46 and i would be getting £1.05.
      I am fuming but glad I am not the only one they have ripped off

      Reply

      • Sara (Debt Camel) says

        So far as I can tell, these small amounts are an extra amount they owe you for something you didn’t know about and they still will be paying you the redress. Some people have had clear emails, others not it seems.

        Reply

    • M says

      No help coming from Jacob Rees Mogg. ‘It’s a question of priorities’ – A government priority should be the protection of it’s financially vulnerable citizens in the first instance! There is still no answers coming from how this was aloud to happen for over 10 years.

      Reply

  36. Darren says

    The whole up to 4 weeks till payment comment from them does not surprise me, they have dragged the whole process out till the last minute so why would the settlement be any different. Some sort of time line would be better for those still in financial difficulty, I’m in the fortunate position that my small amount will allow me to have a few pints to toast the demise of wonga but others are probably still within the cycle of borrowing where a concrete date of payment would at least allow them to plan food shopping etc, I personally do not expect anymore contact until the money has been deposited into my account.

    The one positive from this whole shambles is that wonga is now dead, hopefully the rest follow soon.

    Reply

  37. Tracy says

    Please spare a thought for the partners at Grant Thornton. They’ve had all this work to do and their partners average wage has dropped by around 50k this year to just 323k each 😂. I’m sorry to everyone saying this is not the receivers fault but let’s face it, they’ve done a lot better out of this than any of us have! The wonga CEO’s/shareholders should be given a choice of coughing up some of their past profits or facing jail time. Us “little people” really don’t matter do we.

    Reply

    • Laura says

      If you didn’t have professional administrators you wouldn’t get anything Tracy. A bit Like when I was planning my wedding and the florist Went bust shut up shop and left with £2000 deposit. Never got a thing back or even a rotten flower, so I wouldn’t lay your frustrations with them it’s the regulators that allowed this to happen, not GT

      Reply

      • Andy says

        Sorry to hear that Laura . I assume you tried persuing them via small claims or other means, does not always work out :(

        Reply

      • Tracy says

        Laura I agree in some part with what you’re saying I just think that administrators shouldn’t be profit based. They will have made a massive amount of money from everyone else’s misery. They should be none profit bodies.

        Reply

      • Nicola says

        Quite rude woman on phone. Who said I will get it etha today or tomorrow. I said what if I don’t get she was like you will 😂😂. So payment can’t be tomorrow

        Reply

  39. daniel says

    I wouldn’t expect a penny til exactly 28 days from your email, why would they pay sooner when they can hold it all for interest? Plus we have literally just been through a situation of waiting til the very last second to find out about what amount we were getting so why would a pay out be any different? I would not plan for having it sooner and instead have comfort in knowing it shall arrive by the end of February

    Reply

  40. tony says

    People I was in the same boat and payed thousands to many PDL cheats but at the end of the day I needed money and agreed to pay the costs they were charging just to get it, that was my choice and I did it, just like many of you
    That was some time ago and when I got an email about Wonga to make a claim I almost deleted it as spam, as I read a little I thought why not, just send it.
    If the email had stated I was getting £340 for free for my old Wonga transactions I would have been delighted, I am sure many of you would have been as well, so even though the the email said £8k I am happy with the £340 as it was all in the past and never thought for one minute I was going to get anything

    Reply

  41. Mathew says

    I was expecting it to be considerably lower but I thought they was talking around 10 percent mark or slightly higher not 4.3.per cent but on the other hand something is better than a kick in the teeth we all read the tc’s and had no option but to borrow the money and we was all glad of the money at the time but do think they are taking liberties with that payout

    Reply

  44. jackg says

    Is there any update on why some of us were quoted much larger accepted claim values which suddenly changed to practically nothing accepted claim values? for instance, my original accepted claim value was 2.1k with a payout of £90 but yesterdays accepted claim value was like £2.16 with a payout of £0.16 or something along those lines

    Reply

  46. John says

    I received an assessment last September but haven’t heard anything since from Wonga regarding an offer amount. 😕

    Reply

    • Andy says

      Unknown. I read it as a “grey area” given the wording but it is in their interests to get people paid relatively quickly.

      I’d suggest personality to just start looking from tomorrow (31st) onwards. That way if things appear late tonight you may see them tomorrow even if it’s pending (varies bank to bank)

      Bad news is afaik not all banks process payments over weekends.

      That’s my plan anyway, look tomorrow mid morning and late evening and if no signs of anything check it again mid Monday.

      All the best. :)

      Reply

    • Lesley says

      Can anyone else confirm if they had been paid ? Some people on here have been paid can people confirm please if they have . Or is this just false information giving us hope . I understand that 4 weeks but after reading people have been paid . Would be good to know ???

      Reply

  49. Charlene says

    My compensation amount was 3567 and I was shocked when I recieved my email to say I would ony get back £150 its an insult, yes i took out the loan but at the end of the day if i did not pay back the loan they would send debt and court letters and scare people into paying back what we borrowed plus interest now the shoe is on the other foot and they think its ok not to us back the full amount they owe us or even half of what they owe, one rule for the rich and another for us, its an absolute JOKE.

    Reply

  50. Katherine says

    I am generally upset. Owed 3200 and getting 138. I was gonna book my wedding. Thanks wonga for nothing and an insult to make wait even longer

    Reply

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      and email your MP. Labour, Tory, doesn’t matter if you think they will be sympathetic, just tell =them how you feel about getting only 4.3% of your compensation for regulatory errors. Easy to email them through this website, just put in your postcode: https://www.writetothem.com/

      Reply

      • Andy says

        I have signed said petition :) I chose to not display my details in public.

        Note: My “confirm” email they send was delivered within a minute but was in my junk folder.

        Reply

      • Catherine says

        Great I’ve signed the petition and also emailed my mom. Totally gutted redress was £11,900 would have been a life changing amount of money :-(

        Reply

      • Mark says

        Thank you so much Sara, your help has been indispensable. I have followed the link and written to my MP. I think if enough of us do it, and keep making noise about it, then maybe it will at least be considered in parliament. I have also signed the petition as well. any publicity on this is good if it raises our profile on this whole fiasco.

        once again thank you.

        Reply

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      Have to say if you are trying to get a Tory government to come to your rescue, that sort of petition may not be the best approach.

      Reply

    • Anonymously says

      Just signed the petition – well done for raising awareness – May I ask how donating money to the petition would help though? In one of the steps it asked me if I could donate? How would this make the petition spread faster? Anyway hope everyone signs!!!

      Reply

  52. C says

    I really don’t understand how I’ve got less than some people who have had a lesser claim then me. The email said this was different to my redress claim but saw a comment saying this is all I will be getting so my calculation makes now sense.

    Reply

  54. Adam says

    Well… I hadn’t received a email.. So spent 1hr waiting on the phone to them. When I finally got through a helpful lady said emails were In batches with the last been sent tmrw. All payments within 4 weeks. I took the loans out. It was my decision at the end of the day and I’m getting 200 quid back. Just took the dog for a walk and noticed halfway round I was whistling the waiting tune that wonga uses on the phone. LA LA LA LA … LA LAA LAA LAA LAAAA

    Reply

    • Ian k says

      I haven’t even got my email yet 🙄 bet I’m one of the last! Reckon I’m due 27 quid cause my claim amount was 633 quid 🤣

      Reply

  58. Matt Mack says

    PLEASE everyone google search your local MP and write an email to them ( easy to find email on google search! ) and email them a letter with your Wonga loan amount and how much you are actually getting and that you feel the government should step in. I have done this with my local MP and they already replied saying they will pass my comments on and that it was discussed today.

    Reply

  59. David says

    Without wishing to scare anyone (merely possibly warn and inform…..) I’ve just had a ‘please update your bank details by clicking on the link type email’ alleged to be from Wonga / The Administrators.

    At first glance it looks legitimate, almost identical to the one I received back in October 2019. However the administrators have clearly stated that updates are no longer possible after yesterday (29th Jan) making this email very unlikely to be genuine. I suspect strongly this a fraud letter as it doesn’t identify me with either my name, postcode or claim ID.

    I’m on the phone to Wonga to check it’s authenticity / my claim in general now, but if you get a similar email suggest you DO NOT click on the link without checking with the customer care team; it’s a great opportunity for people to phish for ID theft which I suspect is what’s happened here.

    Reply

      • David says

        Hi Sara,

        Firstly they restated that it’s no longer possible to change details, but sadly was unable to confirm that this email was not genuine and / or sent out in error.

        However since I was on the phone, and I’d updated my bank details in September I took the opportunity to check my claim; my bank details were correct, updated in 2019. Since they were correct, and they [Wonga Customer Care] couldn’t verify I’ve not clicked on the link and deleted the email.

        Bottom line – ALWAYS be weary of links sent in emails. If people get a similar now the update date has passed check with Wonga / The Administrators first.

        Reply

  60. Anneka says

    Me too it’s a joke on phone for 2 hours nothing I hung up in the end. Someone posted on here he got through and they said they are still sending out emails

    Reply

    • Nicola says

      I phoned and got through afters 50 mins on hd and the lady told me I will get it today or the next few days I said I will phone back if I don’t receive my email 🤣🤣. She was rude as well

      Reply

    • Anon says

      As far as i know all emails have now been sent .if you didnt get a acseptance email then you wont get owt..i had to check my spam for the email of how much i was getting .but all other emails went straight to my inbox..also got email today saying they have written off any outstanding owed amount .wich was £5..so nice of them (not)..i am on dmp and paid more over this than i recieved ..am still having to borrow on payday loans and theee still throwing money at me ..a circle i cant get out off at the moment

      Reply

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