Wonga.com Interest spiral! :\

[kermit1986]

In late September I took out a pay day loan from Wonga as I was told by Student Finance (currently a full time student) that it would be no longer than a few weeks till I got a grant I was waiting on.

 

Complications arose, and I didn't get that money, and won't have it till early 2011.

 

However I've been unable to pay back the loan to Wonga, and approx £500 has now (with there interest) become £1100 I owe them

 

In theory I should be able to pay this off some point in January, although it pains me to think of how much money I will have lost due to there interest.

I tried contacting them a few weeks back via the contact thing on there site, but they replied basically telling me to call them (which I don't want to do, as I don't want to potentially be talked down to or intimidated by some over-proud call centre employee).

 

Is there any way I can try to get them to knock off some interest and let them know I should be able to pay them back by the end of January, or am I just going to have to accept that I in a sense got myself into this mess and will have to pay that vast interest occured?

 

 

Thanks in advance for any replies.

I did a forum search before making the topic, but most people seemed further down the line of Wonga passing things on to debt collection companies and such, so I couldn't find an answer for my own situation.

[sillygirl1]

Get your Student Advice Centre onto the case, why the sent you to Wonga is a mystery, they should NOT be doing this.

 

Also get yourself another bank account pronto, Halifax do an online one where you don't neet credit checking, you apply online, you get a debit card and internet banking and telephone banking facilities.

 

Wonga have a reputation for emptying peoples bank accounts which is why simply changing your card won't work, they will already have had your bank details from it.

 

I would also write to your Student Union and head of college/university about the duff advice given earlier.

[themadcap]

Hi Kermit,

There is a way out of Wonga, PM me and I will send you the mails I sent to them and got back, took about 5 weeks but in the end I paid back the initial loan£1090 and interest which was £200 rather than the £900+ they were trying to get.

Anyone else with a similar problem feel free to pm me and I will do all I can to help.

cheers

[robjam1969]

Just because they say £1100 doesn't mean they will ever get it. Personally I would refuse to make any payments if any extra interest has been added to your original loan. When they take it off you can negotiate a monthly repament figure.

[Ell-enn]

You really need to get another bank account to pay your student loan into. Wonga will raid the bank account you have given them details of - their system automatically tries to take money out every day until they get what they want - they try for small amounts first and keep going until they've got the lot. If any money goes into your account now they will take it.

[IdaInFife]

Hi Kermit,

There is a way out of Wonga, PM me and I will send you the mails I sent to them and got back, took about 5 weeks but in the end I paid back the initial loan£1090 and interest which was £200 rather than the £900+ they were trying to get.

Anyone else with a similar problem feel free to pm me and I will do all I can to help.

cheers

 

Please try and keep things in the open forum

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?9-Forum-rules.-Please-read-these-before-posting

 

d) Offering to advise members by PM or email without good reason - If it is felt that a subject is "sensitive" and would be better discussed off-forum, we ask that members contact a member of the site team BEFORE asking for contact details. This rule is in place to protect our members from claims touts, and also to ensure that any advice given is open to debate, qualification, and where necessary, correction.

[pippins87]

I'm also having a major problem. I have a loan with them of 500 (in total thats including interest) I lost my job last week and ive been desperately trying to find the money and can't. Has anyone got a payment plan or anything from them?

[Maloni_1301]

Please help me, I am trying to agree a payment plan with wonga but they are not agreeing. What can I do?

[destinylondon]

i took out a loan of 260 and paid back around half i have not paid nothing back for 127 days now and the account has not gained any intrest im sure a few weeks back they was sending me settlement offers at a lower rate why have they not chased me any ideas??

[Maloni_1301]

well they have agreed to freeze the interest and set up a payment plan to pay off the amount due over the next 12 months