Wonga writing off debts - can you claimback what you have already paid if they do?

[ims21]

Ah so you have actually parted with that amount of money?

 

You never know, you might be lucky

[wilko011178]

Was originally on a 12 month repayment plan paying £88 for 11 months with final payment of £34.. paid 9 on time so had 3 left (end july aug sept). Phoned them back in july asked if I could pay 34 end of July followed by £88 then a final £88

 

They offered to let me repay what was left over the next 6months instead. So went for that. Paid July august september so had 3 months left.... well not anymore (see below)

 

just a shame I wont get any of the interest ive already paid back from them

 

You may have already read or heard in the news recently about an announcement on 2nd October from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regarding changes to our lending criteria.

 

We can confirm that you have been affected.

 

The changes mean that we have new ways of testing whether customers can afford the loan they want to take out - these are called affordability criteria. We have investigated your case and we believe you are one of the customers who have been impacted as a result of these historical affordability issues.

 

What happens next

 

We will automatically clear any outstanding debt you have with us and your balance will be set to zero. This will be done by the end of October 2014. You do not need to do anything.

 

We are working with the relevant credit reference agencies to remove records relating to this loan from your credit report. We expect this will take between three to four weeks to be completed. This will be done automatically and there is no further action required from you.

 

Key Facts for customers

 

We have committed to a major customer forbearance programme in light of changes to our lending criteria

 

We have identified you as being affected by affordability issues and so we are clearing any outstanding debt on your loan

 

Please do not make any further repayments

 

You do not need to do anything. We will contact you to confirm that your balance is zero.

 

For further information, you can find out more on the lending criteria changes

 

We want to put things right for our customers

 

We are writing to you as a Wonga customer. If you believe you have received this email in error please call our customer care team free on 0800 042 0210 or if you are calling from a mobile on 0333 003 0830.

 

Dear Mr Mark Wilkinson

 

If you are currently making repayments to us, such as by Standing Order, please do not continue to do so. We recommend you contact your bank to cancel these repayment arrangements. Please be assured that, should a repayment be made, we will refund this amount to you.

 

We will contact you in due course to confirm that your balance is zero.

 

If you are in an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) or your debt is being managed through a Debt Management Provider it is your responsibility to inform the person managing your debt of these changes.

 

On behalf of our Chairman, Andy Haste, and the rest of the team at Wonga, we recognise that we may not have always made the right lending decisions and for this we apologise. We intend to be sure in the future that we only lend to customers who can reasonably afford to repay their loans.

 

You can find out more about these lending criteria changes here. Alternatively, please call our customer care team free on 0800 042 0210 or if you are calling from a mobile on 0333 003 0830.

 

Yours,

 

Tim Weller Interim CEO, Wonga Group

[craig73]

Just spoke to wonga and they have confirmed only people who still owe money and are in arrears will be included in the writing off of there debts.

 

Anyone who is in arrears and there debt has been sold are not included.

 

Surely this must be wrong, the loan my other half defaulted on the repayment was more than her monthly income so surely that should never have never granted?

[the tinkerman]

Don't see how they can get away with that, the whole point of this ruling with the FCA was for customers whose loans would not have been made had they been subject to the new affordability criteria, so regardless of whether you still owed them money now or if you have already paid them back should not make one jot of a difference, CHERRY PICKING comes to mind, you cannot just wipe off the debts of people who still owe them money and not give any redress to the people who have paid up under the same ruling that's discrimination surely, the ruling should apply to EVERYONE whose loans would not have been made had they been subject to the new affordability criteria regardless, unless wot the FCA are saying is SOD the ones who have already paid up but should have not been lent the money in the first place under the new affordability criteria, but for the ones who still owe them money who should have not been lent the money in the first place under the new affordability criteria we will write their debts off.

 

Its like saying the PPI saga, them who still have ppi on loans, credit cards etc we will give redress to but the ones who loans, credit cards etc have been paid up and closed we won't

[wilko011178]

Yes i completely agree with that.... they would owe me at least a couple of grand in interest payments.

 

Cant imagine they would refund tho... they would owe millions upon millions to god knows how many people!

[warnerman]

but they are apparently paying millions upon millions back

[wilko011178]

I actually dont think they are paying any money out to customers... Their just writing off 230 million (think that was roughly the figure) of collectable money

[the tinkerman]

A ruling which effects Everyone cannot be made and then let them cherry pick and decide who and who does not benefit from it regardless of how may millions they will have to pay out, it just does not make sense otherwise.

[wilko011178]

But did their intentions get pre-approval from the fca? I suspect thats the compromise they came to

 

thing is i cant understand why the countless other loan companies arent forced to do the same??

 

im on a repayment plan with paydayuk paying 20 a month for another 8 months - im pretty sure that should be written off if they were forced to do the same as wonga

[citizenB]

https://www.wonga.com/help/affordability-forbearance

[the tinkerman]

I think this is just the calm before the storm wilko.

 

Hi CitizenB thing is what is the difference between people who are having theirs debts now written off and the people who have paid their debts off if they were effected by the same ruling none (apart from probably wonga going bankrupt)

 

It is sheer discrimination why not say right all those who's paid off there loans whose loans would not have been made had they been subject to the new affordability criteria will get their money back but all those who still owe there's but whose loans would not have been made had they been subject to the new affordability criteria will still have to pay it back.

 

Be good to get the FCA stance on this, as I said previously why benefit some and not others if it comes under the same ruling.

[wilko011178]

Its clearly not fair is it...

 

isnt there any other authority that can pay the money back. I got PPI back from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (welcome finance had gone bust so got money back through the scheme)

[wilko011178]

At the end of the day they gained a profit from xxx amount of customers who were granted loans that shouldnt have been granted. They should pay back the interest (profit) that they gained on all of those loans.

 

They wouldnt go bankrupt as im guessing 90% were loans that were granted legitimantly and they would have made hundreds of millions from those loans. No requirements of any payback on those loans of course....

 

I was with them 2 years and was talking loans out vitually every month. I doubt all were accepted when they shouldnt have been but alarm bells should have been ringing when it became obvious i was having to take out a loan on my payday as 30% of my wage was going straight to them to pay off the previous months loan. I was in a circle of debt

[citizenB]

I think this is just the calm before the storm wilko.

 

Hi CitizenB thing is what is the difference between people who are having theirs debts now written off and the people who have paid their debts off if they were effected by the same ruling none (apart from probably wonga going bankrupt)

 

It is sheer discrimination why not say right all those who's paid off there loans whose loans would not have been made had they been subject to the new affordability criteria will get their money back but all those who still owe there's but whose loans would not have been made had they been subject to the new affordability criteria will still have to pay it back.

 

Be good to get the FCA stance on this, as I said previously why benefit some and not others if it comes under the same ruling.

 

I agree, tinkerman. It seems very unfair and there doesn't seem to have been any great thought put into this at all.

[wilko011178]

Its not fair at all... they admit they did wrong and have written off £105 that i had left to pay but they should have actually paid me back all of the intetest that I had ALREADY paid back over the last few months.

[the tinkerman]

Hi

 

I don't think its the case where there doesn't seem to have been any great thought put into this at all.

 

More like if they abide by this ruling in full, AS THEY SHOULD BE DOING they know full well they will have to pay out millions, but the FCA should make sure that they do the right thing by everyone who has been effected by this ruling and NOT just the people who still owed money.

[drob]

Anyone who is in arrears and there debt has been sold are not included

 

It will be interesting to see how this develops! I am 100% sure that I read on the Wonga website the other day that loans that have been sold would be included. Now that the 10th October has passed it appears that Wonga have removed the section regarding loans sold from their statement.

 

It's all smoke and mirrors from Wonga but would you expect anything different??

 

If Wonga have sold the debt to a third party then in theory as the third party have paid Wonga a fee, effectively hasn't the third party paid the Wonga debt off?

[ims21]

Hi

 

I don't think its the case where there doesn't seem to have been any great thought put into this at all.

 

More like if they abide by this ruling in full, AS THEY SHOULD BE DOING they know full well they will have to pay out millions, but the FCA should make sure that they do the right thing by everyone who has been effected by this ruling and NOT just the people who still owed money.

 

I think this is a valid point.

 

What is interesting is that, as I understand it, the debt of x number of people is being wiped, not the actual account.

 

To me that reads that at a given point in time, anything owing is written off but not the underlying account under which payments have been made.

 

The question therefore is that if debts are being wiped on the basis of irresponsible lending, should the whole account not be wiped and the affected people put back in the position they would have been in had the account not been allowed in the first place.

 

I throw this in just as a view and just a question but is there more leverage here than meets the eye?

[Nao]

The question therefore is that if debts are being wiped on the basis of irresponsible lending, should the whole account not be wiped and the affected people put back in the position they would have been in had the account not been allowed in the first place.

 

I throw this in just as a view and just a question but is there more leverage here than meets the eye?

 

You may well have a point with there being leverage...

 

There was recently a court case where a Bank had to repay overdraft charges due to the charges having pushed the Customer into an even worse position.

 

So if the same stick was applied to Wonga they may well end up having to repay every penny they got in interest & fees on the loans that should have never been granted in the first place as obviously it could be argued that for those who couldn't afford the loan the interest & fees only served to plunge them deeper into the financial abyss.

[the tinkerman]

Exactly my point ims21

[the tinkerman]

And even the fact that people are just getting part of their debt paid off, some of which will have just stated on a repayment plan who will now get their whole debt written off you surely cannot benefit those and not benefit others who have paid their debt off in full who are effected by the same ruling, double standards.

[wilko011178]

Theres clearly a lot of grey areas. They should make it either black or white and just take a hit on the money its gonna cost them.

 

Small claims court????

[wilko011178]

Person A takes out £500 loan on 20 August with repayment date of 31 August. They cant pay on time so go on a repayment plan with first payment due 31 Aug ... They make a smallish repayment on that date followed by another on 30 September.. New ruling 2 October means they get the WHOLE debt paid off.. Essentially they get given FREE money !

 

Person B [me] is 300+ days in arrears and has paid off ALL of principal payment plus majority of interest but only gets a small debt written off.... I should at the very least get back the interest that I shoulnt have paid in the first place!!

[graham1973]

Wilko, that's exactly the same situation I am in and you are thinking the same things as me.

 

 

I have no idea how to approach this as I feel I may only get one shot at it.

 

 

Anybody have any ideas how we progress this ?

[wilko011178]

I have no idea mate.... the media needs to put sone pressure on them?? Or FCA need to get involved again?? Wonga wont pay unless they are forced to