Occupy Wonga On May Day!

Occupy Wonga On May Day!


Source - The Void

http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2014...ga-on-may-day/


On May 1st 2014, get ready for some direct action, Occupy London are proud to present OCCUPY WONGA!

In 2011 the Occupy movement had a clear message “The bankers are the problem”. Now in 2014, we are on the edge of complete debt slavery.

Pay day loan companies are the new economic fascists, their “clients” include, victims of the Bedroom tax, Fuel Poverty, Benefit cuts, Atos and all people suffering from the Governments Austerity program. Companies like QuickQuid, the Money Shop and Wonga are not helping us, they are holding us in debt bondage further extending the widening gap between rich and poor.

We see the most vulnerable people in society being charged Immoral Interest rates, the very people the government should be protecting. If you feel that something should be done about Payday loans, join us in London on Mayday 2014.

Occupy London hereby call for a complete end to Pay day loans and an immediate stop to all pay day loan advertising. On Mayday we will be paying Wonga some interest, but not with 5853% APR.

May Day Itinerary:-
12:00 (High Noon) Assemble at Clerkenwell Green
13:00 March sets off
14:30 Rally in Trafalgar square in honour of Tony Benn and Bob Crow.
As soon as the rally has finished, we march.
When we arrive at the target we will occupy a space and hold a general assembly on site.

Supporting this action on the day will be:-
*Disabled People against Cuts (DPAC)
*Fuel Poverty Action
*The Resistance Movement Of The UK
*Class War

For more info and the latest news visit: http://occupylondon.org.uk/may-day-o...onga-assembly/

Please share, tweet, spread the word!

 

I think the payday loan rats should be brought into check and not allowed to charge high interest. It should be an even lower, fixed rate considering the clients it "serves". That would shut down plenty of them fast and still leave some sort of thing available for people with urgencies and emergencies. We have those places here too. They too are allowed to basically run amok and charge like gangsters.

 

I have taken out quite a few 'pay day loans' and managed to pay them back with no issues.
It has not been the ideal solution, but there really was no other option at the time.
They have helped me a great deal.
Banning them completely would not be a fair solution - just based on those that could not pay back the loan before they even applied for it.
I understand if a loan is approved and the personal circumstances suggest they could not pay it back, but it is approved anyway - then that is wrong.
Is there any evidence that this occurs with the major 'pay day loan' companies - such as 'wonga'?

It is based on your credit rating, and the information you provide.
The issue seems to be that you take out an extremely short term loan, so the loan has to be paid back extremely quickly - within a month.
You don't necessarily pay anything more than a 'normal' loan - just in a very short space of time.
So the idea that it is an ' Immoral Interest rate' is potentially slightly misleading.

Do you actually pay more for a short term loan over a long term loan?
I do not think so.
You probably pay the same (or less) just in a short amount of time.

What isn't mentioned here is if 'pay day loans' are being given to people who give information to these companies that suggests they can not pay, but are granted these loans, regardless.
I have seen no evidence of this.
Is there any evidence of this?

I have been refused 'pay day loans' when I have been honest and upfront, and it turns out I don't have enough money, in the short term, to pay back this loan.
Once declined from one you tend to be declined from them all.

Yes, victims of the 'Bedroom tax', Fuel Poverty, Benefits etc may try and take out these types of loans.
But do these companies let you take out loans for say £100 if you say you have £50 disposable income at the end of the month?
Are they more or less likely to approve a loan if you do not meet a certain criteria?
Basically, handing money to those that can not (based on evidence) afford to pay back these loans in a very short space of time?
I'm not sure.

A short term loan can turn into a long term loan if you go through a debt charity such as 'step change'.

 

I wonder how many £50 notes per second those bankers are sucking out of the economy with their high frequency trades, scalping the markets? Front running the markets??

Wonga and their like are pure scum IMO. You are being ripped off blind by them. Lice upon the bodies of the likes of Goldman Sachs and HSBC that they are.
Lethal injection in Oklahoma is too good for them.

 

The Money Shop, which has an outlet in Fowler Street, South Shields, offers an annual interest rate of 390.94 per cent and an annual percentage rate – the rate for a payment period, multiplied by the number of payment periods in a year – of 2,962 per cent.

Anyone taking out a £200 loan would face repaying – in a single payment, within 28 days – £259.98.

Coun Allan West, the council’s lead member for adult social care and support services, is a signatary to the motion, and says he is concerned that the most vulnerable people in the borough are falling foul of the lenders.

He said: “It is easy to understand the financial pressures that lead people to rely on payday lenders, but their excessive interest rates mean there is a real risk of a short-term financial issue turning into a long-term spiral of increasing debt and interest payments. A national cap on the cost of lending would go a long way towards protecting some of our most vulnerable citizens from the dangers of payday lending.”

http://unemployedtynewear.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/waging-war-on-payday-lenders/

Payday loan sharks have trapped an increasing number of Brits into unmanageable debts and new research has revealed that this problem is increasingly getting worse.

In fact, a new report from the charity StepChange showed that the number of people seeking relief from payday lenders has shot up by 82 per cent.

Worryingly most of those vulnerable people seeking help had racked up thousands of pounds worth of debt after taking out more than one loan.

According to StepChange, people seeking advice in 2013 held an average of three payday loans, but at least 13,800 had five or more. The average debt was £1,647, significantly more than the average person’s monthly income of £1,381.

Many people make the mistake of taking out a payday loan believing that it is “easy money”.

However, payday loan companies are little more than legalised loan sharks that prey on vulnerable and low-income people and trap them into a cycle of debt that they cannot get rid of.

Many firms such as Wonga charge annual percentage rates (APR) of 4214%. To put it in layman’s terms and get an idea of just how quickly debt can balloon out of control, if you took out a loan of £3000 at 20 per cent APR (way below the average) and made the minimum repayment of two per cent or £5 per month, it would take you a whopping 90 years to pay it all back.

That is just at 20 per cent APR. Not at 4214% which was correct at the time this story went to print.

Now it is worth noting that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) assumes responsibility for the regulation of consumer credit in April.

Mike O’Connor, Chief Executive of StepChange Debt Charity, said that he hopes the FCA will address some of these issues.

He added: “The widespread harm and misery caused by payday loans continue unabated. The industry has failed to address the problems causing untold misery and damage to financially vulnerable consumers across the UK”.
“We hope the FCA’s proposals will address some of the areas of consumer detriment, but on issues such as affordability checking, rollover and repeat borrowing, there is an urgent need for even more radical reform”.

Unfortunately that seems unlikely, when you consider the corporate interests in maintaining high debt levels.

In fact, the StepChange charity highlighted the case of one man whose original £200 debt grew to £1,851 in just three months, thanks to inflated interest rates.

And this highlights an important problem. Most people simply do not realise just how rapidly their debts can run into the thousands before they take out a loan.

Fewer people realise that payday loan firms such as Wonga have previously advised the government on how to deal with consumer debt in the UK.

This essentially means that the government is working alongside those very companies who help to trap people into debt in the first place.

Further research conducted by YouGov for StepChange Debt Charity found that at least 26.3 million people had been offered high-interest credit such as payday loans via unsolicited marketing calls or texts.


http://unemployedtynewear.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/beware-of-the-loan-sharks/

 

See, this is what is misleading.
Where can you get a loan for £3000 and pay back £5 a month?
Where ever you can, please sign me up.
Articles that add these types of e.g's just confuse the situation - because they are meaningless, imho.

From what I can ascertain, if you took out a payday loan for £1000 you would be charged around £250 - 300.
If you were to take out an unsecured personal loan for £1000 most banks would charge around £100-200

So doesn't that make the APR for a payday loan - in the real world - around 30-40% rather than (something like) 5853%?
I agree, 5853% is an immoral interest rate.
I think the interest on a loan from the devil themselves wouldn't be that high.

So it's twice as expensive (I think I was reading about the comparison to overdraft charges etc.)
Throwing around APR rates of hundreds if not thousands isn't that helpful.
(I do appreciate payday loans have to include this information.)

Of the reforms mentioned on StepChanges website, it does not mention lowering the charges or banning them completely.
Perhaps they recognise there are people out there like me.
I think the irony is Wonga seem to be one of the most responsible payday loan companies.
http://www.wonga.com/money/wonga-responsible-lending/
http://www.fla.org.uk/consumer/goodpractice2012
Wonga point you to StepChange if you do not pay up.
They seem to be doing what StepChange are lobbying for.

StepChange also say this...

Analysis of the charity’s payday loan clients shows that for many people, payday loans are simply part of a broader mix of debt that contributes to financial difficulties. Of the charity’s clients with payday loans:

62 percent had overdraft debt
60 percent had credit card debts
45 percent had personal loan debt
39 percent had catalogue debt
18 percent had home credit debts

I do not have any of those types of debts.
If I did, I wouldn't be taking out payday loans.
But that is extremely easy for me to say, I guess.

'...if you are struggling with money problems, avoid payday loan companies at all costs. It is better to speak to an independent charity or financial advisor who will offer help and advice for free and advise you on ways that you can make your budget go further.'

Exactly.

I don't think so. If you are in debt - whether the interest was £10 or £60 - you still owe £200. You would still be in debt.

It is a thorny issue, for sure.
Having had no issues with them, I'm kinda not opposed to them (the decent ones).