Wonga

[La Colombe]

No longa. 

[the stinking enigma]

An absolute stain on society.

[Primator]

If Wonga is no more how the fuck is IOM Government going to keep the lights on?

 

[hampsterkahn]

No one apart from Wonga and similar  would regard the interest rates  charged as other than  exploitation  and extortion.

However, it is also clear there must be  a  very strong demand for loans.

Consider someone whose   several monthly direct debits are due in  say 5 days and it looks like there will be not enough in the bank to cover them before he gets paid in a weeks time

Their  caring, listening bank  who have already refused overdrafts and loans will charge a very hefty fee for an unarranged  overdraft,credit cards will impose an interest charge  to add to last months fees for short falls and next month the  process is similar but  incremently worse.

To offset the charges , our “Mr Macawber”takes out say  a £50 loan for the five days to avoid the bank charges etc, and the loan shark charges him  an awful lot  of daily interest but if he can pay it back on payday  he hopes it works out less than the spiralling charges coming in from the bank from being overdrawn.

If he is without friends or relatives  to help him, he is going to try and seek out a speedy pay day loan from somewhere and accept it on any almost any terms  -what alternative has he?

 

  

[Howard]

1 minute ago, hampsterkahn said:

 If he is without friends or relatives  to help him, he is going to try and seek out a speedy pay day loan from somewhere and accept it on any almost any terms  -what alternative has he?

A good question. I would say the banks need to accept lower rates of pay per month. All too often the banks will refuse to accept a rate below a certain amount, as they are fixed on short-term profits. They also refuse to give a "break" from loan repayment based on circumstance. At the same time, they should take steps to preclude this scenario altogether by reducing the liberal giving out of loans.

[Neil Down]

7 hours ago, hampsterkahn said:

No one apart from Wonga and similar  would regard the interest rates  charged as other than  exploitation  and extortion.

However, it is also clear there must be  a  very strong demand for loans.

Consider someone whose   several monthly direct debits are due in  say 5 days and it looks like there will be not enough in the bank to cover them before he gets paid in a weeks time

Their  caring, listening bank  who have already refused overdrafts and loans will charge a very hefty fee for an unarranged  overdraft,credit cards will impose an interest charge  to add to last months fees for short falls and next month the  process is similar but  incremently worse.

To offset the charges , our “Mr Macawber”takes out say  a £50 loan for the five days to avoid the bank charges etc, and the loan shark charges him  an awful lot  of daily interest but if he can pay it back on payday  he hopes it works out less than the spiralling charges coming in from the bank from being overdrawn.

If he is without friends or relatives  to help him, he is going to try and seek out a speedy pay day loan from somewhere and accept it on any almost any terms  -what alternative has he?

 

  

How about "Mr Macawber" learns how to live within his means? We now live in a "must have" society with very little thought into going into how it's going to be purchased or paid for.

[hampsterkahn]

I agree Mr Micawber ( I spelt it wrong)  and his modern version  should  be able to live within his means (and the  Dickens character was  obviously  a feckless individual)  but for whatever his reason he doesn’t or  he can’t.

Therein lies the problem  -are we then to do as they did in Victorian times  and divide the poor into two groups -The “Deserving Poor”  who are deemed to merit assistance and the “ Un-deserving  Poor”  who don’t?

The fact is we do have some poverty here.

Even if we accept that there is always going to be  “Relative Poverty”if we base it on an income below a percentage of the average  income , there  are also  those who fall into the “Absolute Poverty “ group  for short or longer  periods who do not have even the basics of food and shelter.

We do need food banks.

Whether we need a “ director of food banks” is something I am less sure of.

[hissingsid]

If people are struggling they need help, if they say they are struggling and have the latest mobile phones and Sky.......sorry I would not give them a penny.

[Neil Down]

24 minutes ago, hissingsid said:

If people are struggling they need help, if they say they are struggling and have the latest mobile phones and Sky.......sorry I would not give them a penny.

that is it in a nutshell sid. Many of the strugglers fall into two categories

a. Genuine workers no frills/extras who despite best efforts, still find it hard to make ends meet

b. Stupid people who have their priorities all wrong and expect others to pick up their bills

Edited August 31, 2018 by Neil Down

[the stinking enigma]

You can't beat the good old manxforums poverty line indicator... Iphones, sky subscribtion. Used to also include 50 inch telly but that's been dropped recently. Get it in your heads. Poor people don't pay for sky. They get kodi or iptv. 

[the stinking enigma]

You can't brainwash an entire population then be surprised that they want the things they've been brainwashed into needing. 

[the stinking enigma]

Victim blaming at it's finest. By ignorant old farts.

[P.K.]

2 minutes ago, the stinking enigma said:

Victim blaming at it's finest. By ignorant old farts.

That's rich coming from you...

(Sorry)

[Neil Down]

34 minutes ago, the stinking enigma said:

Victim blaming at it's finest. By ignorant old farts.

Who else would you blame then? Loan sharks and their like don't go out press ganging people to take out their loans

[Chinahand]

Lots of complex issues here.

I do find it incredible that people sign up for such rates of interest.  It does show the desperate straits people can get themselves into.

And if there isn't a company like Wonga to provide them some cash at a 1000% per annum what do they do?  Use loan sharks - unregulated, no compensation schemes or call centres but a far more unsavoury way of getting their piece of flesh back from the desperate.

It is a real dilemma for me, but having regulated companies with public oversight and a board of directors to be held to account is in my view far far better than old Harry with his dog and his lads wanting to get back what's there's.

I don't know what to make of the nanny state socialists who think people can't make a decision for themselves and insists on regulating and limiting everything.  They clearly think they know so much better than the person themselves what interest rate they can accept - except they don't and when Wonga can't run a business because the interest rates they wish to charge are above the cap the socialists have imposed the business doesn't dry up - it just goes underground and old Harry picks up the tab.

Wonga was meeting a genuine demand.  A demand which is a sad reflection of the hand to mouth living too many people fall into, but bankrupting Wonga hasn't made that world go away - it has just made old Harry a very happy man thinking of all that extra business which is going to come his way.

Stinky is delighted Wonga is gone - but Christ if you can't make a profit charging 1000% pa that is a salutary message.  Old Harry knows his manor, knows how to turn on the screws, doesn't worry about the Financial Service Regulator, or Interest rate Caps.  He just lends and recoups and if there's some menacing to be done, well it is worth it, especially now the desperate don't have a public, regulated business as an alternative to Old Harry and his roll of fivers.