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

[Nao]

I'm in a minority in being baffled at the extent of the sympathy currently being dished out to ppl who chose to accept Wonga's TCs then screamed foul when the co. invoked them. I even see many "victims" openly boasting in the press that they obtained their loans fraudulently - i e supplying false income details.

 

Taking out a loan you can not afford is no different than eating worms to survive when trapped in the wilderness.

 

Trust me, once you haven't eaten for a couple days you'll agree to absolutely everything.

 

Of course it doesn't solve anything in the long term (long term for people who are hungry is as little as 3 - 4 days),

 

 

but there will be underfloor heating fitted in hell before I stop feeling pity for the single mom who took out a pdl

she knew she couldn't repay to buy food for her kids after the bank stole her money with bank charges.

 

If you really want a depression click this link: http://www.trusselltrust.org/stats

 

 

Compared to 2008 foodbank use is up over 3000%.

 

Of course there where also cases of people abusing the absence of thorough checks for fraudulent purposes instead of survival,

but those people usually just supplied a stolen identity during the application,

so they are never asked to repay either way,

 

 

its how one of the most unscrupulous lenders to ever grace our shores bit the dust (MCO Capital),

its also why there used to be plenty of stories on TV about Wonga asking people who never had a loan to pay up.

 

And we should be very careful to not confuse the two groups of people.

[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.

[Nao]

Also why are wonga the only company to be doing this,

cause I can say that quickquid are much worse than wonga and there will be many more

but they they don't seem to be being held to account.

 

I bet its because consumer debt is a lit powderkeg over society. On average we owe around 170% of disposable income.

 

If they started applying the same measures to other PDLs it would only be a question of time until it would be expanded to log book loans, store cards, catalogue accounts, current account overdrafts, mortgages and so on which would be dousing the lit powder keg in petrol from an economic point of view.

 

That said, I personally believe all companies should be given the same treatment by the FCA as Wonga, even if it leads to a brutal shock in the economy.