I won’t cheer if Wonga fails. I was grateful it was there for me | James Ball

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Don’t paint the most famous payday lender as a villain, it performed a valuable service in a troubled society

The payday lender Wonga reportedly stands on the brink of collapse, because the company – once set for a stock market valuation in excess of $1bn – has struggled to raise funding to pay compensation claims for excessive charges to customers.

Wonga is hardly a company many would mourn: its advertised APRs (the official way to calculate loan interest) varied from 1,509% to in excess of 5,000%, at a time when the Bank of England base rate was just 0.5%. The company charged sizeable fees to struggling customers who missed repayments and it advertised aggressively. It’s now stopped taking new loan applications.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2wqUyx2

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