Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k custs

[EXC]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

Wonga's Chief Credit Officer Nick Brookes giving evidence before the Treasury Select Committee today about the progress of consumer redress for the unfair debt collection practices.

Fast forward to 11:06 http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Pl...eetingId=16488

[Nibbler]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

11:06? Is that right?

[EXC]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

11:06? Is that right?

Yes, according to the time in the bottom right hand corner of the video window.

[Nibbler]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

Maybe the video player under linux is a bit out of sync then.

[Nibbler]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

Maybe the video player under linux is a bit out of sync then.

Ah. Looks like the WM compatible player under linux is working off elapsed time from the start of the meeting, while the Silverlight player in Windows is working from the actual time in GMT.

Solved.

[Nibbler]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

https://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/n...practices.aspx

No City of London Police investigation into Wonga debt collection practices

In 2012, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) met with the City of London Police (CoLP) to consider the OFT investigation into a specific case involving Wonga’s debt collection practices and to decide whether the matter should be referred to the National Policing Lead for Fraud (the CoLP). The decision taken was that the most appropriate course of action was for the OFT to continue with its own investigation - the interests of the consumer being at the fore.

In April 2014 the OFT closed and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which had taken on the regulatory responsibility regarding consumer credit, entered into discussions with Wonga and secured compensation for the customers affected. Once this matter was concluded the City of London Police agreed it was in the interests of the public to review further material that had been obtained both during the FCA discussions and after the original OFT referral in 2012; to assess whether a criminal investigation was now viable.

The central allegations were that Wonga had deceived its customers by sending letters falsely purporting to be from lawyers with the aim of recovering outstanding debts from customers. After a thorough review of all the material gathered the City of London Police has concluded there is not sufficient evidence to progress a criminal investigation.

[andrew1]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

It still doesn't answer the question of what happened to anyone who were 'sued' by this falsely named 'lawyer' through the courts ? And that applies to ANY of these dubiously set-up in-house solicitors?

They must have taken action against people because that's what so called lawyers are set-up to do in these companies to save money - but were the customers charged solicitor rates in their charges or was this just some hyped up name for a Collections department to scare the pants off people? Collections departments can't charge legal fee's unless they've incurred outside legal costs or are a legitimate in-house legal team (and I mean 'legitimate') ...

I'd love to know what else has been charged or swept under the table.

A1

[EXC]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...e-letters.html

A spokesman for the police force said the demands for repayment that Wonga sent its customers under fake lawyers’ names were not “falsely purporting to be [from] debt recovery agencies”, since the letters’ small print showed that they were in fact from Wonga.

However, on Thursday, it said it would not proceed any further with the case, saying that most of the letters did in fact say somewhere that they are from Wonga.

So that's alright then.

[dogtired]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

So the same would go from the likes of Blair Oliver etc., the "small" print is very small.

[andrew1]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

Personally, I don't think that's the point though dogtired, correct though you are anyone getting these letters, and I've had my fair share, are put on alert that 'the legal system' is kicking in rather than a friendly (ish) Collections department trying to assist us in getting our payments back into line.

When the legal system kicks in, this shows things are getting serious and people react in very different ways to that threat. We find things amusing at times on these forums because we get the picture far easier than many and can share the stress, but to some especially those who are in dire financial hardship even before they went near the likes of Wonga this is a significant step towards mental breakdowns, relationship strain, fear of bailiffs and so on which we witnessed being posted on the forums daily.

It therefore beggars belief that what is effectively, in some cases a criminal offence, that the authorities who are there to police and make sure the general public are protected with costly legislation and Acts of Parliament to back them up, cannot find the responsibilities within those Acts to strip these culprits apart from the seams and prosecute them.

Shoot a red light in your car and you are prosecuted, drive when you're drunk - you get prosecuted, rob from a shop-you get prosecuted, so why these financiers who steal from consumers not get prosecuted?

Just one single charge on a persons account inflating the costs of that loan by adding 'legal' costs as we have found with some of the sub-prime' lenders who have jumped up credit control and collections departments calling themselves 'legal services' and charging solicitor rates is fraud in my opinion. Thieves who dip their hands into your pocket in the street get prosecuted, if what these institutions have done is not in accordance with the Act of Parliament which sets in stone the way they should act and remedy for their non compliance then they are exactly the same as the thief in the street and should be treated accordingly. There can be no namby pamby inbetween.

It just cannot be right to let these organisations away with a breach in the law.

A1

[ODC]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

Good points well made

[YCCemployee]

Re: Wonga to pay redress for unfair debt collection practices – FCA - £2.6m to 45k cu

I was collection manager at yes car credit and i am looking for clients who i believed were treated unfairly so that we can launch a group action