There have been a lot of excited air punches around Wonga HQ lately, and not just because Blackpool has had a successful start in the premiership. Hot on the heels of being named #8 in the Startups 100 2010 list of the most innovative and ground-breaking companies in the UK, we’re now in the running for a number of prestigious industry awards.

The Financial World Innovation Awards, which recognise examples of creativity, imagination and vision within the financial services industry, has shortlisted Wonga in two categories: Excellence in customer communication and Innovation in the delivery of financial products, thanks to our iPhone app.

The UK Customer Experience Awards has named Wonga a finalist for ‘Financial Services including Contact Centres’. We’re quite chuffed to have received the nod in this category as we’re continually trying to improve the customer experience on our site.

Last but certainly not least, and one we’d love for the mantle, Wonga is a finalist in the National Customer Service Awards category, ‘Customer Service Team – Financial Services’.

The ceremonies for all these awards begin in September and culminate on the 1st of December, but no fear, we’ll keep you posted on all the results as they roll in.

Go Team Wonga!

Wonga.com is incredibly proud to have made it into the latest Startups 100 list, which recognises the UK’s most innovative, inspiring and ground-breaking new companies.

Our unique approach to short-term lending combined with the speed, convenience and flexibility of our service has secured our place at number eight on this influential list.

This recognition doesn’t mean we can relax and enjoy the glory of our hard work; instead it fuels our fires and motivates the whole team to find better and faster ways of serving our customers.

We’re pleased as punch to have made the top ten, but watch out top five, we’re on our way!

It was great to see some Seasiders in action on Sky’s Soccer Am this weekend. We know we would say this, but we thought the new kits looked very nice indeed…

The football season kicked off last week, but not before Jamie Redknapp published his list of 10 players to watch this season in the Premier League. Wonga was pleased to see a Seasider on the list at number three, Charlie Adam.

Redknapp had this to say about the left-footer, “…He scored bundles of goals in the Championship and I think he might continue to do the same on the big stage. Free-kicks, corners, penalties: he takes the lot.

If he can produce last season’s form, he might give Ian Holloway’s Seasiders a chance. Either way, I suspect he may be in the top flight to stay.”

We sure hope Jamie’s picks are winners and Charlie Adam and Blackpool rack up more great wins like the one last week against Wigan.

Go Tangerines!

We were pleased to see Wonga tipped as one of the hot European technology companies to watch in this weekend’s Telegraph. Indeed, we occupied the number one spot in a list of the top ten firms for investors to keep an eye on.

PROfounders Capital’s Brent Hoberman, famous for co-founding of Lastminute.com, and Rogan Angelini-Hurll, general partner at PROfounders Capital, cited Wonga’s real-time loan processing technology as a key reason for their choice.

In layman’s terms that means we are able to make instant yet responsible lending decisions at anytime of day or night. Meaning, if you are approved, you get the cash you need within minutes, sent straight to your bank account.

Everyone at Wonga is laser focused on our customers and making sure we continue to keep them so happy that many of them tell their friends about our flexible loan service.

So it was really satisfying to get a call from the good people at the National Business Awards this week, to tell us we’re a finalist for the Blackberry Customer Focus Award 2010.

It’s one for everyone in the company really, because we all work hard to make sure we’re streets ahead of the competition and offer something truly unique. So we’ll do our best at the judges presentation and then keep our fingers crossed for the final.

Here’s just one happy customer chatting about his recent experience with Wonga…

Sometimes you have to marvel at the ingenuity of the UK banks in tackling criticism whilst protecting their income. Lloyds TSB is the latest high street giant to announce reductions in controversial unauthorised overdraft charges, whilst bumping up other fees to balance the books.

In a move designed to pacify both customers and other critics of the hefty charges, the monthly fee for ‘unplanned’ Lloyds TSB overdrafts has been scrapped and daily charges reduced. Sounds good right? How refreshing for a bank to take a financial hit in order to reduce fees for its customers.

Yeah, right. Most commentators - and no doubt many customers - noticed other charges had been introduced at the same time and the bank will no longer pay any interest on positive current account balances. In fact it’s the more ‘organised’ customers who will bear the brunt of the recent changes, with a new £5 monthly fee for planned overdrafts.

What’s more, the reductions in unplanned overdraft fees are significant, yet they were so huuuuuge in the first place that even the new, slimmer versions are pretty heavy. Anyone who is at the edge of their planned facility (already paying £5 per month for the pleasure), will then get hit with daily charges of £10 if they were to go a further £25.01 or more into the red.

For example, if you were on the limit of your planned overdraft and urgently needed £50 to pay an important bill, accessing that money for a week from an unplanned overdraft could cost you £70 in fees! Borrowing the same amount from Wonga over the same period would cost just £9.33, including our £5.50 fast cash transfer fee.

So, not only has Lloyds TSB ended free access to planned overdrafts with its current accounts (and interest payments on positive balances), but consumers could still get hit with some big costs when in need of some emergency cash. Now that’s a clever trick.�

We recently invited Wonga customers to visit London and spend an hour in a studio, talking about why they like using our online, short term loan service. Despite only offering to cover basic travel expenses, we had plenty of takers and we all enjoyed a good laugh in front of the cameras. Many thanks to everyone involved! If you are interested to know more about our flexible approach to small loans then why not listen to what genuine Wonga customers have to say? Happy viewing…

Fascinating to see the UK banks’ latest defence of unauthorised overdraft charges. They came under attack from the BBC’s Panorama programme and Vince Cable, Business Secretary, this week. Here’s an extract from a Press Association article…

The banking industry has defended its fees after research suggested people with unauthorised overdrafts were being charged average interest of 167% a year.

Business Secretary Vince Cable accused the high street banks of “ripping off” their customers and failing to be transparent over the fees they levied.

He added that consumers were losing out because of a lack of competition in a marketplace that was dominated by a small number of big banks.

There’s no doubt that the world of overdraft fees is a murky one and it takes painstaking research to fully understand all the potential fees and interest rates to be potentially encountered on the high street - despite the relatively small number of players. 

But perhaps the most interesting aspect of the story was the response from the British Bankers’ Association, who argued that:

… as overdrafts were designed to be used for only a few days, it was impossible to calculate accurate annual lending rates.

This response somewhat misses the point concerning lack of transparency, but we can’t help but agree that an annualised measure isn’t the best way to look at the real of cost of something that’s used for a few days or weeks at most.

After all, Wonga is forced to display a typical APR for our short term loan service, despite the fact that customers borrow for a few days or weeks. The nature of the APR calculation results in a completely nonsensical number, so we also show the full cost of repayment.

But impossible? No, it’s not impossible, because unsecured lenders like Wonga already have to use an annualised measure, rightly or wrongly, for a short-term loan product that can provide a much cheaper alternative to going over your limit.

Perhaps the real reason the banks don’t want to apply APR to their overdraft charges is because of the impossibly huge numbers it would generate, as we have highlighted in the past on this blog.

As the countdown to kick-off continues, Blackpool FC has secured a new signing for the club’s first season in the Premier League… Yep, Wonga has today been announced as the 2010/11 shirt sponsor!

Everyone here is bouncing around with excitement and looking forward to the new footie season with even more excitement than usual. Especially after the World Cup washout.

Our founder & CEO said of the deal, “We are still relatively young but we’re growing fast and have big ambitions, just like Blackpool. Their rise through the divisions and fairytale promotion last year was an inspiration for football fans all over the country, so it’s a great fit for Wonga.

“Seasiders are renowned for their passion, something we have bags of too. We want to help make this campaign exciting for everyone and have plenty of ideas for making a visit to Bloomfield Road a day to remember. It’s sure to be a rollercoaster of a season and we can’t wait for the ride to begin.”

The Wonga logo will be seen on the team’s shirts in all friendly, Premier League and cup games and will make a first appearance tonight, when Ian Holloway’s men travel down to Devon for their pre-season training camp.

C’mon The Seasiders!