Our founder and CEO was recently interviewed by a popular Guardian blogger. They discussed the reasons for launching Wonga.com and our unique approach to small, short-term loans. It makes an interesting read.

Leading financial website thisismoney.co.uk reports that many credit cards have bumped up their interest in time for the holiday season. Quel surprise! Not only are standard interest rates on the up, but charges for using cards abroad and withdrawing cash from the hole-in-the-wall have also taken a sneaky hike. Here’s an extract from the article:

The increases are a hammer blow to families heading off on summer holidays, which generate the biggest card bills of the year on items like hotels, food and car hire.

Britons are expected to spend £22bn on credit cards during July and August. With 13.8m customers regularly failing to pay off their balances each month, the rate increases will bring a cash bonanza for the card companies. Almost one in three customers have faced a rate rise in the past year.

Credit cards have their uses of course, but it’s the fact that 13.8m customers regularly fail to pay off their balance, plus the frequency of interest rate changes, which can sting. It’s essential to fully understand the terms of any credit offer before committing, but the trouble with credit cards is that terms can then change during the life of your card and the banks want to keep your balance running indefinitely.
They can provide cheap credit, but also hidden charges, changing costs and the risk of a spiralling balance. A small, short term loan from Wonga on the other hand may cost more in some instances, but the total amount repayable is always explained upfront, with total clarity. The interest rate won’t ever change during your loan and you repay it within a few days or weeks, depending how long you want to borrow the cash for.
We make money when you settle your loan and clear your short-term debt, not by continually extending a growing line of credit and bumping up the fees every once in a while!

Our founder and CEO was in the spotlight again last night. Nope, Thursdays are his disco class - this was at the South East finals of the National Business Awards.

We were shortlisted in a couple of categories: The Orange Best Use of Technology in Business Award, plus the highly prestigious title of Credit Suisse Entrepreneur of the Year.

Sadly we just missed out on the technology gong (a little birdie told us it was a very close call), but our esteemed leader was named Entrepreneur of the Year! High praise indeed. To paraphrase the judges, the award only goes to the most outstanding individuals who can best demonstrate exceptional vision and leadership in the establishment and development of an owner-led business.

A good night was had by all and we’d like to thank the organisers for putting on a professional and entertaining do.

 Wow. The Times has today broken a personal finance story that beggars belief. Actually, it will shock most people but the Wonga gang is only too aware of the crazy fees banks charge for unauthorised overdrafts. It’s one of the reasons we set up our service - to offer people an alternative for emergency funds. But even we were choking on our cornflakes while reading this sorry tale.

Lloyds TSB is alleged to have charged one unfortunate student a whopping £800 in cumalative fees, after she initailly went just 8p overdrawn. Yep, that’s eight pennies. No longer enough to buy a modest selection of sweets from the corner shop.

OK, so she didn’t act quickly to rectify the situation, but it’s a mighty big sledgehammer to crack a particularly tiny nut. The bank disputes its customer’s claims, but recent research found that Lloyds TSB had the most expensive overdraft charges of all the high street banks.

Whoever you believe, the fact remains that banks can charge customers extortinate fees if they dip into the red - either by accident or on purpose - regardless off the amount. It’s the lack of transparency and sense of fairplay that stinks. So next time you’re in need of a few pounds (or pence!) in a hurry, think very carefully before stretching your current account. Consider a short-term Wonga loan instead!

Some may think it’s an old fashioned concept, but we value trust and it’s an important element of the Wonga service. Besides, since when has something been a bad idea just because it’s been around for a long time? Yeah, yeah - apart from the The Spice Girls?

When we provide cash on demand, we carry out a sophisticated credit check and consider lots of other factors before making an automated decision. So it’s a highly technical process, but we’re still doing something very human too. We’re ultimately putting our trust in an individual to honour their promise - a simple, yet very important promise to repay their loan on a certain date they’ve chosen

So if a customer keeps their promise, what happens next? We increase their Wonga trust rating of course! We won’t bore you with mathematical equations and algorythms, but we’ve built a flexibile credit system that considers every customers’ use of the service on an ongoing basis - and gradually increases their credit limit accordingly. So use the service responsibly and you’ll be rewarded with more borrowing flexibility if you ever need it in the future. You’ll see the maximum you can apply for at any time by using the cash amount slider when you login.

We trust you found this post informative.

Words can’t really express the excitement and pride everyone’s feeling now we’ve launched Wonga.com. But check out the glorious cake we commissioned to mark this momentous occasion and you might get an idea! We’d offer you a slice of this sugary heaven, but virtual cake doesn’t really taste that good (even if it works miracles for the waistline). Sorry, but it’s the thought that counts.

So we’ve launched, although we’ll be building up gradually to begin with and haven’t started shouting from the rooftops just yet. The loan application process is straight-forward and we include plenty of guidance along the way, but you can also read this quick introductory guide.

Simply use the sliders on the home page to decide exactly how much cash you want to borrow and how many days you need it for. No rigid terms or fixed fees here – the cost’s determined by the size and length of loan you apply for, which we show you while you’re deciding.

Application is then online from start to finish – you give us all the information we need in our web forms and our clever decision system usually gives you an instant answer. We carry out a credit check - because we’re only interested in lending to people who can repay their loan without undue financial stress - but we also consider lots of other factors.

So a very warm welcome to Wonga and we hope to be of service soon!

Our technical wizards have been saluted by the experts at CNET Networks - we’ve been shortlisted for Financial Services Technology Project of the Year in their annual celebration of innovation. Needless to say we’re as proud as punch and have our fingers crossed for the finalists’ ceremony in September.

The CNET Networks UK Business Technology Awards celebrate the greatest achievements of the UK’s business technology innovators, leaders and doers, and create new opportunities for them to grow by showcasing their successes and connecting them with the industry elite.

It’s so close you can almost touch it. The grand opening of Wonga is just around the corner! So keep watching this space.

Lloyds TSB has this week been criticised for promoting Visa debit cards to kids, without always getting the green light from mum & dad. The bank’s excuse is they don’t always know where the parents are. But perhaps the suprising thing is that it’s standard industry practice to promote cards to kids as young as eleven.

Many people will be mortified at the prospect of a big bank getting its claws into their child before they turn sixteen, but it’s important to remember we’re talking about a debit card here - not a credit card. The bank argues it can be used to make savings online and to teach the basics of cash. It can’t be used to go overdrawn and suposedly can’t be used to make adult purchases.

One furious dad uncovered by the Guardian would beg to differ, claiming his young son got hold of Viagra and fake ID (amongst other things) with the his Lloyds TSB plastic. But that’s opening up a whole new can of worms, because you could argue the lad had obviously got funds in his account plus unrestricted internet access, so pinning his behaviour purely on the fact he had a debit card seems a little narrow minded. What’s not acceptable is the fact his dad wasn’t aware the bank had offered him the card in the first place.

There’s no question banks should always ensure the parents or guardians of any child are on board with the idea, but some of the outrage expressed this week seems to miss the point. Children need to learn about money and start being responsible for it if they’re to wise up before adulthood. If having a bank account is acceptable to many, why not the means to spend some cash in the way most people spend it? It might not be for everyone, but if the bank had got its act togehter on parental consent then it might not have created such a palarver. It seems like they didn’t, which isn’t on.

For the avoidance of doubt, Wonga is a credit-based service and will therefore definitely not be availble to under-18s!