Wonga slammed over student loans

Wonga, the short-term money lender, has come under fire for suggesting that its high-interest loans to students are a viable alternative to official Government-backed student loans.




A marketing page on the payday lender’s website headed ‘student loans’ claimed that there is “a totally new way of borrowing money to see you through until your next cheque and it’s called Wonga”.


The site, which said that its student loans can be used for things such as holidays to the Canary Islands, then highlighted annual interest rates of 4,214 per cent.


Charities, student groups and consumer bodies said that the company was being “irresponsible” for suggesting that high-interest loans should be part of students’ everyday financial planning.


Pete Mercer, vice-president (welfare) of the National Union of Students, accused Wonga of using "predatory marketing".


The fury was sparked when Martin Lewis from Moneysavingexpert.com, the consumer website, posted the Wonga page on Twitter to his 82,000 followers and called the company a “moral disgrace”.

Within hours of him posting the page, which is understood to have been on Wonga’s website for some time, hundreds of people had commented on it. Other Twitter followers accused the company of being “exploitative and misleading”.