My Wonga Debt was one of my Payday Loan debts but I have settled it now.

Wonga as you may know are a Payday Loan Provider and I had been using them regularly over the years without issue.

My Wonga Debt didn’t escape my mass default and this post explains what happened when I didn’t pay my Wonga debt.

To start with, here are all the vital statistics: –

Current Balance: £0 Account is Settled in Full.
Original Balance: £1458
Interest Added: £458

The Build up to Default

My Wonga Payday Loan was a massive one as I had borrowed the maximum amount of £1000. Due to my gambling I was unable to make the repayment.

When I missed my repayment I received an e-mail to advise that my payment had failed but that Wonga would try again to debit the funds. There was no money in my account so they were unsuccessful in securing repayment.

I knew how quickly the interest would accrue on the account so I quickly set about getting a repayment arrangement set up.

I very quickly changed my Bank account to a new Bank and moved my salary to this new account. I then cancelled the debit card on my old account and monitored Internet Banking to make sure nothing was taken.

Setting up my Wonga Repayment Arrangement

My first port of call was to e-mail the Wonga Collections team and ask for a repayment plan to be set up.

Unfortunately all I would ever get back was a request to call them and discuss the account. This was despite me sending an Income and Expenditure form with all the information they would ever need.

This continued for several weeks and I was only going round in circles. I wasn’t getting anywhere and in the meantime, the balance was increasing every day.

Contacting the Wonga Boss Errol Damelin

I decided that I should try to find the e-mail address for Errol Damelin. I did manage to find it via a Google search. Armed with this e-mail address I sent off a letter outlining my arrangement and asking for a repayment plan.

Several hours later I received a reply to confirm the arrangement would be set up, and that I would only repay the original loan amount and interest due.

It was also explained to me that it should not have been as difficult as it was for me to set up an arrangement to pay with Wonga. Hopefully things have improved since 2010.

By this point the Wonga website showed my loan amount owed as a staggering £3,328.04. Now you can see why I was so keen to get a repayment plan set up.

However Errol confirmed that normally the interest would have stopped well before this point but a glitch had caused it to continue increasing. I am not sure where it would have stopped though.

Repaying my Wonga Account

I did agree to make six monthly payments of £234 to settle the account in full. I made the first four payments by standing order without issue. However I could not afford the fifth payment and ended up in default again.

After several e-mails I managed to get the plan reset for a final two months. I made sure I paid the last two payments then I received an e-mail confirming that my account had been repaid in full. Phew!

Tell me about your Wonga Debt

Have you had any trouble setting up an arrangement to pay with Wonga? If so what happened? Please leave your thoughts in the comments box below.

If you are struggling with Payday Loan Debt please visit the Debt Help Section of this blog.