It is common knowledge to those who pay attention to online direct payday loan lenders in the UK that there is not much positive to write about. Too many stories published concerning over the top interest rates, the lack of regulation and predatory practices.
In recent news findings, the major UK lending company, Wonga, has once again crossed the threshold of poor practices. With regulations laws in the works by the UK government, these lenders continue to find creative ways to bring in new clients.
Are direct payday loan lenders given any room for error?
http://youtu.be/7FS4OZoC5r0
According to the Mirror, a money advice site based in the UK, the latest headline story concerns itself with the lender’s targeting borrowers. In the recent weeks, the lender sent letters of loan opportunities to a 12 and 15 year old. The letters suggests to their young readers that if they were ever in need of some quick cash in the future, that they could perhaps refer back to their company as an easy alternative.
The letters continued to talk about the low cost interest new customers would pay. It is a well-known fact that direct lenders in the UK have no regulations and their prices represent that freedom.
To say that the parents of these children were furious is most likely an understatement, but Wonga claims that they received filled out forms with the names on them. The box stating that they were over 18 was not checked yet the company acted upon the information anyway.
The parents argued back suggesting that letters like these could prompt a youngster to lie about their age just to get some easy cash. These loan companies have commercials with catchy jingles that man youngsters know and sing along to. Their marketing techniques have been arguably suggested to be predatory lending practices. Offering loans to underage children is only one more example of why the UK needs to implement strong regulations concerning direct payday lenders online for their residents.
Borrowers need to focus on working with responsible companies. Thankfully, the payday loan direct lenders from the US operates under rules and the competitive market helps to not only keep prices lower than UK predatory lenders and would take any US businesses to court for predatory practices.
A spokesperson for the company did inform the parents that the information was removed from their database and assured them that it was never the company’s intention to solicit a minor.
It is easy to read this story and create negative feelings for the company. Who doesn’t get riled up when youngsters’ safety is in question? Most lenders have an age cut 0ff of 18 while there are a select few that refuse loans to anyone under 21. In order to get their information in to the email database, the direct lender must have received some sort of form or application at one point. Could there have been a glitch or an oversight on someone’s part which allowed letters to go out to the minors? Whatever happened, the article has managed to fuel more people against the payday loan industry. The article only discussed one company. And since only two minors received these emails, the idea that there was a campaign focused to obtain future clients may be a bit exaggerated.
What this article does do is send another message that direct lenders are all predatory doing horrible things. One bad apple bruising the bunch is what is expected. No one talked about the parent’s responsibility for controlling underage children’s access to the internet or taking some of the blame away from Wonga. Yes it is bad thing to send these types of emails to minors, but if the information is settled in a list of thousands, how can you blame an unknowing direct payday loan company?
