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St James' Park


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Guest bimpy474

What did people struggling with money do before payday loan companies came along?

pawnbrokers, provident tickets, catalogues etc

thefting?

 

Think you will find the correct spelling is "Wonga'd"

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I'm a horrible bastard and have no sympathy with anyone who gets stung using Wonga or the like. They know the risk involved and I seriously doubt a huge percentage can't get through the next week without borrowing from sharks like this. There's always another way.

 

I can't speak for those on the poverty line in the North East, but down here it's almost a joke. They get free rent, free council tax, free school dinners, tax credits and child benefit and you see the horrible offspring loafing around the estate with their mobile, stupid beats headphones and riding a shiny new bike. That's if they aren't at home on their xbox playing fifa 13.

 

Seriously, a bird round the corner from my house. Her son is in my boy's class. He's ridiculously fat, she claims she has no money and can barely survive, yet he has a fiver on the way home from school everyday to stop at the fired chicken shop. Me and the wife both work full time jobs and sometimes it's plain pasta or rice for the kids tea at the end of the month because we've got no cash left. Buy the kid some fruit and veg for his tea. It's cheaper and he might lose some weight. Anyway, this daft bint only went to brighthouse to get the little fucker an xbox. Oh shit, you can't afford the repayments, well you shouldn't have gone and bought it should you, should have told him he can't have it cos you are a slob and his dad's a layabout who spends his dole money on booze and in the bookies - this is factually correct btw, before you all start about me generalising.

 

I grew up in a family where we were ok. My dad had a good job, my mum didn't have to work. We owned our own house and were relatively middle class. Did that mean I had all the latest computers and funky trainers. Did it bollocks. We couldn't afford it because we thought paying the bills and putting a good dinner on the table was more important. Plenty of the council estate kids were frequently better dressed than me and got the new SNES. I had to make do with my old Sega Master System.

 

My ex is just the same, doesn't work, has 5 kids and has just moved her latest new fella in. He doesn't work either. She gets paid more a week than I do. If she went to Wonga it'd be because she wanted to get her hair done, not because the kids were starving.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2012/oct/09/newcastle-united-wonga-deal?newsfeed=true

 

Newcastle United risk damaging their reputation with Wonga deal

The club say cash from the deal will help Newcastle compete in the Premier League but critics contend they are undermining work to crack down on 'legal loan sharking'

 

At the very moment the Football Association was finally opening St George's Park, centre for the sporting values modern football was always supposed to embody, one of England's great clubs, Newcastle United, unveiled a shirt sponsorship by the short-term, high-interest "payday" loan company, Wonga.

 

It emerged following late negotiations on Tuesday morning that the deal will now also include naming rights to Newcastle's stadium and, in a move designed to soften supporters' expected antagonism to Wonga, the ground will be called St James' Park again.

 

Both Newcastle and Wonga strove to portray the four-year, £24m deal as a great benefit to the team, youth academy and even the club's community work – but the outcry against it assailed St James' Park.

 

Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, who has for two years led a campaign against Wonga and other payday finance companies she accuses of "legal loan sharking", said: "It is only through preying on families struggling to make ends meet that Wonga has made enough money to be able to sign this deal with Newcastle."

 

She was joined by the local MPs Ian Mearns, Catherine McKinnell, Ian Lavery and the MP for Newcastle Central, Chi Onwurah, who also described Wonga as a "legal loan shark". Nick Forbes, the leader of Newcastle city council, called the sponsorship "disgraceful" and said Newcastle's deal to wear Wonga on their shirts would "undermine all the work we are doing to crack down on legal loan sharking".

 

Michael Martin, a lifelong Newcastle supporter and editor of the long-established True Faith fanzine, described the deal as "shameful" and said it "tarnishes the club's name, image and reputation".

 

With its jokey name and knowing marketing, Wonga has become the most visible company making "payday" loans, whose use is growing exponentially in the recession. The interest on Wonga's loans, one per cent a day, calculates over a year to an astonishing annual percentage rate (APR) of 4,214%.

 

Creasy's campaign calls on the government to cap interest, as is the practice in other European countries – France, for example, imposes a maximum of 21.63%; Germany 16.4%.

 

In the last financial year, to December 2011, Wonga more than tripled its income to £184m, and made £59m profit, from around 2.5m payday loans. The company is now planning an aggressive expansion of its operations; it already sponsors the Championship club Blackpool, and Hearts in Scotland, but the £24m committed to Newcastle from 2013-17 will launch the Wonga name to a dramatically wider audience.

 

Concern about the financial difficulties suffered by already struggling people who take out high-interest loans has been expressed by the Consumers' Association, Citizens Advice, and by R3, the national membership body for insolvency professionals. Lee Manning, the R3 president, responded to the news of Wonga's sponsorship by saying "high-cost credit" adds to debt problems of people suffering financial difficulty, particularly in the north-east, where Newcastle are an iconic institution.

 

Official figures show the north-east has a higher personal bankruptcy rate than any other region in the country, that 26% struggle financially to make it to pay day, and an R3 survey found 70% "are concerned about their current level of debt". Loans such as those made available by Wonga are termed "payday" because they are often used by people struggling to make ends meet before they get paid. Referring to the Newcastle sponsorship, Manning said: "Wonga has chosen to target a region that has comparatively high numbers of people experiencing financial difficulty. Many of those seeking high-cost credit need professional advice for their financial problems, rather than accruing further debt."

 

Wonga itself argues that although the 4,214% APR figure is accurate, it does not fairly reflect its interest rate. The company points out its maximum loan term is 30 days – extended to 60 for late payers – and it charges 1% interest every day of a loan, not "compound interest" in which interest is charged on interest. Consumer credit law, though, requires all companies to state a typical APR, and on Wonga's average loan, £176, which is paid off on average after 16 days, at a cost of £34.14 in interest and fees, the APR does amount to 4,214%.

 

The company portrays its borrowers as young people exercising free choice, and says 84% pay their loans off on time or early, meaning 16% fall into arrears. However, an R3 survey last year found that 60% of people who took out a payday loan regretted having to do so, and 32% could not pay it off, so had to take out another one.

 

Derek Llambias, Newcastle's managing director who, with the club's owner, Mike Ashley, has made great strides to win over supporters since Newcastle's low point of relegation in 2009, depicted the deal as one whose cash would help Newcastle compete in the Premier League.

 

"Wonga's desire to help us invest in our young playing talent, the local community and new fan initiatives really impressed us and stood them apart from other candidates," he said. "I am delighted to welcome Wonga into the fold as our lead commercial partner."

 

It was not evident, however, that Llambias was quite ready for the level of dislike for Wonga, and the opposition which would greet the deal. Until Tuesday morning the agreement did not include the stadium, which was branded with Ashley's retail company, Sports Direct, until a naming rights buyer was found. Wonga's inclusion of the naming rights was then agreed, with the restoration of the St James' Park name seen as a PR move, because it is cherished by supporters.

 

Newcastle have also landed themselves in an already existing campaign specifically targeting Wonga's use of football for marketing. In July, delegates to the Football Supporters' Federation fans' parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution which called on the football authorities to ban sponsorship by payday loan companies until they are subjected to tighter regulation and an interest rate cap.

 

The campaign, supported by Creasy, was begun by Bob Ward, a Northampton Town supporter, with an open letter to the Guardian in March. Signed by supporters from 18 clubs, it targeted Wonga's advertising on all Football League clubs' websites, a deal which has now ended. Ward said they plan to leaflet fans at Blackpool's matches with information about Wonga, and now intend to do the same at Newcastle's.

 

"We know where that £24m for Newcastle is coming from – many poor and vulnerable people paying appallingly high interest," Ward said. "Football clubs should promote good messages – perhaps responsible lenders like credit unions, not dreadful exploitation like this."

 

On the day the FA's national football centre was opened at last, a home for coaching and sporting development, Newcastle were telling a more complex story about modern football. Follow the money: high interest paid by people struggling to stay afloat, paid ultimately to millionaire footballers, who will wear Wonga on their shirts to promote more payday loans. Not, perhaps, the most inspirational message for what was once the people's game.

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Why are MPs etc only chirping up now, rather than when they got their name on blackpools shirt?

 

I was just thinking this, would also like to know how many of them shouting up have tried to table motions or change to law to do something about this.

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"Wonga have taken over the stadium naming rights and handed it back to us - and I include myself in that. It's St. James' Park again. Our fans must be as delighted as I am," said Pardew.

 

Probably get told off for that.

He probably got told to say it, it's less of a problem for him to say that thnn the club being seen as getting into bed with a toxic brand so they're all trying to make the name the main talking point.

Or maybe he said it cos he wants the board to think that he thinks the fans will think he's on our side when really he thinks what the board thinks. But they don't know that.
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As mentioned in the article above, lots of MPs and football fans have been going on about this for ages.  They're just able to get on the front page about it easier at the moment because of a big money deal at a big money club.  That's Wonga and NUFC's fault for doing the multi-million pound deals with the specifc intent of generating publicity, not the fault of MPs or fans groups.

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I posted my response to the Telegraph article:

 

Change the tune! As I said on a previous story, Wonga already sponsor Blackpool, where were the pitchforks and torches when that deal was done? Lets not get into EON sponsoring a cup, to name another company who are "predators" to financially troubled families and now we are playing in the Budweiser cup, thriving off the alcoholics of the country... What is morally acceptable? What is a sponsorship on a shirt? An emblem of a football club's moral stance on society or an advertising space, much like the ones found in NEWSPAPERS, merely used to inject extra cash flow into the aforementioned company coffers?

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These APR rates being banded about are utterly irrelevant as they don't lend money over a year, if you were to borrow 100 from them, in a weeks time you would need to pay back 110, that's equivalent of 14,000% APR, but you would never pay that interest because it is a short term loan.

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Ah the return of St James' Park to the mainstream (not that it ever left...) :D

 

It's a good marketing and business move by Wonga - it does soften the blow about them becoming our new sponsor a bit tbh. I'm certainly feel less averse to them compared to before. It means we'll see less of that Sports Direct shite at St. James' (here's hoping anyway).

 

However, it is still a horrible company and brand. Businesses like Wonga are detrimental to society, you could say we've signed a pact with the devil (a bit overdramatic I know).

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Ah the return of St James' Park to the mainstream (not that it ever left...) :D

 

It's a good marketing and business move by Wonga - it does soften the blow about them becoming our new sponsor a bit tbh. I'm certainly feel less averse to them compared to before. It means we'll see less of that Sports Direct shite at St. James' (here's hoping anyway).

 

However, it is still a horrible company and brand. Businesses like Wonga are detrimental to society, you could say we've signed a pact with the devil (a bit overdramatic I know).

 

A good way of summing it up.  It's today's world, man, businesses like Wonga aren't the worst, but let's not pretend they're great either.  Nice move on SJP.

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Guest bimpy474

MP's moaning about companies abiding by the rules MP's make and pass by law.

 

Amazes me how they all do it, Labour moaning about it when they passed the laws in the first place or didn't do anything about them when in power. Tories doing exactly the same.

 

Tell you what MP's why dont you just fuck off and actually pass a law that helps us, and not let it continue to happen you bunch of useless arsewipes.

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Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with the way they go about their business, but it's as much the financial ombudsman's fault for not regulating the charges said companies can enforce. There's a lot of hypocrisy out there though when there are other morally questionable companies investing in/sponsoring all manner of sports/sporting teams. It amuses me that the papers are forming a big anti-Wonga bandwagon when they have advertising space dedicated to them in their own papers!?!

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Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with the way they go about their business, but it's as much the financial ombudsman's fault for not regulating the charges said companies can enforce. There's a lot of hypocrisy out there though when there are other morally questionable companies investing in/sponsoring all manner of sports/sporting teams. It amuses me that the papers are forming a big anti-Wonga bandwagon when they have advertising space dedicated to them in their own papers!?!

 

Aye, fair points.

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