Wonga Wipe Out

Wonga are writing off £220 million pounds worth of debt for 330,000 customers, who they realised actually couldn't afford their payday loans in the first place.  Earlier in the year Justin Welby declared a war on Wonga, and the C of E launched a new scheme to take on the payday lenders, the Church Credit Champions Network.  "The Church of England is the best branch network in the country," he said. "A major high street bank has at most 3000 branches, but the Church of England has 16,000! The purpose of the Champions Network is to harness that unparalleled presence in the community. The goal is both to help those afflicted by financial problems and equip us all to save and borrow in a responsible way."

You may think they were irresponsible loaning money to people who clearly weren't in a position to pay it back, but a certain amount of responsibility must also lie with the borrower.

Being in debt is a horrible, sad, frustrating place to be. You feel elated when you are able to cover a bill, but guilty when you treat yourself to something that isn't essential.  The generation before us were an 'if you can't afford it, you can't have it' generation. My generation have been fed a diet of credit cards, loans and store cards, and don't worry if you can't pay those off, here's a payday loan to tide you over.....that just grows and grows and grows.

Hopefully now it is turning around again and the next generation will be more frugal with their finances. I always wished that back in the early years of our marriage, someone would have taken the time to educate myself and my husband a bit more about credit cards etc...although our spending was firmly our responsibility, I do feel we were a bit blind about some of the debts we built up.  

Nowadays, you have the likes of Martin Lewis doing an excellent job of guiding the nation through the highs and lows of every financial situation you could possibly imagine. There are also a number of charities who are steering people towards living debt free such as CAP and StepChange who offer free advice; I still think more could be done to educate our young adults at school and at home though.

I am determined not to let our children share our experience, so much so, that our eldest daughter who is in full time work and can afford to buy pretty much what she wants, says I have ruined shopping for her because she's too scared to spend her money!  Imagine that, a world where a 19 year old girl doesn't buy a new pair of shoes or a different shade of lipstick each week.  That's kind of gone a bit too far the other way, but at least she'll be able to move out sooner..........won't she?.......Please?

Have Wonga done the right thing? I think so, but I really hope that those customers who have found their debt cleared do not end up repeating their mistakes and borrow what they can't afford again, I pray that this can be a fresh start for them.

Dealing with debt! It wouldn't be an understatement to say we are in debt! I know in this climate we are not alone, and quite frankly we're past the stage of self pity - yes, we did accept the credit cards and the loans, and now my husbands business has closed and we're pretty much broke. Obviously some days are harder than others and we have found ourselves crying out to God that we are willing to do anything to get ourselves out of this whole, but we need his help. I am reading a book called 'The Money Secret' by Rob Parsons at the moment. Don't get me wrong I'm sure it has some useful advice for some people out there, maybe we are too far gone, but my main issue with it is that it seems to be aimed at a very young audience. I wouldn't use the word 'patronising' but it is almost like it is written for 10 years olds but with an adult theme, I'll stick with it anyway. If there is a purpose to the paths we find ourselves going down, whether it's debt (check), marital problems (check), health issues (check) or bereavement (I am thankfull to God I can't check that box yet), I think what God has taught me is that we can show our kids how to not get it wrong! That seems basic, but I did not realise when I was a small child that my parents had financial issues. It is only as an adult when I have spoken to them about how wrong it's all going that they say "oh, it was the same for us, the bank were always on the phone and we couldn't tell them when we were going to pay, the money simply wasn't there" Maybe it's a generation thing, privacy, but if I had grown up aware of their struggles, would it have changed the way we were with our own money issues? It is no secret within our family amongst our children that we are now on a very tight reign where money is concerned, so much so that I think it is a great testament to our son, that when we told him there was no way we could get him the 3DS for his birthday (even if we had the money, we wouldn't have spent that much on a birthday!), he didn't sulk, or even show his dissapointment graciously, what he actually did was save his £17 a week paper round money, until he had enough not only to buy the 3DS, but to buy it on the release date - a month before his birthday! The thought of borrowing and paying back didn't come into it, God really worked in our household to show that lesson, and if we have to struggle a bit so that our kids can learn from our mistakes, it's ok by me!

Like Joyce Meyer says "the only way to get out of debt, is the opposite to how you got into it!"

But even better is what it says in Psalm 84:11 “Our Lord and our God, you are like the sun and also like a shield. You treat us with kindness and honour, never denying any good thing to those who live right”

We live rightously because Jesus took our guilt on the cross, so whenever I start to worry about how to make the next payment or buy the next meal, I just say to God I know you will not withhold anything I need from me!