Wonga criticised over student loans

By Sarah Engle, Thu 12 Jan 2012 - Published in Loans

Short-term lender Wonga has been heavily criticised after encouraging students to use high-interest loans.

The company came under fire from the National Union of Students (NUS) after Wonga said that students could benefit from using the service.

On the firm's website under the headline "student loans" it claimed that there was a "totally new way of borrowing money to see you through until your next cheque and its called Wonga".

NUS officials branded the company as "highly irresponsible" for carrying what it called "predatory marketing". Wonga has subsequently removed the article under increased pressure from the union.

A spokesman for the company said: "We do not actively target students in any way and our marketing is all mainstream, such as on TV and radio. The two web pages in question are examples of the many search engine optimisation pages on our site, which is essentially content covering all aspects of credit."

Wonga is currently the shirt sponsor of Blackpool FC and has been since the club's promotion to the Premiership in 2010.

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