Meet the millionaire who shut down Wonga – ‘the UK’s big banks all hate me’

14 comments

1. I’m an expert on this subject, I watched bank of Dave 2 just yesterday

2. For anyone not wanting to send clicks to the Express, the article is archived at: https://archive.is/4xCPb

3. Good lad, in the doc that followed him around, whilst he was setting up bank of Dave. He was giving off strong Michael Scott vibes. Reading the quote about him scuffling in the office of a lender is pure Office IRL.

4. > “I went after Wonga and I helped get them shut down for real. We had people writing to the Bank of Dave saying, ‘We’re in a mess’. ‘We’re in debt’. ‘We’re being charged 6,000% interest APR and we’ve nowhere to turn’.

   Legend. When I was young and naive, I got into a bit of debt. Despite only having a basic student loan as legitimate income, I was able to take out payday loans to pay off other payday loans. It was a foolish cycle, and I should have known better—but it’s wild to think that was even allowed and how easy it was to do.

   Edit: I also remember that, because of his actions and those of others, I received a small payment from Wonga and two other payday loan companies during their settlements. It was a tiny amount, but it brought a sense of justice.

5. I’d really like for Dave to be taken into a government role as an advisor. Him and Martin Lewis would be good advocates for fairness and transparency.

6. Why would the big banks hate him for shutting down a competitor?

7. No idea if you will ever read this Dave but top work!

   You have my absolute respect for your quiet determination and staying true to your ethics despite some absolutely Machiavellian attempts by the Regulators to shut you down.

   It’s an absolute pleasure to see someone giving a damn and then risking it all to make finance a better place for everyone else.

   I wish you, the Bank of Dave and your friends and family the absolute best for the future.

8. I’m now just realising I’ve not seen a payday loan advert for a long ass time. Don’t know if this is to do with it, or I’ve just been lucky.

9. Wonga was an unregulated menace, pay day loans were a disgusting business practice preying on the poor.

10. Aren’t there still others like it though? Like lending stream? How are unlimited APR’s even legal?

11. He sounds like a great guy, but that film gives a very distorted view of how the legal system works and diluted the great charity work he does. Imagine a British citizen flying to America to serve an extradition to a competitor and then flying back in a suitcase.

    To my knowledge, the big payday lenders closed down in relatively good standing when the FCA made their business models unprofitable.

12. There two films out on Netflix called the Bank Of Dave it’s really good

13. I used to work in a call centre for a large bank and had the misfortune of speaking to this wanker. He was phoning ‘on behalf of’ someone who gave authority for him to discuss the account so it was all above board but he spent the whole time trying to put words in my mouth, trying to corner me and trick me into making statements essentially treating a front line customer service rep as a spokesperson for a multinational bank.

    He was a complete twat and could have achieved much more by not using me as a proxy for his fucking games. It was like he was using the person he was speaking for as a tool for whatever TV show he was making, like he didn’t want to help the person as much as he wanted to curate some media content. This was at least ten years ago and he still makes my blood boil.

14. Haha his helicopter videos keep popping up on my tiktok feed. He seems like a nice guy

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