{"id":27395,"date":"2012-11-27T14:22:58","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T12:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=27395"},"modified":"2012-11-27T14:24:35","modified_gmt":"2012-11-27T12:24:35","slug":"wonga-com-launches-on-mobile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/27395\/wonga-com-launches-on-mobile\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonga.com launches on mobile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wonga.com has unveiled what is claims is South Africa&#8217;s first ever mobile credit site.<\/p>\n<p>Wonga.com launched in South Africa in May 2012, serving as a micro-lending website which offers short-term loans to qualifying customers.<\/p>\n<p>The company provides small, short-term loans starting at R2,000 for first-time clients, moving up to R8,000 for long-time users who have built up a strong trust profile with the company.<\/p>\n<p>The mobile extension of Wonga.com will give new and existing customers access to small short-term cash loans using their mobile phones. The service is targeted at customers who aren&#8217;t able to regularly access the Internet via PC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA mobi site has always been part of our business plan for SA. We are fully aware that not everyone has regular access to the internet on a desktop PC, and in order to offer our service to the majority of eligible consumers, it was vital to have a site which could be accessed via a mobile phone,\u201d said Wonga SA CEO, Kevin Hurwitz.<\/p>\n<p>The service is accessible on both high-end smartphones as well as on feature phones at the lower end of the handset spectrum, Hurwitz said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_27396\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Wonga-mobile-phones.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27396\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27396\" title=\"Wonga mobile phones\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Wonga-mobile-phones.jpg\" alt=\"Wonga mobile phones\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Wonga-mobile-phones.jpg 600w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Wonga-mobile-phones-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-27396\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wonga mobile phones<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The total cost of repayment of loans is calculated in real-time and clearly displayed on the screen, before the customer proceeds with the online application process.<\/p>\n<p>Wonga has come under fire in the UK for its high annual percentage rate (APR) which, in real terms, is at 360%.<\/p>\n<p>Wonga&#8217;s APR in South Africa is 60%, with the monthly rate at 5% and the daily rate falling slightly under 0.17%.<\/p>\n<p>These rates and charges are calculated as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Service fee: R50 per month (+VAT at 14%);<\/li>\n<li>Initiation fee: 15% on the first R1000 plus 10% of the amount of the agreement in excess of R1000, but never to exceed R1000 (+VAT at 14%);<\/li>\n<li>Interest: 60% per annum or 5% per month \u2013 (calculated at 0.1667% per day).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Related articles<\/h3>\n<p><a title=\"Wonga aiming for right local formula\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/16245\/wonga-aiming-for-right-local-formula\/\"><strong>Wonga aiming for right local formula<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"BusinessTech Article\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/16041\/social-lending-to-hit-sa-banking\/\"><strong>Social lending to hit SA banking<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"BusinessTech Article\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/15447\/absa-readies-for-full-2-0-online-banking\/\"><strong>Absa readies for full 2.0 online banking<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"BusinessTech Article\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/15038\/businesses-are-continuing-to-cut-costs\/\"><strong>Businesses are continuing to cut costs<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wonga.com has introduced what is claims is South Africa&#8217;s first ever mobile credit site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[25,189,4709,3275],"class_list":["post-27395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-active","tag-mobile-2","tag-short-term-loans","tag-wonga-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27395"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27406,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27395\/revisions\/27406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}