Payday loans company Wonga will offer loans for longer terms, as it attempts to make its business more diverse after experiencing struggles since industry rule changes and regulatory fines over the last year, according to Sky News.
Customers will be able to enjoy more flexibility and spread their repayments over a longer period of time, as Wonga tests out a 90-day loan, for a few months. It will only be offered to existing customers during this testing period, as Wonga looks for a positive response to the new loan.
The loans will be for the same rates as the current loans on offer, paying an interest rate of 0.8 per cent.
This is the first time Wonga has offered a longer loan since the announcement in April 2015 that the company had suffered a loss of £37m.
“We can confirm that we are planning to launch a pilot of a more flexible, three-month instalment loan to existing customers this week,” said a spokesperson for Wonga.
Wonga has also revealed it intends to reduce its UK workforce by half, with 325 jobs going.
“Wonga can no longer sustain its high cost base which must be significantly reduced to reflect our evolving business and market,” said Andy Haste, chairman of Wonga. “Regrettably, this means we’ve had to take tough but necessary decisions about the size of our workforce.”
