Wonga, the largest payday loans company in the UK, double-charged 7,000 of its customers last Friday.
Customers who had taken out Flexi loans – loans which need paying off over three months, in three instalments – with the company were affected, and Wonga has said that it refunded the money on the same day, although it may take several days to reach their bank accounts.
The lender has said that the extra payments were taken due to an internal system error, and guaranteed that any extra charges or costs that were incurred by its customers as a result would also be refunded.
BBC News spoke to one of the customers who was overcharged by mistake. He revealed he had an extra £574 taken from his bank account by Wonga, and then spent six hours on hold to the payday loans company during the weekend, as well as a further three hours this morning.
As a result of being overcharged, the customer’s mortgage payment bounced, and he was unable to pay for things such as petrol or groceries at the weekend.
Back in May, Wonga revealed its losses had doubled in 2015, following tougher industry regulations. Despite reporting pre-tax losses of £80.2m, the company remains the largest lender in the UK.
