247Moneybox

247Moneybox.com
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Founder(s) Nicholas Mordin, Mark Hannay
Products Payday Loans
Revenue £8.9m (As of 2013)
Employees 44 (As of 2013)
Website https://www.247moneybox.com
Available in English
Launched 2009

247Moneybox.com is a trading name of Active Securities Limited, an online payday loan company based in London, United Kingdom. The firm is one of the leading online payday lenders in the UK according to the consumer group Which?.[1] The firm became fully authorised by the FCA in February 2016.[2][3]

History

247Moneybox was established in 2009 by Nicholas Mordin, the current CEO and Mark Hannay, the current COO, as a UK consumer credit business.[4] The firm is based in central London and launched its first website in April 2009. The firm has been a member of the industry trade body the BCCA since 2009 and a board member since May 2013.

Services


The company provides cash loans for short-term money needs, at 0.8% in interest per day, an Annual percentage rate (APR) of 1309.2%.[5] The firm along with other commentators believe that the APR is misleading when applied to short-term loans.[6]

Criticism

Prior to the introduction of the price cap in January 2015, 247Moneybox.com were charging a headline APR of 5,500 %.[7] Critics of the industry believe the high APR targets the vulnerable, however the firm rejects this.[7] The firm attracted further controversy when a woman was unable to repay her loan from the company and took to sleeping in her car. She had used payday loans including an £80 pound loan from 247Moneybox.com to try to keep her and her husband afloat and meet their rent. Despite borrowing £180 from two payday loan firms they were unable to avoid eviction from their rental property and took to sleeping in their Ford Focus.[8]

Debt Collection Practices

In May 2013, the firm was also listed as one of the creditors to a man who killed himself over his debts by setting himself on fire. Antony Breeze, 36, from Bolton, told a horrified witness as the flames engulfed him: “I’ve had enough”. In July 2014 the FCA introduced a range of measures to correct failures in debt collection practices in the payday loan industry such as capping the number of times a loan can be rolled over to 2 and risk warnings on adverts.[9]

Penalty Fees

In January 2014 247Moneybox.com along with other payday lenders was accused by the consumer group Which? of using “excessive” default fees to cut their headline rates of interest.[10] Which? Found that “Ten of 17 leading payday lenders we looked at have default fees of £20 or more, and four charged £25 and above”. Since January 2015 the FCA have capped default fees that can be charged for a missed payment to £15 and that the total amount a borrower has to repay cannot exceed 100% of the amount borrowed, inclusive of all fees and interest.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hannayfirst1=Mark. "Which? calls on payday lenders to cut high fees". Which?. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  2. 1 2 Wheatley, Martin. "FCA confirms price cap rules for payday lenders". FCA. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  3. ↑ https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_FirmDetailsPage?id=001b000000kh3waAAA
  4. ↑ Securities, Active. "2013 The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100". FastTrack. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  5. ↑ Nicholas, Mordin. "247MoneyBox". 247MoneyBox. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  6. ↑ Lewis, Martin. "Should we worry more about 10% interest than 2000% APR loans?". Money Saving Expert. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  7. 1 2 Marshall, Tom. "Islington Council pledges to crack down on 'pay day loans'". Islington Gazette. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  8. ↑ Hull, Liz. "Couple who fell victim to payday loans forced to live in their Ford Focus - and celebrate wedding anniversary with a Twix". DailyMail. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  9. ↑ Straus, Rachael. "Payday lenders face cap on rollovers and compulsory affordability checks in 'biggest overhaul of the consumer". ThisMoney. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  10. ↑ Hannayfirst1=Mark. "Which? calls on payday lenders to cut high fees". Which?. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
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