The Janplex Post

Wonga Advert Wonga, the leading payday loan lender in the UK, has been recently asked by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to pay £2.6 as compensation for sending fake solicitor letters to debtors.  The letters which were sent from non-existent law firms threatened defaulting customers with legal action unless they repay their loans immediately.  It is estimated that about 45,000 of Wonga customers were affected by this scam and would benefit from this compensation.  Opinion however is divided over whether the FCA has done the right thing for consumers by imposing this heavy fine on Wonga. Some people have wholeheartedly welcomed the position taken by the FCA against Wonga.  For them, threatening debtors with fake legal action as Wonga has done can have unintended consequences on the debtors.  The threat of legal action against debtors, for example, can lead many of them to be over worried about their debt and have sleepless nights.  It can al...

A private prescription charge in the UK is funded by the patient rather than the National Health Service (NHS).    There is no fixed price a GP can charge for this prescription.   It is up to a GP to determine how much he or she considers reasonable for prescribing medication privately.   While many GP’s are reasonable when making such a private prescription some GP’s are not reasonable.   These GP’s can charge their patients for private prescription more than what the drug may cost the patients.   I realised this when I attempted to get a private prescription for Malarone from my GP.   Malarone is a drug for preventing malaria associated with mosquito bites in areas such as Africa.   The GP surgery asked me to pay £20 to get the prescription for this drug.   I refused to make this payment because I considered it too high. I went to a supermarket to purchase the drug instead.   At the supermarket I paid £15 for 15 Malarone tabl...