TfL Free Travel To Be Provided By Wonga.com - Get a Loan at 2689% APR

TfL have accepted Wonga.com as sponsors of free travel on New Year's Eve.

Wonga is a 'pay day loan' company with a typical APR of 2689%. If you were to borrow a fiver from them for one day - enough to cover a single journey on the tube, you'd owe them £10.60.

For many Londoner's, these loans may seem to be the only way to access funds, more so as decent jobs are cut and employee rights eroded following the ConDem goverments and bosses attacks on working class people - as can be seen at LU where 800 positions will be cut.

There are now several critics of the sponsorship deal, which unlike in previous years wasn't announced by TfL.

Ken Livingstone says "It's hard to think of a clearer demonstration of the values of today's Tory party than Boris Johnson's decision to sell primetime advertising space on London's buses and tubes to a loan company known for charging 2689% APR."

Whilst Dave Hill reports on the story with a blog titled "'Legal loan sharks' sponsoring free New Year's Eve travel under Boris Johnson's TfL"

In an interview with James O'Brien for LBC radio, Mayor Boris Johnson says "they are legitimate outfit and they are licensed to trade in this city, and if they want to sponsor, reduce cost of travel in London then that seems to me to be something that is perfectly acceptable"; before somewhat confusingly stating "But what I would say and I would stress this, people should be aware of the extortionate rates of interest that they can charge."

There is however an alternative to such loan companies - credit unions; the RMT runs one itself.

There's more on this story from blogger Adam Bienkov who first revealed the Wonga deal.