Well there are only a few hours left of 2008 and we’re heading into 2009 on a high. The lovely folks at Red Herring have just informed us that Wonga has made it into their prestigious Global 200 roll of honour. We already appeared in their top 100 tech companies across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, so now we’ve been shortlisted for the top 100 in the whole wide world!

The accolade is deserved recognition for everyone in the team and caps a fantastic year for Wonga. We’ve been working hard to keep improving the UK’s only 24/7, super-fast cash advance service and have helped thousands of happy customers during our first full year of operation.

Have a great night if you’re celebrating later and a happy new year to all our customers! We look forward to being of service in 2009.

Our founder and CEO was recently caught on camera at Le Web in Paris - a huge European technology and internet event. Check out the video, in which he talks about Wonga and also our partnership with Kiva. Not one to slump in front of the telly, he’s due to climb Mount Kilimanjaro next week. So good luck from everyone at Wonga and don’t look down!

An article in the Times this week about personal loans highlights how banks and other lenders seem to be fighting to offer the worst loan deals at the moment - in a potential bid to curb demand. Despite gargantuan cuts in the base rate recently, a cheap loan is becoming harder to find than a new Christmas number one for Cliff. Here’s an extract:

The cheapest loan available is now 8.2 per cent – that is more than four times the base rate at 2 per cent. Experts say that providers may actually be trying to price themselves out of the market as the availability of credit continues to be squeezed.

Several providers have increased personal loan rates in the past four weeks – including Barclaycard by 2 per cent, Sainsbury’s Finance by 1 per cent, and Britannia building society and Lombard Direct by 0.5 per cent.

At the same time cheap bank loans are vanishing, the number of lenders who are willing to help out is also shrinking:

Lending on personal loans dropped by 26 per cent in October in comparison to the same month last year, according to uSwitch.com. Whilst six months ago borrowers could get rates of 7 per cent or less, all of these deals have now disappeared. Moneyback Bank, which consistently offered loans as low as 5.5 per cent over the past two years, has closed for new business completely.

Last year almost 1.3 million people took out an unsecured personal loan to consolidate debts – but with interest rates rising and credit being harder to obtain, less borrowers will have that option.

If you’re having trouble finding a cheap loan, or any loan at all, now might be the perfect time to try a short-term Wonga cash advance. You will need to pass our online credit check but, unlike the banks, we lend cash to tide you over for up to 30 days, so we’re not looking to predict your reliability over several years. You also won’t be left making repayments for years either of course!

While plenty of people will be looking forward to Christmas, this year will no doubt be a stretching one for many. And with financial strain usually comes stress.

It’s an expensive time of year and the pressure to ‘buy’ yourself a happy Christmas can be intense. Whether it’s your desire to buy the right presents, to cook up a festive feast for the in-laws or just afford the basics like Christmas cards, it can be a worrying (as well as wonderful) time.

So with the Credit Crunch all over the media like an unsightly rash, it’s no surprise there’s a mountain of money saving tips out there right now. Try searching for ‘money saving Christmas’ and you’ll get over 1.3 million results. Thankfully you can always count on Wonga to keep things simple!

We’ve trawled cyberspace for you and sorted the wise from the wacky. Here are our favourite five tips to have yourself a merry little Christmas on a budget.

1. Set yourself a realistic limit on everything from presents to food and stick to it. Most overspending occurs when you’re not thinking, stressed and get lured into an impulse purchase. So make sure you write down your limits and make it a challenge to beat them.

2. It’s easy to borrow in haste and repent at leisure, so make sure you consider any credit very carefully before committing. Loans and credit cards can seem appealing at times of financial stress, but they don’t mean an end to your cash worries, they merely delay them until the new year. A Wonga loan is a short term loan designed for short term cash flow problems. That means you won’t be left making repayments come next summer, but you should still consider whether you could really do without the cash before applying.   

3. Don’t succumb to unspoken pressure to have the perfect Christmas. For example, if you’ve been giving and receiving presents of a certain value with your family for years, don’t assume it has to be so this year. Discuss more sensible budgets or even the idea of a ‘Secret Santa’ gift approach, where you all spend £5 on one person and have a bit of fun. You might find everyone’s relieved at the idea of spending less this year. And it wasn’t so long ago that the season of goodwill didn’t entail spending a small fortune on pressies!

4. Entertainment needn’t cost and arm and a leg either. Classic TV and walking the excess grub off are both part of Christmas tradition, so don’t feel you have to be in a pub, restaurant or cinema to enjoy yourself. Get back to basics and enjoy just being with friends or family. Knowing you’re saving cash should help you relax too.

5. Finally, let’s cheat! Here are a few thrifty suggestions rolled into one… Send eCards for one year, tart up cheap brown wrapping paper with a roll of ribbon, buy new decorations after Christmas for 75% savings, spend any reward points you’ve earned this year and check out low-cost gift guides like this one from the Guardian. Oh, and shop around for the best price on EVERYTHING - retailers are struggling too.

Our CEO has received major recognition from the European Business Awards this week. He’s a recipient of a Ruban D’Honneaur (loosely translated as a ribbon of honour) and has been shortlisted for the RSM International Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

He’ll have to present to a multi-national panel of judges in January and will hear their decision at an impressive sounding ceremony in Rome next spring. As their site explains:

Entrepreneurship, particularly for the European economy, is a key source of jobs, business dynamism and innovation. The people in this category show incredible verve, flair, tenacity and aplomb in business. They come from a variety of industries, backgrounds and countries. Whether they are running a technology company, a recruitment firm or a marketing enterprise – one thing makes them stand out from the crowd – the will to succeed.

We regularly hear from Wonga customers with stories about unexpected bank and credit card penalty fees. It’s an issue that’s been widely covered in the media and there are loads of websites now set-up to help consumers reclaim questionable charges from the likes of Barclays.

So this won’t be the first blog to offer views on much maligned overdraft fees, but we’ve recently heard from several people who’ve had a lot to say about Barclays Personal Reserve. So we checked it out for ourselves and had to laugh at this thinly veiled attempt to replace unauthorised overdraft fees with… Personal Reserve fees! 

So what is a Personal Reserve? Well you’re welcome to check out the Barclays site for yourself, but we’d suggest it’s a new name for describing a double overdraft. You see Barclays kindly gave their customers a Personal Reserve earlier this year (you have to opt out, much like Gordon Brown’s recent donor card proposals). It’s essentially an additional “buffer” overdraft that sits on top of your existing overdraft facility. It’s also a potential cash cow for Barclays - you’re not supposed to use it regularly of course, but we rather suspect they’d like it if you did. 

True, the previous unauthorised overdraft fee of £35 was done away with, but a Personal Reserve fee of £22 is payable every five working days you’re using it, even if you’re just a few quid overspent! Compare that to taking a short-term Wonga loan for five days, which will cost you £10.70 - less than half the cost. And we don’t ‘assume’ you’ll want one either. Worse still, imagine going £100 into your Personal Reserve for five consecutive 5-day periods (the maximum allowed) - you’d be charged £110 for the pleasure!

There’s a distinct possibility that banks will be forced to scrap their huge fees for unauthorised overdrafts, so this was most likely a pre-emptive move by Barclays. That might sound like good news for consumers, but the reality is that banks are unstoppable money making machines and, as tough as recent times have been for them, they will always find new ways to generate revenue.

There’s nothing surprising or wrong about that of course - they are businesses after all - but when it becomes harder to generate cash from consumers, transparency is often the first casualty. And there wasn’t too much of that about in the first place! If overdraft fees do bite the dust at any point soon, you can bet that new, potentially even more stealthy ways will be found to make up for the lost income.  

So full marks to Barclays for creativity and proactivity, but bear in mind that at the same time they decided all their customers deserved a Personal Reserve, they scrapped interest paid on positive balances in personal accounts and raised the interest charged on standard overdrafts. It seems a case of ‘giving’ with one hand while taking with the other.

We’re chuffed to have made an appearance on The Sun’s extremely popular website today. They’ve written about Brits seeking short-term credit options during these uncertain times. You can read the article here.

Today we thought we’d do something a bit different and offer our views on a new gadget, rather than the world of finance and loans. It occurred to us that we have some of the finest minds in technology working for Wonga, so when one of the team started a passionate oratory on the new Blackberry Storm, we thought, heh, why not let him proffer his expert views to a wider audience! So please welcome our first guest blogger - take it away Trev!

After much anticipation, I finally got my hands on a shiny new BB Storm…

1. On first glance it was sleek and sexy
2. Setup is easy
3. The device is slow and the interface is not as slick as I was expecting
4. The tactile screen does offer a nice feel and improves on the Apple iPhone’s touch screen, but the speed and response moving between menu items is slow and sometimes cumbersome
5. The screen quality is, in my opinion, better than the iPhone and the demo movie trailer shows the bright high definition colours well
6. Sound is also very good
7. There is NO wi-fi on the Storm!!! Which is a real shame as it means browsing the web in 3G mode when available. It’s painfully slow. In fact there’s no point in using the web at these speeds
8. The built-in browser doesn’t support most websites that have any complicated java scripts, flash etc… So it’s not really good for much surfing
9. The Storm is very heavy, not something you want to carry around in your pocket. But then most crackberry users will have it in their hands all day long, so it may not matter
10. I think you will also see many broken screens, as the device is not easily used with one hand and many may find the floor by accident
11. The battery life seems OK if you just use it for email. I didn’t play with it for more than a few hours though, so I can’t say how long it will last for
12. Why oh why did BB change the charger interface? Old Blackberry chargers don’t work on the Storm, so this means borrowing power from colleagues in the office with older models will not work!

Given a choice between the Storm and the iPhone, I would have to go with the iPhone. Even though the Storm’s keyboard interface is faster and more intuitive. The iPhone has a better browser interface and many more applications. It’s also lighter, sleeker and more sexy to behold. The iPhone is fast and responsive whereas the Storm feels sluggish.

Having used the Blackberry Curve for over a year now I think they should stick to what they know best and that’s email on a simple device that can be navigated with one hand. Upgrading to the Bold would be a better choice for business users. Given my current situation and the ability to upgrade for free to the new Storm or iPhone, I have decided against any upgrades and will be more than happy to keep using my existing BB Curve.

The world is going Wonga crazy. Last month we told you about the good ship Wonga Wonga, a fine Australian steamer from the 1800s with which we’re proud to share our name. And continuing the Aussie theme, we’ve also learnt about the Wonga Wetlands project. The Wonga Wetlands provide fantastic habitat for wildfowl and other animals down under. The organisation also works to preserve vital wetlands around the globe. 

But the Wonga family doesn’t end there… We’ve also gone all Bill Oddie and discovered the Wonga Wonga pigeon! It inhabits, yep you’ve guessed it, Eastern Australia. We’re sure you’ll agree it’s a mighty fine bird! They are apparently quite rare, so once you’ve heard the shrill coo and finally added the Wonga Wonga pigeon to your twitcher’s book, you might want to celebrate with a trip to Wonga beach!

On a less sunny note, there’s also the infamous Wonga Coup - a group of mercenaries (including a hapless Mark Thatcher) accused of plotting to overthrow an African dictator in 2004.  

What’s next? Perhaps we’ll have a rash of babies named Wonga or discover more long lost relatives in Oz. Be sure to tell us if you know of another Wonga namesake we’re missing. And remember there’s only one Wonga.com! We’re here to help with short-term cash flow problems and can deposit up to £200 in your account within minutes. If you could do with a fast cash advance, click here to apply now.

Only a Wonga cash advance is a truly fast loan. ‘Well you would say that’ we hear you cry! But it pays to understand the difference between Wonga and other pretenders to the fast loan throne.

Wonga is not the only website claiming to offer people fast loans at the moment, but sometimes claims can be deceptive. We like to keep abreast of what’s going on outside of Wonga Towers and we like to know what kind of competition we’re up against. So we regularly try out some of the other websites for ourselves and it’s amazing how often boasts about ’same day loans’, ‘loans within an hour’ and ‘instant loans’ turn out to be pie in the sky!

Indeed, there have been occasions when our testers have been waiting for several days for a loan they applied for online - about as much use as a chocolate tea pot if they had genuinely been in need of emergency cash for an unforeseen expense.

So next time you want to tackle an urgent cash flow problem with a fast, short-term loan, trust Wonga to deliver. We’ve talked about some of the other reasons we’re different on this blog before, but speed is undoubtably our main strength if you need urgent funds. We’re the Usain Bolt of the consumer credit world and we’re here to help you in a flash for those ‘Wonga moments‘ when time is everything. If your application is approved we’ll deposit the cash within an hour (usually minutes), no matter who you bank with, what time it is, or what day it is. Now that’s a fast loan! As for the others, don’t always believe the hype!