You may have seen the amusing TV ads, featuring a ginger masked crusader ready to save you with emergency cash. You may even be tempted to take out a small loan. First, lets take a look at the service and how it measures up to other loan providers.
Overview
What is Wallet Wizard
Wallet Wizard is a small loans provider. They offer credit from $500 to $5000, to be paid back over the course of a year. They are owned by Credit Corp, who are known as a debt buyer/collector, but are now branching out into offering their own credit services under the names Wallet Wizard, MoneyStart and CarStart.
Wallet Wizard's specialty is fast approvals for small amounts of money. In return for this, you can expect to pay a higher interest rate than you would for a traditional personal loan. You might even hear them called a payday loan.
What is a payday loan?
A payday loan is a small amount of money borrowed over a short time period. Recently ASIC (Australia's financial regulator) has taken steps to regulate payday loans, and many lenders have tried to distance themselves from the term.
This could easily become a very boring article to read, and that's not the point of this website! The short version is, the government has introduced these measures to stop lenders taking advantage of people. These include:
must not charge more than 48% interest
establishment fee must be 20% or less of the total loan
loan can not be for less than 15 days
penalty fees can not be more than twice the amount of the loan
That still leaves room for lenders to make a lot of money from small loans, and many payday loan providers charge fees that are right up against that line
Is Wallet Wizard a payday loan?
By definition, yes. They offer amounts under $2000 for terms of a year or less. Interestingly enough, their website doesn't make mention of a loan term, but does say that once you are approved you can continually access credit. This is a hallmark of the payday loan business model. They want you to stay in debt so they can keep you as a customer.
Who owns Wallet Wizard?
Wallet Wizard is owned by Credit Corp. We mentioned before that they are known as debt buyers. Let's just clarify what that means. Let's use an energy company as an example. We'll call them Energyplus.
Example
Energyplus has 10 clients owing a total of $1000 that have not paid in over a year. At this point they consider the debt unrecoverable and write it off it as an expense. In an attempt to recover some of the money, they sell the debt to Credit Corp for $250. Credit Corp then attempts to recover the full amount. In the process, they could potentially make $750 on the debt they just purchased.
Wallet Wizard is Credit Corp's foray into the lending space. As they have their own debt collection service, it makes sense for them to start lending their own money, as they will not have to purchase debt to recover.
How does Wallet Wizard work?
To apply for a Wallet Wizard Loan, you must provide some personal details and ID. As with most most lenders in the small loans and bad credit space, Wallet Wizard will want you to upload your bank statements. They will then assess your suitability for the loan based on that. They often advertise that they "don't care about your credit history" because by analysing your bank statements, they can get a good idea of whether you can afford the loan and whether you are paying your current creditors.
They will approve your for a certain credit limit based on their assessment of your bank statements. The cash is then deposited on your account to use as you see fit. As you pay back the money they have lent you, you become eligible to borrow more. While this may seem like a good thing, it does keep you coming back for another helping of debt!
One thing to note - Wallet Wizard is a continuous line of credit, meaning your account will not close until you ask them to close it.
Is Wallet Wizard safe?
As Wallet Wizard are owned by Credit Corp, they are experienced in dealing with sensitive information. While no online company is immune to data breaches, you shouldn't worry about uploading your bank statements or anything like that. Once they have your data though, they will be able to refresh your bank statements if you fail to make a payment. This means they have a foot in the door to look at your financial data pretty much whenever they please. So if you don't want them poking around your personal information, best not to get a loan from them.
Is Wallet Wizard trustworthy?
This is
not as easy as a simple yes or no. Once a small loan company has you as a customer, they want to keep you as a customer. As much as they claim to want to help you, keeping you in debt is in their best interest.
However
There are very stringent laws in Australia about how companies use your personal information, particularly in the financial sector. They must only use it for the purpose it was originally intended. So if you are worried they will breach that trust, there are big penalties in place to stop that kind of thing. The worst risk is if you fail to make your repayments and end up with big late fees and possible repossession.
Can I pay out a Wallet Wizard loan early?
Yes, Wallet Wizard allows you to pay off their loans early. Wallet Wizard sets up automatic direct debits to ensure that payments are made on time. However, if you wish you can make an extra payment at any time. You can pay out the loan early with no penalty, however it will not close the account automatically. You will need to request to close the account.
Can I have 2 Wallet Wizard loans?
No. Because Wallet Wizard is known what is known as "revolving credit" you can not have two at once. If you want to access extra money, you will need to pay some some of what you owe first. However, you do not have to have it all paid back before you get more.
Wallet Wizard interest rate
Wallet Wizard charge an interest rate of 47.8% per annum. This is pretty standard for a payday loan. What makes them better than other cash loan providers is they don't charge account keeping fees or establishment fees on top of that.
Wallet Wizard fees and charges
Wallet Wizard claims to be light on fees. These are the fees you can expect to pay if taking out a loan with them.
Interest rate: 47.9%
Late Fee: $10
Other than that, they seem pretty good compared to other payday loan providers. According to them, you can expect to pay about $140 interest on a $1500 loan over 6 months.
How long are Wallet Wizard loans?
This information is hard to find on their website, and that is because Wallet Wizard are a form of revolving credit. That's similar to asking "how long is a credit card?". The answer is - it depends. It depends on how much you borrow initially and how often you apply for more credit. Based on their repayment calculator though, it can be assumed that their standard term is 12 months.
Does Wallet Wizard do credit checks?
Yes, Wallet Wizard will check your credit. But they will probably lend to you anyway. Why? Because they charge high interest to make up for taking on more "risky" clients.
Does Wallet Wizard take security?
Wallet Wizard does not take security against your loan
Does Wallet Wizard lend to Centrelink clients?
Yes, but with conditions. They may want to see income from other sources or may approve you for a smaller amount.
Does Wallet Wizard affect your credit?
Yes. Any loan that you apply for will affect your credit score. Applying for a loan triggers a hard inquiry on your credit report. This will reduce your credit rating by a small amount - whether you are not successful in getting the loan or not. This effect is small and temporary. However, having a payday loan may affect your creditworthiness in the eyes of some lenders. Not sure what the difference is? Read this article for more info.
How long does Wallet Wizard take to approve?
Generally Wallet Wizard approves loans the same day. Their loan assessment is automated, but from time to time will require human intervention, which will take a little longer.
How long does it take to get money from Wallet Wizard?
Generally the loans are paid out in the same day, if you accept your contract before 2.30pm Sydney time. If not, you will get the cash the next day.
How do they compare to other loan providers?
Now we have covered a lot of the technical details, lets talk about how Wallet Wizard stacks up against other loans in the payday loan space. If you have bad credit or often find yourself short of cash, you may be familiar with names like Nimble, Jacaranda or even Cash Converters. The truth is, these loans are expensive and not worth your time. But sometimes you feel like you don't have a choice. If this is the case for you, Wallet Wizard charges a lot less fees than their competitors. However, they are still more expensive than a credit card.
The bottom line
If you have no other options and really feel like you need a payday loan, Wallet Wizard are not that bad. However, if you would like to get on top of your spending and your debt, there are many things you can do, starting with a good budget. Read this article for some tips and info to get started. It's never too late or too early to take control of your finances.
Good finances are the key to a better life. It may sound dramatic but it's true! There is no stress like money stress, so eliminating that can bring a great sense of relief. So get saving!