Hopefully anyway...ironic that a company that shamefully exploits people with money problems, charging up to 5,380% interest now has money problems itself and is at risk of folding The sooner that bunch of moneygrubbing scummy thieves are put under the better. And all the other similar loan sharks masquerading as caring providers of solutions to debts The government should encourage credit unions to provide the help people need, not allow these shysters to flourish, when you're drowning in debt all these companies do is throw you a lead float
The government should really be encouraging the teaching of money management before encouraging any type of borrowing
Dunno - probably best these companies exist legally under *very* strict rules, as pay-day lenders of one kind or another will always be around I'm sorry to say. Better this than loan-sharks operating outside of the law.
I take a keen interest in this kind of thing, as I had a tough time from the end of the recession which left me in a fair bit of debt, and ruined my credit score. Thankfully I'm quite savvy with money and have steered myself to calmer waters. I still have debt, but it's all been shifted to 0% and low interest products. One of the reasons these high interest pay day and guarantor loans are so popular is that many people aren't sufficiently educated about basic finance, and some just borrow with no thought to how they'll meet their repayments. Speaking of Wonga, I was once waiting to get paid off a customer and applied for a small loan from them to tide me over. It would have actually been cheaper than going overdrawn at the bank. They knocked me back! I don't think they like customers that can meet repayments because they make their money in late payment fines and interest. Problem with that is if too don't make their payments they are struggling, as they are now finding. All about risk.
Have to say, it's not just these sub prime lenders that have your pants down. HSBC were great when my business was doing well. They absolutely hammered me when I started struggling. I was paying £70+ monthly overdraft fees and when I took out a loan to pay off the overdraft it was at 15% Apr. They were basically making money from my struggle.
Its a good point, I am old now but still remember me mam saying "neither borrow nor lend...either one will get thee in bother" These days its too easy to "get summat off catalogue" or store card or any one of hundreds of ways to get you into debt. Why do people do it? Low wages, keeping up with the Jones's, your kids need the same £100 trainers as their mates, massive pressures to "conform" Ask yourself this Would your kids wear trainers from Aldi? It's huge marketing pressures that lead people into this situation "Only £10 a week" etc, and as said the people don't realise what agreement they're entering into. And don't get me started on Online Bingo, Betting etc
My little one revels in the fact we bought her Nonverse rather than converse. I agree with pretty much everything you wrote though.
They did when I was at school. NotHing special but essentially don’t spend more than what comes in. Since then we’ve developed as consumers from savings and living within your means to a credit heavy and not very savvy nation when it comes down to the bare bones. They need to introduce compulsory education across the entire financial spectrum including how to understand Aprs, Hp agreements, Lease, service and personal contract hires as examples. I wonder how many folk with their new shiny iPhone realise they have two contracts. One for the airtime and a Hp agreement for the phone...
Indeed, it is ironic. I work for StepChange Debt Charity as a debt advisor so this is literally what I see and deal with every day. There really isn't any need for payday loans at all that I can see. It's highly unlikely that the need for money before payday is so urgent that whatever it is can't wait unless you're struggling all the time already, either budgeting or with debt, in which case you need some advice from somewhere like ourselves. My argument is that if say you can't manage in August, and you take a payday loan out, how can you pay your usual expenses PLUS the payday loan back next month? The answer in tens if not hundreds of thousands of cases is, that the person can't. If you're on the breadline every month, there's no way to be able to pay them back without borrowing again. If you do have spare money every month, then when something like a car repair or whatever happens, you'd have some money in the bank. In a nutshell.
On the point of financial education, I couldn't agree more, it's essential. It's something that I've suggested at work that as soon as possible we try and help with; maybe sending people into universities and schools and so on.