Money lending

MY friend's granddaughter got herself into a right old mess with this particular company, Gmajen. She's 19 and works part-time at McDonalds. She'd seen the advert, decided it was an easy way to get a few extra quid till she was paid again, phoned in to the company, and hey presto, was in debt over her ears within a couple of weeks. One day her mum was visiting me and had a call on her mobile by her panicking daughter, pleading with her mother to put money into her bank account before 12 noon, or she would be charged a massive amount of interest AGAIN!
These companies seem top prey on vulnerable people who, possibly through being unemployed, are at home in the daytime.

Have you read the interest rates in small print at the bottom of the screen on some of these adverts? It is something like 1750% !!! (I can't remember the exact figure).

Some are over 4,000% and I googled PayDay loans and found out that there have been many complaints about the way they harass people. I think I started a thread about this some time ago.

The company I work for have carried out mystery shopping on some of these companies (at clients requests, there is sometimes a misconception that we decide who and what to mystery shop) and found that some are not especially diligent about affordability assessments, and some are also not making it crystal clear about the interest rates.

I have recently provided a quote for mystery shopping for a company (not a pay day loan provider, but definitely aimed at the sub-prime market) that shows in their small print that if you borrow £1,000 and pay it back over 3 years, you will have repaid just over £1, 945.

I used to try to teach my remedial pupils about loans, morgages, bank accounts, benefits, renting, etc. Apart from being useful, it made maths come alive for them.

Greatnan that is good to hear, I think many younger people are just not aware of the implications of some finance products. So many high street stores are pitching store cards at the point of sale (i.e. if you take out a card today, you can get 10% off your purchase, etc). It is put forward as a money saving thing, but the reality is that some people end up using the store card without being completely aware of the debt they are racking up.

greenmossgiel It is the fact that these companies have begun to advertise openly that concerns me. They are specifically targetting older people by running their ads together with the stair lift and Lazyboy chair ads.They are hoping to legitimise the whole business. This represents a sea change in advertising standards.
PS I absolutely HATE the puppets too!-

phoenix I seem to remember when I was at school we where taught the basic's in compound interest and percentages etc,these are lessons that my DGCs are not taught now,the problem is that even though the youngsters that are fortunate to have employment they still do not understand how to budget and will not wait for that new phone/ipad/posh bag etc.
those puppets remind me of the muppets !!!

I also hate those adverts for Over-50 Life Insurance - in general these policies do not give good value for money (Martin Lewis gives all the facts). I am disappointed that people such as Julie Walters, Michael Parkinson and Gloria Hunniford are taking the money for promoting them. They surely don't need the money and I doubt very much if they have bought the policies themselves. Reminds me of the omnipresent Carole Vordemann advertising dodgy slimming products.

Cannot stand Gloria Hunniford and Carol Vordermann! I always want to turn the TV off when they come on -feel disappointed in the other two as well, because, as you say, there's not much likelihood of their like buying products such as these and it's only done for their own greed for money!

We seem to have money lending ads one minute - and then on line bingo the next! These ads seem to ask for trouble.