I'm shocked this is allowed to be aired.

@eloethan considering in modern day that both parents often have to work, have to be perfect parents with social services called if you even look at your child the wrong way and have very little time for family life I don’t think a washing machine is a luxury. Maybe when mum stayed at home all day and didn’t have a job she’d have time to do washing but not with modern working needs.
Not to mention houses these days are very small and no real room for handwashing clothes.
A TV is a luxury. But not a washing machine. Goodness...get with modern times.

It’s extortion!! Taking advantage of people. They’d be better with Very/Littlewoods catalogue or an Argos card. Brighthouse are the absolute pits!

Yes you have to be VERY organised for it to work out 0%, they count on people not keeping track of it and getting quietly switched over to the high rate.

I use them when it makes sense to leave savings where they are but I am quite anal about finances, I wouldnt recommend it otherwise

I remember when we nearly got caught out with that notanan, when we were buying our first pc at supposedly 0%. It was being paid by direct debit and we forgot about the large final payment until nearly too late.
We would have had to pay quite a swingeing interest rate on the whole lot.

Sometimes there was even 'interest free credit'. Presumably the cost of the goods was a bit more to cover that, but it wasn't extortion.

I sometimes use that. Makes sense if your savings are earning a good rate.

The goods dont cost more BUT if you default or take longer to pay then the interest rate goes sky high. You have to be sure you have pay it off within the 0% time frame.
AND crucially, you have to have a good credit rating to get a good 0%, so once again the worse off get the higher % and get stuck in a viscous cycle

I agree, it's disgraceful. A washing machine and a TV these days is seen as the norm, not a luxury. I'm fed up with people who are no doubt quite comfortably off themselves telling those who have very little that they should go without. Maybe you did go without when you were younger - so did we - but I would not wish it on anyone else.

The majority of children who grow up in poor homes do not turn to crime.
A minority of those who grow up with every advantage do turn to crime.
How has a discussion about the morality of firms like Brighthouse turned to a discussion about crime?

It started out by the OP being astonished at the price having to be paid for goods by those who have the least.

I asked why that advert is allowed when Iceland's advert about palm oil and the orangutan has been banned.
Which one is the immoral advert?

What do you think the adults who prey on these kids offer them?
muffin Yes, I agree. I asked way up thread if the advert is on when children can see it and use 'pester power' to make their parents feel they must have one.
I also said that I didn't disagree with HP at a reasonable rate of interest which is a way of acquiring goods you wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. Sometimes there was even 'interest free credit'. Presumably the cost of the goods was a bit more to cover that, but it wasn't extortion.

Those who are able to get a credit card may also be paying over the odds if they can only pay off the minimum each month.

Or any other emotion, come to that.

Or an Xbox..

.......or comon sense.

Hopeless,you can't make somebody have empathy.

It’s just a bit more subtle then that lemon so maybe hard to grasp. Thanks for heads up about African poverty - silly me hadn’t realised that <must try harder>

What do criminal youths/acid wielding thugs have to do with it?
The connection that some posters seem to be making between growing up in poorer households ( and we are not talking about Africa type poverty either, but wanting XBoxes!) and becoming vicious thugs and criminals because of it is jaw dropping.

What a bloody awful thing to say lemon about the four yorkshiremen - there have been some thoughtful and moving posts on here and I do wonder why you feel the need to be so dismissive? And you can’t see the link beteesome of the broader issues on here and the issue behind criminal youths? Quelle surprise

This thread is in imminent danger of falling into The Four Yorkshiremen sketch from Monty Python.

We can’t discuss other threads, but the moped one is hardly the same.

GabriellaG. When I compared you to Esther McVey it was not a compliment.

There is a crossover to some extent from this thread to the one about the mopeds. Issues about life chances, opportunities , luck, supportive services for children and families - services of all kinds. And what is the reality?

Whatever TM and PH says austerity is not over. The whole range of public services are deprived of sufficient resources to in many cases do more than provide the basic mandatory minimum.

Universal credit is failing many many people, work capability tests and PIP reviews result in more people being thrown into financial misery. The latest story on taking carers to court on charges of fraud when often the mistakes were the result of DWP error almost produced a shrug of the shoulders and an ‘of course they would response

We are lied to about employment figures when the definition is working 1 hour a week or more and transport and child care costs make working on the minimum wage just about impossible.

And what are our politicians concerned with - the self inflicted puss filled sore that is Brexit and whichever way that pans out, will hit the poorest parts of the country hardest.

Meanwhile back st a certain luxury hotel .....

In my kids primary it was the kids of the poorest parents who had the biggest santa hauls. And thinking of those individual families I can understand. When your child has had multiple hospital admissions because they cant breath due to living in a damp flat with hardly any windows... giving them a "perfect" Christmas has heightened importance.

I was able to give my kids a happy stable home and say yes to hobbies and trips year round so Christmases in my house were sensible. No lists as long as your arm, one request & one surprise.

You know how there’s the occasional thread here about the kids running the county lines, or falling in with older gangs, or being groomed by older “boyfriends”?

What do you think the adults who prey on these kids offer them?

The very things mum can’t afford. “I can’t afford an Xbox/brand name coat/new Nikes/good phone/a fiver for you to hang out at the chicken shop with the other kids”

When you’re a kid, these things are everything, because these are the ways you fit in with the other kids. These are the things that make you normal. Kids are shamed by being different. We forget this when we grow up, but we shouldn’t: the burning need to fit in is so important to kids.

So this is how they end up falling victim to a guy who just wants them to “do a few deliveries”, or pass his name around at school as a guy who can hook you up with some gear, or just “go for a drink” with him, or “just be nice to his friends”.

And mums whose kids are growing up on the bones of their A know this. And then end up at BrightHouse paying eight hundred quid for an Xbox because at least when Jayden’s playing the Xbox, she knows where he is and who he’s with.

A lot of people have no idea of arithmetic and don't realise how much they are being ripped off.
Some don't care anyway, as long as they can afford £x per week.

I agree, notanan2, struggling on very little money can make it difficult or impossible to be sensible as some PPs here expect.
(Especially if that money is courtesy of the DWP, whose whole existence is about demeaning people and making them insecure.)

When you dont have the basics then the luxuries can look so much more desirable/appealing.

Thats why often properly rich/aristocratic sorts dress the scruffiest, and people scraping by make more of an effort to look respectable

I can afford to save for luxuries in my locked away 3 withdrawls a year & nice rate account because my emergency instant access crisis account is topped up AND I'm also well insured against numerous crises.

In other words, I can afford to save

Without a spin dryer washing starts to smell before its dried properly, particularly if you have huge loads at once.
Being poor isn't just about lack of money, its about lack of hope, lack of resources, lack of 'get up and go' because it got up and went.
Its the relentless bills coming in, which have no chance of being paid, and which are added to in costs for non payment, so less chance to ever get straight.
Its chaotic to live like that, and very depressing.
Not the same as nipping off in the car to pick up second-hand sofa, or finding someone to take you to even look at someone else's old cooker.

Coming back to it taking money to be frugle:
Just look at savings rates!!
If you are poor and can only put away a few quid every other month you wont even get 1%. No wonder it feels hopeless and pointless.

If you can afford to lock away your money in a low access account (which you can only do if you also have another instant access emergency account) or commit to saving hundreds a month every month... then savings rates pay off and are appealing, and certainly beat thr temptations of credit