I’ve Been Away For a While…
Something strange happened to WordPress, and it’s taken me a while to get it sorted out, so I do apologise for the protracted absence here.
Bad Me. Sorry.
I will admit that life has been more than a little mad in the last few months anyway – after a rather convoluted house sale, we finally exchanged and moved out of our cottage in September 2009. It was a huge relief, and we are lucky to have sold to wonderful people who have turned into good friends. The fly in the ointment is that due to a complicated set of hold ups, our new house was not ready to move into as we had hoped.
Oh dear.
So we are in rented accommodation again with minimal belongings, and getting very used to the phrase, “I think it’s in a box somewhere…”
I’ll cover the problems that all of this uncertainty brings to finances in another post, but right now I’m in shock at something I’ve just seen on the TV.
I’ve always been fascinated by the kind of adverts that screen during daytime TV. When I started this blog it was all Carol Vorderman and ‘consolidation loans’. Nowadays there seems to be a veritable rash of “Sell My Gold”-type things, whereby you are exhorted to stick your jewellery into an envelope and send it through the post to a company who will make up a price and send you a cheque.
I was a little disturbed to stand behind someone in my local Post Office who was enquiring about this service. Our Postmaster refused to take the package and said that there had been so many thefts of these packages that he didn’t feel safe handling them anymore.
*Ulp*
But I just saw the WORST deal ever, and aimed at the most vulnerable people.
I recommend you check out http://www.wonga.co.uk just so that you can tell everyone you know not to touch it with a bargepole. The tv advert I saw featured a man desperate to borrow £70, whom the bank had laughed at. But no problem, just contact wonga.co.uk, and they will lend you up to £1K at the bargain APR of 2689%. If you don’t believe me, then go look at their homepage, it’s right there at the bottom, and that’s just the *typical* APR. It could go higher, no doubt…
Did you catch that?
2689% APR
I don’t think I need to say anything else, do I? I don’t need to say anything about preying on vulnerable sectors of society, loan-sharking or the sheer brutality of those figures.
I think I need a cup of tea. And I think I need to look at an article about other ways to earn £70…
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Comment by Jessica
I just love the cartoon on the annualisation of things like taxi rides to justify the huge APR. That is completely and totally immoral. It’s a pity it’s not illegal too. The sad thing is, there will be people so desperate that they use the service, forgetting that if they don’t have £x today, they are not likely to have £x+y next week to pay it back.
Comment by Dave Bell
It looks as though they should be registered with the Financial Services Authority–”instruments creating or acknowledging indebtedness” seems to relevant category–but I’m not sure that the FSA would regard these interest rates as illegal. Further digging suggests that the OFT has responsibility.
OFT on Loan Sharks
If this outfit is smart enough to buy TV advertising, it would be odd to go for this sort of illegality. They’re putting their head way above the parapet. But I have an ugly feeling that none of the system of regulation stops lenders registering and charging these ultra-high interest rates.
Comment by Mike
It’s worth noting that it’s still cheaper than going £1 past your overdraft limit to a bank that charges £30 if you do. Which is equally scary.
Comment by otherdeb
Sadly, I’m not shocked. This is just the telly version of an Internet payday loan, which scam my roommate got caught by a couple of years ago. The sad thing is that it’s the beginning of a hellacious spiral…you take the first one, can;t pay it back, take another one to pay that one, at an equally bad (if not worse interest rate), then a third to pay the second, etc.
And if you are a minute and a half late on the payment, they do report you to the credit monitoring services. It took Sue a good couple of years to get the mess under control and even begin to dig herself out.
Comment by Carol
How horrible it must be to be in a position where this actually sounded like a viable option!
Thanks so much, Annie, for “sorting out” things with WordPress. It’s great to be reading here again!