Loan Sharks/Excessive Interest

TubbytheTuba

Can anyone offer advice please. A family member has foolishly taken a loan and secured it against her car. This, I have just found out has been going on since July last year and the lender is claiming exorbitant interest payments. Unfortuneately I am unable to assist at this time and I am just interested to see what avenues there are to try and sort this ungodly mess out. When asked for a settlement fee the lender seems to just make up a number and virtually double it. Obviously sleep is being lost and any useful guidance would be much appreciated. I should say as well that I am not for one second saying anyone should renege upon commitments.

saulhudson

Really sympathise fella, my wife has just done the very same thing, and it is putting huge strain on our marriage?

No easy answer I'm afraid, the company my wife was tied up in, (The infamous Logbook loans) whilst willing to add no more interest to her debt (Providing she paid the balance in seven days!) also were not receptive to any kind of reduction in payments.

After much deliberation I have paid of the debt on my credit card and she is now at least able to keep her car...and in turn her job, and is now paying ME back instead of those legalised loan sharks.

I believe a government minister was looking into shutting companies like these down, and myself I think they bloody well should be, or at the very least heavily policed and controlled by legislation to stop exorbitant interest rates and heavy handed bullying tactics.

These companies and others like them that are now basically trading on misery through desperate and vulnerable people (Like my wife, who admits and is now seeking help for her apparent 'addiction' to cash in hand at whatever cost...even though she has no need for it.) should be bloody shut down or regulated properly there are far too many people being ripped off by these leeches!

And PLEASE don't some sanctimonious !!!!! offer the usual bollox of ''They offer a service bla bla bla, the rates are clearly advertised etc etc'' thye are trading on human bloody misery and desperation in a world recession nothing more nothing less if I could launch something to get these vultures shut down I bloody well would, I have witnessed first hand what it does to families, and whilst my wife is now seeking help with my support, millions more out there won't be.

[Deleted User]

saulhudson wrote: »

Really sympathise fella, my wife has just done the very same thing, and it is putting huge strain on our marriage?

No easy answer I'm afraid, the company my wife was tied up in, (The infamous Logbook loans) whilst willing to add no more interest to her debt (Providing she paid the balance in seven days!) also were not receptive to any kind of reduction in payments.

After much deliberation I have paid of the debt on my credit card and she is now at least able to keep her car...and in turn her job, and is now paying ME back instead of those legalised loan sharks.

I believe a government minister was looking into shutting companies like these down, and myself I think they bloody well should be, or at the very least heavily policed and controlled by legislation to stop exorbitant interest rates and heavy handed bullying tactics.

These companies and others like them that are now basically trading on misery through desperate and vulnerable people (Like my wife, who admits and is now seeking help for her apparent 'addiction' to cash in hand at whatever cost...even though she has no need for it.) should be bloody shut down or regulated properly there are far too many people being ripped off by these leeches!

And PLEASE don't some sanctimonious !!!!! offer the usual bollox of ''They offer a service bla bla bla, the rates are clearly advertised etc etc'' thye are trading on human bloody misery and desperation in a world recession nothing more nothing less if I could launch something to get these vultures shut down I bloody well would, I have witnessed first hand what it does to families, and whilst my wife is now seeking help with my support, millions more out there won't be.

Just one question if you can help your wife now by paying off the debt on your cc,why didnt you lend her the money in the first place?

saulhudson

woodbine wrote: »

Just one question if you can help your wife now by paying off the debt on your cc,why didnt you lend her the money in the first place?

A: because she doesn't ask, B: because she runs these damn things up for no apparent reason whatsoever, she has a good job and her wage is hers, C: I NEVER see anything as a result of any of these debts she incurs, no new clothes, cars, flash holidays...NOTHING! this is a problem she has had for years and now after years of bailing her out, (Not just me her family as well) it does not appear any better, but the point I was trying to make was that she is not alone in this, it's almost like an addiction only it's money and specifically loans that is her addiction, the proliferation of thes high interest lenders, that will do no credit checks, and welcome CCJ's and bad creditors are nothing less than bloody vultures and leeches, yes you could use them in a 'responsible' way should you decide to, but let's not beat around the bush here they love people like my wife, or folk in dire financial difficulties, they are targeting those types of individuals, the sooner something is done via legislation or some other means the bloody better and shut these !!!!!!!s DOWN!!

Bob_Jones_2

Question: Should risk have a price?

Are you advocating that lenders offer a flat rate to every borrower no matter what their circumstances or history? It is an unavoidable fact of the credit market that borrowers who pay back in full subsidise those who dont.

woody01

And PLEASE don't some sanctimonious !!!!! offer the usual bollox of ''They offer a service bla bla bla, the rates are clearly advertised etc etc'' thye are trading on human bloody misery and desperation

You should also add 'the stupid' to that list, as the dim are a large market for them too.

The problem here isn't these loan companies.....it's your wife.
If she was an alcoholic, would you be screaming for all pubs to be closed down.

It's the same as most things in life where adults are actually responsible for their own actions.

saulhudson

Whilst agreeing in part to both the above replies, as regards these types of high interest companies, no I'm not advocating a flat 'across the board' interest rate for loan companies, simply a realistic and less exorbitantly high rate like they can and do use now, rates of over 2000% and in the cae of the car ones 400% plus, it is ridiculous that they can just get away with these kind of rates at all, a ceiling needs to be set to stop this, and they need to be strongly regulated especially in todays current economic climate.

woody01

saulhudson wrote: »

Whilst agreeing in part to both the above replies, as regards these types of high interest companies, no I'm not advocating a flat 'across the board' interest rate for loan companies, simply a realistic and less exorbitantly high rate like they can and do use now, rates of over 2000% and in the cae of the car ones 400% plus, it is ridiculous that they can just get away with these kind of rates at all, a ceiling needs to be set to stop this, and they need to be strongly regulated especially in todays current economic climate.

I'm not defending these companies but i can see their point (somewhat).
Your wife may be an exception, but 99.9999% of the people that use these Log Book/PayDay Loans companies are people with such a poor credit history,often coupled with financial stupidity, that no one else would touch them with a bargepole.
Therefore, their risk is alot higher when lending to these kinds of people.

Many of them..(christ there are hundreds just on here), are that useless with their finances, and make it worse for themselves.
The naivety is incredible from some of the posters, bordering on shameful.

The high interest though, from people that do manage to repay their debt, also helps cover the people that didn't/couldn't/wouldn't pay back theirs.

RobertoMoir

saulhudson wrote: »

Whilst agreeing in part to both the above replies, as regards these types of high interest companies, no I'm not advocating a flat 'across the board' interest rate for loan companies, simply a realistic and less exorbitantly high rate like they can and do use now, rates of over 2000% and in the cae of the car ones 400% plus, it is ridiculous that they can just get away with these kind of rates at all, a ceiling needs to be set to stop this, and they need to be strongly regulated especially in todays current economic climate.

I don't like either types of loan you mention, not even going to comment on the car loan people, but as for the ones you talk about when you refer to interest rates over 2000%, you've fallen into a trap that we see people fall into all the time here.

Lenders are legally required to display an APR. Even lenders whose loans are intended to be very short term are required to do this. A "pay day" loan company might have a 2000% plus APR but if you're only borrowing from them for a month, which is how their loans are supposed to be used, the APR is irrelevant... or rather I should say the monthly cost of such a loan is more important, and this, while steep, is more reasonable than the APR might suggest.

Of course, if people borrow from lenders of this kind and can't repay on time then they will have a very big problem...

Apples2

Where's that post (I think it was by Clapton) where it was explained with figures, what the comparative apr was when borrowing £20 from a mate in exchange for a pint later on that week??

It demonstrated quite nicely how the 2000% + loans are in actual fact, a great deal. And much better than your rip off mate expecting a pint back.

Bob_Jones_2

If these companies were ripping people off to the extent some claim then Provident etc would be some of the largest companies in Britain. Go and have a look at their accounts and the see the bad debt figures and the overheads required for them to collect their payments.