Bright House misleading consumers with their interest rate?

Herzlos

Gaz83 wrote: »

But that's the customer's choice. And dare I say a lot of them are probably tempted by the fact that BH will repair or replace something that goes wrong. How many electrical items last three or four years without a problem?

But then you're paying at least a 200-400% premium for a longer warranty, so that doesn't make it a savvy deal. If you bought the equivalent from Argos, you could throw it out and replace it as soon as the 12-month warranty expires and still come out ahead (you'd only pay 3x the retail price rather than 4x).

The business revolves around selling people things they really don't need at hugely inflated prices with low headline figures, and it works because a lot of people can only see it in weekly terms. I know someone with a huge TV (50" maybe) and all he knows about the cost is that it's £15/week.

Maybe I'm a snob, but people in bad credit situations shouldn't be borrowing to buy higher end luxury items. When you can buy a new 32" TV for £200 now, there's no need to be buying a £2k telly at 60% APR.

For example; I earn pretty well and have a good credit rating, and I'm still using a temperamental 7 year old TV because I can't justify spending £300-400 on a new one until the old one stops working. I wouldn't even dream of spending BH figures on a TV, or even paying interest on a regular high street one. But then I'm looking at it at total prices and not (£x/week).

The cynic in me also raises an eyebrow at the weekly figures; to me that means it's aimed purely at people on benefits, as most other incomes and repayments are done on a monthly basis.

bigadaj

It seems to me that there are large numbers of people who just don't know how to budget or plan ahead, or foresee any problems in the future for which they might need to plan and ideally save money.

Such people see a few pounds spare at the nd of the month and just immediately spend it, and then extend that approach to credit arrangements, once all the money is spent, and all the available credit is used up, then one minor problem rapidly spirals into disaster.

Unless you restrict people's freedom to make mistakes there's little that anyone can do to address this, education is fine but most in these circumstances aren't interested in listening and learning. It's teh same reason why lottery sales are markedly skewed towards those on low incomes.

Background seems to be important though not purely income, or lack thereof, it's quite often spoilt middle class people who run into money problems, though in those cases they often get bailed out by their family.