Sunny Mega-interest loan company targets teenagers!

dizzie

VENT....VENT.....VENT!!!

This month, my son who is just completing his A-levels this year received a letter from a company (website https://www.sunny.co.uk) offering to give his finances "the Sunny treatment".

"Let Sunny put a smile on your face", it says....."Up to £1000 sent to your bank account within 15 minutes"

...and see that smile disappear in an instant when you look at the interest rates!!!!

Representative example: £1000 borrowed for 12 months.....total amount repayable £2119.68 in 12 monthly payments....Interest 168% p.a. Representative 382%APR

Fortunately, my son has enough sense to ignore loan sharks like this, but with many cash-strapped young people of this age (some of them thinking about heading off to University with all the cost that this involves), I think that this company is opportunistically targeting potentially vulnerable teenagers and I consider this to be highly unethical.

Having vented my spleen :mad: about such marketing tactics to one of their customer service representatives on the phone yesterday....I'd like to start a campaign against young people being actively marketed extortionate interest rate loans. If the government can ban cigarette advertising on the grounds of it being bad for your health.....then surely there are grounds for legislation to be made to ban companies from cold mailing young people (say anyone under the age of 25) with loan offers like this....since extortionate interest rates are also potentially catastrophic for financial health.

I think that young people are savvy and IT literate enough that if they need a loan, they can actively approach banks and loan companies themselves and compare rates and options.

peachyprice

I'm not defending them in any way, they are absolute low life, but where did they get your son's details from? Has he shown any interest, even unintentionally, in sub-prime lending? My two are 19 and have never had anything like this through the post.

wealdroam

dizzie wrote: »

I think that this company is opportunistically targeting potentially vulnerable teenagers and I consider this to be highly unethical.

dizzie wrote: »

I think that young people are savvy and IT literate enough that if they need a loan, they can actively approach banks and loan companies themselves and compare rates and options.

These two sentences of yours seem to be in conflict.

Firstly you talk about targeting potentially vulnerable teenagers, and then you tell us these same people are savvy and IT literate enough to take care of themselves.

Azari

wealdroam wrote: »

These two sentences of yours seem to be in conflict.

Firstly you talk about targeting potentially vulnerable teenagers, and then you tell us these same people are savvy and IT literate enough to take care of themselves.

It makes perfect sense.

Most young people are capable of approaching a reasonable lender if they need a loan.

These scumbags are obviously targeting young people who are not at all financially aware. They know that normal youngsters will ignore them and are hoping to get some rich picking from a small percentage who are, for whatever reason, vulnerable to their usurious offerings.

Ronaldo_Mconaldo

As the parent perhaps it is your duty to educate your 'vulnerable' child about these companies.

msallen

Azari wrote: »

These scumbags are obviously targeting young people who are not at all financially aware

Really? I know nothing of this company and certainly have no desire to defend loan sharks, but what evidence do you have for this. How do we know they didn't just get the OP's son's details off some mailing list?

daveyjp

Is he now on the electoral role? Companies trawl for newly added people on the role as chances are they are teenagers.

Azari

msallen wrote: »

Really? I know nothing of this company and certainly have no desire to defend loan sharks, but what evidence do you have for this. How do we know they didn't just get the OP's son's details off some mailing list?

You misunderstand my post.

I'm sure they did get his name from a mailing list or something similar.

What I was saying is that they 'target' the vulnerable in the sense that they know that anyone with the slightest financial nous will ignore their mailshot anyway and thus they are only expecting the vulnerable (either those with learning difficulties or those who are very poorly educated) to respond.

Effectively they are aiming for a self selecting target.

samroo

My daughter, aged 18 and off to uni in September, got one of these letters too. We just put it in the bin

dizzie

Thanks everyone for your interesting replies. Apparently, this company trawls the electoral registers to get details of people to mail and this is how they got his details (he did not register an interest for a loan of any kind with anyone). Interestingly, neither my husband nor I have received mail from this payday loan shark - which leads me to question why they chose to mailshot our teenager....and not us? I have no doubt that there is some specific targeting plan at play here.

Secondly to the poster who suggested I educate my son about financial matters....well thankfully we have, but actually I fear that many other parents would not even think to broach the specific subject of loan sharks and the perils of falling prey to these companies with their teenager children.Would it cross your mind to do this , when your A-level student children are still financially dependent on you and are living at home? The point of my post was actually to raise awareness about this company's advertising tactics since I believe that this company is opportunistically targeting young people who are perhaps on the brink of leaving home to go to university. I know that many young people worry about whether they will be able to survive on the maintenance loan (or grant where this is applicable), and whether or not they might be able to secure a part time job at uni to help with living costs.....so this is exactly the form of advertising which could prey on young people's financial concerns.

Third, to the poster who suggested that there was a conflict
in my initial post. I disagree. Young people who are interested in something are often quite capable of using search terms in google and of at least getting some basic understanding of what might be available. After all, we do teach computer literacy skills in school - even if we don't teach financial literacy. So, there is a world of difference between being able to do this, and being able to understand the financial and legal implications of a contract or perhaps even being aware that there can be a thousand-fold difference in the interest rates charged by some banks and some pay day lenders.

For me, this experience gives more weight to Martin Lewis' idea that financial education should be compulsory in schools.

unholyangel

dizzie wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your interesting replies. Apparently, this company trawls the electoral registers to get details of people to mail and this is how they got his details (he did not register an interest for a loan of any kind with anyone). Interestingly, neither my husband nor I have received mail from this payday loan shark - which leads me to question why they chose to mailshot our teenager....and not us? I have no doubt that there is some specific targeting plan at play here.

Secondly to the poster who suggested I educate my son about financial matters....well thankfully we have, but actually I fear that many other parents would not even think to broach the specific subject of loan sharks and the perils of falling prey to these companies with their teenager children. Why would you, when your A-level student children are still financially dependent on you and are living at home?

Well the reason why they would is because its a parents job to get their child ready for the world. Not to wait till they're an adult and then teach them about responsibilities/dangers.

Just because they're currently dependent on you and living at home now doesn't mean they always will be.

Good judgement comes from experience. Sometimes experience comes from bad judgement.