MSE News: Payday loan broker crackdown revealed

jamesd

SnowTiger wrote: »

Payday loan brokers save lives. LOL.

That's not a laughing matter. The poster you were replying to was writing about payday lending, not brokers.

The recently introduced restrictions on payday lending are likely to lead to the deaths of some people who would have been able to obtain credit for heating repairs or fuel that could have kept them alive this winter. Hopefully most in this situation will be able to obtain alternative emergency finance so the death toll will be low. If you didn't know it, low home temperatures are one of the leading causes of avoidable death in the elderly and the relatively mild winter last year significantly reduced the death toll. Payday loans are far from ideal for this purpose but they beat nothing.

This more recent broker change that started this discussion doesn't seem likely to have that effect since it doesn't decrease the availability of credit.

Alpine_Star

jamesd wrote: »

The recently introduced restrictions on payday lending are likely to lead to the deaths ...

I can't believe I'm reading this.


Payday loans aren't the cause of deaths through poverty. Poverty is caused by lack of income not credit. Although that's not to say that Payday loans don't cause deaths in themselves because they have.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/man-who-killed-himself-over-3909660


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324769/Antony-Breeze-set-hounded-payday-loan-firms.html


http://money.aol.co.uk/2013/04/16/young-man-with-debts-kills-himself/

SnowTiger

jamesd wrote: »

That's not a laughing matter. The poster you were replying to was writing about payday lending, not brokers.

Why do you think that?

The poster didn't quote any text and this thread is about payday loan borkers. The clue is in the title: "Payday loan broker crackdown revealed".

jamesd

SnowTiger wrote: »

Why do you think that?

Because the poster wrote this:

MABLE wrote: »

Surely used sensibly they can be a life saver but yet again lending to the financially uneducated and this is the result.

And that looks more like a comment on payday lending than brokers specifically.

Alpine_Star wrote: »

Payday loans aren't the cause of deaths through poverty. Poverty is caused by lack of income not credit.

It's both. One thing about heating is that the need is highest in winter but a low and level income doesn't adjust. So an unexpected cost or just difficulty building up the money to cover the higher costs over winter can be a problem, notably for those not on direct debit level billing schemes, who are more likely to be poor.

But even so, payday loans are a bad tool compared to other things that we as a society could be doing to prevent or deal with the issues better.

Alpine_Star wrote: »

Although that's not to say that Payday loans don't cause deaths in themselves because they have.

I agree. Payday loans have a large number of flaws, though extremely poor debt collection practices have been particularly troublesome.

fairyclicks

It would be great if these sharks were the next to have to refund people for mis-selling! Unfortunately the crackdown didn't go that far though!

im-lost

jamesd wrote: »

That's not a laughing matter. The poster you were replying to was writing about payday lending, not brokers.

The recently introduced restrictions on payday lending are likely to lead to the deaths of some people who would have been able to obtain credit for heating repairs or fuel that could have kept them alive this winter. Hopefully most in this situation will be able to obtain alternative emergency finance so the death toll will be low. If you didn't know it, low home temperatures are one of the leading causes of avoidable death in the elderly and the relatively mild winter last year significantly reduced the death toll. Payday loans are far from ideal for this purpose but they beat nothing.

This more recent broker change that started this discussion doesn't seem likely to have that effect since it doesn't decrease the availability of credit.

What complete and utter claptrap.

Rossim1985

Monkeyballs wrote: »

I personally feel that in many cases people just panic and these dirt bags take advantage and should be completely outlawed! After all, do you really need someone to send your details to hundreds of completely unheard of lenders before being accepted by one of the main three or four?
MB

It's exactly that, complete panic! I don't consider myself a stupid person, I went to a good Grammar schoool and I work in financial services (insurance). I usually always check terms and conditions, yet I ended up using one of these credit brokers when I thought I was actually getting a loan back in 2012.

I already had loans with the main 3/4 payday lenders, my credit rating was terrible and I just panicked! I was suffering badly from anxiety / stress at the time and my mind was not applying normal / rational thought processes. In the end I had to go to my parents for help, which is something I will never forget. I've never felt so ashamed and stupid.

Fast forward 2 years and I'm 4 months away from being completely debt free, but I'm pleased to see the changes being made here and also with the cost caps on payday loans. I think one I paid off the total interest amount was more than twice the total value of the loan!!

Hopefully these changes will put a lot of these companies out of business.