Google bans payday loan adverts

Dollyrocker

What's your thoughts on this?

The CFA say:

Russell Hamblin-Boone, the chief executive of the Consumer Finance Association, which represents payday lenders, said the move by Google would affect people’s freedom of choice.

“UK consumers enjoy a vibrant, highly competitive credit market and we will be interested to read the evidence that Google uses to justify overruling open market advertising of a legal, regulated industry to deny people freedom of choice,” he said.

“Short-term loans are a legal source of credit used by millions of people across the UK and the industry is highly regulated with a cap on the total cost of credit. Under such intense scrutiny the rogue firms have been driven out of the market and reputable lenders will only lend to people who can afford to borrow.”

adindas

I think PDL is regulated and it is certainly a much better alternative than Loan shark.

Some people need PDL so I think the goggle movement I think is going too far.

Delete33

Brilliant news, PDL have wrecked so many peoples lives.

Dollyrocker

My worry is that genuinely vulnerable people will be pushed into the hands of loan sharks.

whatmichaelsays

I've no particular issue with a regulated PDL market, so from that perspective I don't really have a view.

Speaking from a 'digital marketing' perspective (and I've worked for agencies that have done digital marketing for a few PDL lenders), I think this is actually a good move.

Back in 2014, Google made a number of algorithm changes specifically to the PDL market. It was a market that was full of low-quality, spammy results and operators, and it was incredibly difficult for consumers to identify the legitimate from the illegitimate.

The changes to the algorithm introduced much tougher standards on "website quality" (in simple terms) and this weeded out a lot of the poorer operators.

Unfortunately, these operators turned to paid search as a back-door to the search engine results. So whilst the organic search results were much better, the paid results were, if anything, worse than before.

You'll still see listings for PDLs on Google, but those listings will be much better than before. It also means that people searching for those products will also be exposed to advice sites, such as MSE, which are more prominent than pre-2014 in this market. That can only be a good thing.

Pincher

They have to produce an AI that passes moral judgement on all human activities to do this. If I was that AI, I would definitely go mad, and trigger a nuclear holocaust, just to stop the inanity.


I wonder, give unemployed disabled people a PC, and ask them to veto/rate/ban unsuitable adverts? It's worth doing just to see what unexpected bias they exhibit. Ads on running shoes are obviously offensive, and should be banned.

[Deleted User]

Delete33 wrote: »

Brilliant news, PDL have wrecked so many peoples lives.

I'm not a fan of PDLs but they do have their place in the world of finance.

You could argue that people who took loans knowing they couldn't pay it back ruined their own lives? I get it that some companies were scumbags but where's the personal responsibility?

It would be interesting if people could claim back loan interest but had to sign a declaration saying they were financially incompetent and had to have a responsible adult manage their financial affairs from now on.

jonesMUFCforever

Has this already started?

Put Wonga into their search and you get loads of results!

Dollyrocker

No, 13th July.

Organic search is still allowed, it's just the paid ads that will stop.

[Deleted User]

They get plenty of free advertising on here

jaydeeuk1

Does that mean Google is going to ban Alcohol adverts and betting companies from advertising then?

Thought not.