howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
had a leaflet through my door this morning from a company wanting to lend me anything between £.50 and £.500. this they will do with a "friendly personal service that i can trust".
they can still lend to those that have county court judgements, poor credit histories, thoe who rent their home and also people that have been turned down before.
the company is a registered consumer credit association member so they must be good.
incidentally the rate is "representative 433.4% apr".
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
This is something that has struck me of late. Just what is meant by this particular use of the word, "representative"?
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
never seen it before myself tom, i was rather hoping someone on here might know.
Over to BarryW I think!
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
Oh, it's a new buzz-word and maybe it has come to the fore as APR goes down the tubes?
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the problem is that the desperate hard up families that are under pressure to provide their offspring with all the stuff that they demand over the next month will have no interest in the word or understanding of how much they will pay back.
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
Howard borrow some for me I have got to pay for a ticket for the Mayor's Ball, Alan thinks we get them free,so if you borrow the money that will prove we dont, then you can take your time paying it back on tick so it doesnt eat into your pension and I get a free ticket.Then Alan would have a point why should I buy a ticket at £26 to work hard and provide Sandwiches for the Sally Army as well.All this to raise money for good causes,perhaps we should be raising it for pensioners at Aycliffe,then he might not moan so much.
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
john
i won't do anything until barry give the ok.
call me over suspicious but 433.4% does seem a little bit on the high side.
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
No its ok howard inflation is at 5% and that number beats it by 428.4% so it is a winner!

If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
thats nothing new howard,some credit people charge around 1000%.so the one got seems cheap at half the price.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
I've seen some of these money lenders who give credit on pay-days, charge well over 2,500%. Must be mad.
Roger
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i must admit to astonishment that people can get away with charging those interest rates that brian and roger mention.
the gullible and vulnerable must be meat and drink to them.
Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
It seems that it's just a respectable business name for what we used to call loan sharks in the past, I feel sorry for people who fall into this trap of never ending payments.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Tom - a representative rate means that the actual rate charged will depend on your credit history and it could be a lot higher. In fact chances are the target market for this will be those with a poor credit history and have difficulty with mainstream lenders and I bet the 'representative rate' far from represents what would actually be charged.
This is appalling and people should not allow Christmas and the pester power of their offspring to push them into such arrangements. Indeed no-one really should fund their Christmas spending from borrowing anyway. Many do so of course and it becomes part of a spiral that is hard to escape.
Roger where such high percentages are charged and I have seen APRs of over 4,500% (yes, four thousand five hundred not four point five...) it is usually aimed at short term borrowing where someone might borrow some money, a small amount and pay it back with a fee on top a few days or a short period later.
It sounds OK for someone to borrow say, £100 and to pay back £120 a week later - but work it out as if the 'fee' represented a 20% interest for that week and assume it was not paid back, then over 52 weeks it would compound up to become £1,310,462 - over £1m. Work it out yourself, I have not bothered with an APR calculation....
Here is a question that can illustrate the impact of compound interest...
Take £1 - day 1, double it to £2, day 2 double it again to £4, day 3 to £8 - work out how many (rather how few) days like that it would take to get to £1,000,000.....
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
had to resurrect this one again after reading this report.
the sheer numbers sucked in struck me, also the bit about 16% zombie debtors.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/more-britons-turn-to-payday-loans-6273407.html