Panorama - Door to Door Loans

[Welshy27]

Not specifically about payday loan companies but about door to door loans. Are these essentially individual loan sharks or something different? Here is the info about the programme which is on BBC1 tonight at 8.30:

 

The economy is showing few signs of recovery, but one area of business is thriving in the current environment - door-to-door loans. Richard Bilton goes undercover to learn the tactics of the trade and the techniques that mean some customers may never pay off their high-interest debts

[renegadeimp]

Pretty much. Theyre probably taking about provident loans and things like that.

[Welshy27]

Ah right ok. I will watch it - could prove interesting to see how they deal with their customers.

[renegadeimp]

My mother used to have regular provident loans years ago, as she was unemployed and had pretty much no income apart from state support. For the first few loans, the doorstep collector was happy if she couldnt pay one week, and simply split the amount up over the next few weeks.

 

Then a different collector started to deal with the later loans, and he was pretty uptight and arrogant to say the least. My uncle on more than one occasion had to come and remove him from the doorstep as he would refuse to move until the money was in his hands. It;s a god job my uncle only lived a few streets away, and he's not a small man either.

[Welshy27]

So they come to your door for payment and assume you pay them with cash - is that once a month then? I know Provident do loans for varying 'long term' durations - can you remember the conditions of the loan that your Mum got (i.e. duration and interest).

[renegadeimp]

Normally every week with the provident, unless you agreed monthly repayments.

 

They are pretty much the "baby" payday loans. But spread over a longer term. I think Providents terms now are minim of 14 weeks repayment, max of 52. My mum used to get loans of around 200-300 to be able to afford food etc for the month, and was in essence simply rolling the loans over and paying them off and adding a little extra on for the next time.

 

In the end it got to the point where it was tough to be able to pay the repayments as agreed. Provident refused point blank to spread the costs out further ( this was back in the mid 90's), and she had to ask my grandad to pay it off for her.

[sillygirl1]

Provident do NOT do monthly loans, that is against their 'religion. They like the 'friendly weekly visit' on a Friday night, to get the money hot from your wage packet into their hands, and then they try to offer even more money when you have nearly finished paying.

 

Also Provident recently got into (via Shopacheck) the dodgy debt market by buying up nearly statute barred debt, going round telling people they owe but being nice Provident you can borrow x from them to pay the debts off.... not a good ploy if you are debt savvy, but of course they 'prey' on the vulnerable.

[renegadeimp]

They used to do loans where you can pay back each week/month but over specific time periods. It's why i likened them to PDL's, as they operate similarly, although with a few differences.