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Alice3537
- Original Poster
- #86
Interesting posts from you and ones that prompted me to take a look at your site Crewgirl. As you have now referred to your 'normal line of business', I have the following comments:
Firstly, I'm not sure I'd want to be using the same business name as a company that shows on Companies House as being dissolved - as there are no real contact details for your venture, one may well get a skewed impression of your business, especially as (from a basic search) the company in question's 'nature of business' states 'None supplied'. Just a suggestion, but I'd have a look at this as others may well try and search for you and it would be a shame if you were associated with a failed venture!
Secondly, I hate 0870 numbers and don't see why you choose to use one (or I wouldn't other than that it's probably because you are 'laughing all the way to the bank with it'
)Thirdly, you REALLY 'normally' charge £3.99 for your book? God!
Lastly (and this is just because I would like clarification and am actually interested) are you not advocating being a loan shark, but dressing it up in 'nicer' language? :|
I can't help but think that the 0% interest you are charging on a small percentage of orders for the glow in the dark stuff is for marketing purposes only and, perhaps to make a point on here to your detractors.
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BusinessIdeas
- Original Poster
- #88
Ok your points one by oneInteresting posts from you and ones that prompted me to take a look at your site Crewgirl. As you have now referred to your 'normal line of business', I have the following comments:
Firstly, I'm not sure I'd want to be using the same business name as a company that shows on Companies House as being dissolved - as there are no real contact details for your venture, one may well get a skewed impression of your business, especially as (from a basic search) the company in question's 'nature of business' states 'None supplied'. Just a suggestion, but I'd have a look at this as others may well try and search for you and it would be a shame if you were associated with a failed venture!
Secondly, I hate 0870 numbers and don't see why you choose to use one (or I wouldn't other than that it's probably because you are 'laughing all the way to the bank with it'
Thirdly, you REALLY 'normally' charge £3.99 for your book? God!
Lastly (and this is just because I would like clarification and am actually interested) are you not advocating being a loan shark, but dressing it up in 'nicer' language? :|
I can't help but think that the 0% interest you are charging on a small percentage of orders for the glow in the dark stuff is for marketing purposes only and, perhaps to make a point on here to your detractors.
Firstly I have no idea of any company that has been dissolved, it has nothing to do with me, and is obviously a coincidence, if you search further I assume you could check who the principles are, and they wont, I assure you, be anything to do with me.
Secondly I use a 0870 number simply because Its a none geo number so If I move premises I can take it with me for continuity with customers and suppliers.The laughing to the bank remark was a purely flippant response to a flip derogatory comment in the forum.
Thirdly Yes I do sell the book for £3.99 successfully
Finally No I am not advocating being a "loan shark" This is a highly regulated business with many rules and regulations. You really do have to be vetted and shown to be scrupulously honest in your loan operations to ever get a license. So given that, do you really think I would risk my Consumer Credit license by being involved with some shady firm that has been dissolved? No of course not!!! as for not charging interest on the credit balnce for the murals, I have stated my reasons; you can choose to believe them or not. You cant really think that I would change any of my business practices to suit the small percentage of silly people who have attacked my methods. That would indeed be laughable.
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Alice3537
- Original Poster
- #89
crewgirl - I am aware that it is a coincidence that you share the name with the other company, which is why I mentioned it. I made no suggestion that it was your company etc and, since I won't be doing business with you, or referring business to you, had no need to check any further.
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Matt Quinn
- Original Poster
- #91
This thread was pointed out to me buy another member. I read it only a few minutes ago and can honestly say it made me sick to my stomach.
I was brought up in the 'Red Road' flats in Glasgow. I lived there from 1971 through to my leaving home to train in London at the age of 17. For those who have seen the film "Red Road"; Yes! It IS a real place! The flats really DO exist; and are much worse than they're painted. Grey miserable slabs built in the late sixties to 'contain' the detritus from the 'slum clearances'. Human filing cabinets! The Red Road and Springburn generally are one of the most deprived communities in Glasgow and indeed Europe. My family were lucky. My Mother was a nurse, my Grandmother a housekeeper and with two incomes ends 'met'. Many of my neighbours and schoolmates weren't so lucky. And of course like most of the big cities in the UK the Red Road wasn't an isolated example.
One of the biggest problems was the loan sharks; 'legal' and otherwise. The 'P****e, at one time quite a benevolent company, became one of the worst. And judging from the 177% APR we're talking about hasn't become any better.
That was compounded by the 'Tallymen'. My Gran called them Spivs. Sleazy little creatures feeding off the filth and misery of deprivation. They'd knock our door of course; and get told where to go. But you could always tell who let them in.... Cheap curtains that were on sale at "The Barras" for £2.50... Tallymen'd knock them out at £10+ two quid for tick... Need a telly? The tallyman'd get you one for £50. Thing is it would be second hand and not worth £15 LET ALONE the £3.50 a week for six months it would cost you. .....As a 15-year old I was once beaten up by a tallyman's ponce for selling tellies at £15. I'd get them for about £7.50, fix them and maybe make myself a fiver or so. Undercutting the tallyman wasn't on!
Fail to pay a tallyman and you were in trouble. Jimmy Boyle's book "A Sense of Freedom" describes how he once plucked the eye from a man's face for failing to meet a debt. Boyle wasn't a unique character by any means. It was a filthy sordid revolting world to grow up in... And even worse to grow old in.
The 'provvy' , though legal, weren't much better than the spivs. In the late 60's and early 70's they used to send 'round a wee 'respectable' man who'd personally make sure 'yer book isnae too heavy'. Fail to pay though and a 'manager' would be at your door. It's alleged that beatings weren't unknown. And I witnessed more than one family having their possessions thrown into the street while the 'provvy men' collected. By the late 70's that had been 'devolved' to some office in 'the toon'. By 1980 it was heavy 'phone calls while all the time they were adding more and more credit to 'yer book'.
I thought I'd come across the last of the tallymen in 1987 when I filmed a documentary about the realities of life in dole stricken Hamilton. He said he was going out of business because of legitimate credit. People could now GET credit cards; albeit at 35% APR. And Credit Unions were kicking in.
I must have become too old and too middle-class somewhere along the line. I'm honestly saddened that people like that still exist. I honestly thought that sort of thing had died out 30 years ago or more... And it sickens me to find this sort of thing STILL goes on!
Crewgirl allegedly sells her 958 word 'book' pontificating to us all on the art of selling for £3.99. And her "loan company manual" for £199. For a mere £5000 (More than twice the cost of obtaining an HND at a legitimate college) you can take advantage one of her 'training packages'. As for her 'starry ceilings' apparently she "went out tonight (Friday) and sold 5 @ £150 - 1 for cash and 4 on credit". This 'top of the range' 'exquisigance' apparently costs her just 20 'sovs' in materials and the in the technique took her just a few months to learn. That surely will depress the interior decorators in our number who perhaps spent many years completing apprenticeships?
When her stated sales methods such as.....
"The aim of your first verbal contact with the potential customer should be to create a small amount of confusion by using words that he/she doesn't understand.
....are called into question she resorts to clouding the issue with gems such as:
"High handed nonsense from someone who likes to blow his own trumpet, the only thing I am seriously accused of is calling a first aid box a home safety kit. Well I can live with that. At least he admitted that my method is effective. Comparing me with people who stick nylon shirts in gearboxes etc. is really laughable."
And
"I can just imagine them peeking through their curtains at the car parking in front of their houses and seething with anger at the affront, or ringing up the dole to report a neighbor who is claiming benefits and working on the side."
And as Alice has noticed, if you go to her website it's actually rather difficult to find any proper contact details her trading name is easily confused with a company that's been dissolved (excellent marketing move that!) and, isn't there something in some statute somewhere about what details credit broking businesses are meant to disclose? Or is that something she circumvents on some technicality or another....
There is nothing "silly", "High handed" or unfounded in pointing out that your business, Crewgirl, depends on preying upon one of the most unfortunate sections of society. Ok; so you may not be and extreme example going around beating people up, but 'Legal' or otherwise, at the APRs you work at you're a loan shark, you're just a loan shark. And flogging 'tat on tick' makes you a spiv!
And 'regulated' or otherwise, from what you have published online and said in your posts your philosophy seems entirely based on how far you can 'pull the wool' and what 'technicalities you can build your spin on.
And no, before you go scuttling off behind some vacuous 'angle', you're not 'just' being accused of mis-naming a first aid box. What is being called into question is the entire moral foundation on which you base your business. It is FACT that by your own words you advocate misleading sales prospects. It is FACT that you have mis-represented your material as something it is not. It is FACT that you take advantage and prey upon the poorest members of society.
You're not providing any kind of socially beneficial service; And ultimately it's BECAUSE of flim-flam merchants like you going through life 'slipping by' on spin and technicalities that the business world today is so heavily over regulated. Right now you're allowed to charge 177%APR, you're allowed to punt your services to people without a pot to P*** in. And you're allowed to put your 750% markup on twenty quid's worth of glow in the dark paint. It's only a matter of time before some piece of legislation shuts you down; you'll move onto another scam and the fall out WILL be that legitimate businesses will be tied down with another piece of red tape!
It's because of loan sharks like YOU that doorstep credit WILL eventually be outlawed; and the trade left to the thugs who rule the housing schemes razor in hand.
Of course I do realise all this is 'water off a duck's back' to anyone who's amorality would lead them down this route in the first place.
I was brought up in the 'Red Road' flats in Glasgow. I lived there from 1971 through to my leaving home to train in London at the age of 17. For those who have seen the film "Red Road"; Yes! It IS a real place! The flats really DO exist; and are much worse than they're painted. Grey miserable slabs built in the late sixties to 'contain' the detritus from the 'slum clearances'. Human filing cabinets! The Red Road and Springburn generally are one of the most deprived communities in Glasgow and indeed Europe. My family were lucky. My Mother was a nurse, my Grandmother a housekeeper and with two incomes ends 'met'. Many of my neighbours and schoolmates weren't so lucky. And of course like most of the big cities in the UK the Red Road wasn't an isolated example.
One of the biggest problems was the loan sharks; 'legal' and otherwise. The 'P****e, at one time quite a benevolent company, became one of the worst. And judging from the 177% APR we're talking about hasn't become any better.
That was compounded by the 'Tallymen'. My Gran called them Spivs. Sleazy little creatures feeding off the filth and misery of deprivation. They'd knock our door of course; and get told where to go. But you could always tell who let them in.... Cheap curtains that were on sale at "The Barras" for £2.50... Tallymen'd knock them out at £10+ two quid for tick... Need a telly? The tallyman'd get you one for £50. Thing is it would be second hand and not worth £15 LET ALONE the £3.50 a week for six months it would cost you. .....As a 15-year old I was once beaten up by a tallyman's ponce for selling tellies at £15. I'd get them for about £7.50, fix them and maybe make myself a fiver or so. Undercutting the tallyman wasn't on!
Fail to pay a tallyman and you were in trouble. Jimmy Boyle's book "A Sense of Freedom" describes how he once plucked the eye from a man's face for failing to meet a debt. Boyle wasn't a unique character by any means. It was a filthy sordid revolting world to grow up in... And even worse to grow old in.
The 'provvy' , though legal, weren't much better than the spivs. In the late 60's and early 70's they used to send 'round a wee 'respectable' man who'd personally make sure 'yer book isnae too heavy'. Fail to pay though and a 'manager' would be at your door. It's alleged that beatings weren't unknown. And I witnessed more than one family having their possessions thrown into the street while the 'provvy men' collected. By the late 70's that had been 'devolved' to some office in 'the toon'. By 1980 it was heavy 'phone calls while all the time they were adding more and more credit to 'yer book'.
I thought I'd come across the last of the tallymen in 1987 when I filmed a documentary about the realities of life in dole stricken Hamilton. He said he was going out of business because of legitimate credit. People could now GET credit cards; albeit at 35% APR. And Credit Unions were kicking in.
I must have become too old and too middle-class somewhere along the line. I'm honestly saddened that people like that still exist. I honestly thought that sort of thing had died out 30 years ago or more... And it sickens me to find this sort of thing STILL goes on!
Crewgirl allegedly sells her 958 word 'book' pontificating to us all on the art of selling for £3.99. And her "loan company manual" for £199. For a mere £5000 (More than twice the cost of obtaining an HND at a legitimate college) you can take advantage one of her 'training packages'. As for her 'starry ceilings' apparently she "went out tonight (Friday) and sold 5 @ £150 - 1 for cash and 4 on credit". This 'top of the range' 'exquisigance' apparently costs her just 20 'sovs' in materials and the in the technique took her just a few months to learn. That surely will depress the interior decorators in our number who perhaps spent many years completing apprenticeships?
When her stated sales methods such as.....
"The aim of your first verbal contact with the potential customer should be to create a small amount of confusion by using words that he/she doesn't understand.
....are called into question she resorts to clouding the issue with gems such as:
"High handed nonsense from someone who likes to blow his own trumpet, the only thing I am seriously accused of is calling a first aid box a home safety kit. Well I can live with that. At least he admitted that my method is effective. Comparing me with people who stick nylon shirts in gearboxes etc. is really laughable."
And
"I can just imagine them peeking through their curtains at the car parking in front of their houses and seething with anger at the affront, or ringing up the dole to report a neighbor who is claiming benefits and working on the side."
And as Alice has noticed, if you go to her website it's actually rather difficult to find any proper contact details her trading name is easily confused with a company that's been dissolved (excellent marketing move that!) and, isn't there something in some statute somewhere about what details credit broking businesses are meant to disclose? Or is that something she circumvents on some technicality or another....
There is nothing "silly", "High handed" or unfounded in pointing out that your business, Crewgirl, depends on preying upon one of the most unfortunate sections of society. Ok; so you may not be and extreme example going around beating people up, but 'Legal' or otherwise, at the APRs you work at you're a loan shark, you're just a loan shark. And flogging 'tat on tick' makes you a spiv!
And 'regulated' or otherwise, from what you have published online and said in your posts your philosophy seems entirely based on how far you can 'pull the wool' and what 'technicalities you can build your spin on.
And no, before you go scuttling off behind some vacuous 'angle', you're not 'just' being accused of mis-naming a first aid box. What is being called into question is the entire moral foundation on which you base your business. It is FACT that by your own words you advocate misleading sales prospects. It is FACT that you have mis-represented your material as something it is not. It is FACT that you take advantage and prey upon the poorest members of society.
You're not providing any kind of socially beneficial service; And ultimately it's BECAUSE of flim-flam merchants like you going through life 'slipping by' on spin and technicalities that the business world today is so heavily over regulated. Right now you're allowed to charge 177%APR, you're allowed to punt your services to people without a pot to P*** in. And you're allowed to put your 750% markup on twenty quid's worth of glow in the dark paint. It's only a matter of time before some piece of legislation shuts you down; you'll move onto another scam and the fall out WILL be that legitimate businesses will be tied down with another piece of red tape!
It's because of loan sharks like YOU that doorstep credit WILL eventually be outlawed; and the trade left to the thugs who rule the housing schemes razor in hand.
Of course I do realise all this is 'water off a duck's back' to anyone who's amorality would lead them down this route in the first place.
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And in particular, those that fall prey to the immoral and unscrupulous who dress up their mugging as business.
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Matt Quinn
- Original Poster
- #98
Yes Catherine you really ARE terribly silly quoting a load of old Marcus Fabius like that. What a fool you must be to have been studying all those dead Romans; their books were FAR to long! Some ran to more than three pages of A4
You know what's really annoying in all this is the fact that there ARE lenders out there who do extend high risk credit at more reasonable rates. It seems to be more ignorance and fear that keeps people 'locked in' to the loan sharks.
By no means 'whiter than white' these are operators selling household goods at normal retail markup and perhaps with their own 'card' or credit system. When I were a lad (and dinosaurs roamed the earth) it was the likes of Kays catalogue and Goldbergs department store that kept many of us in school shoes and Christmas toys. Then there was the 'minauge' at my Gran's work. .....Sort of forerunner to the credit union...
I used to get quite annoyed when I'd pass the likes of 'Crazy George's' shop and see last year's model of telly for sale at full retail on 35% APR; But versus 177% the man's obviously a saint!
...what's more I don't recall seeing any of his staff trying to 'confuse' or befuddle the customers!
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Tobes
- Original Poster
- #99
As most people do, I detest misrepresentation, flat-out lying, misleading, brow-beating, 'sales speak', spin, but just, as I have been, looking at the credit side, what is an acceptable credit rate? When does it become evil and immoral?
(I have no links to any kind of credit busness thingy, I just believe people should have the choice for this kind of thing, in certain legal circumstances)
(I have no links to any kind of credit busness thingy, I just believe people should have the choice for this kind of thing, in certain legal circumstances)
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Matt Quinn
- Original Poster
- #100
As most people do, I detest misrepresentation, flat-out lying, misleading, brow-beating, 'sales speak', spin, but just, as I have been, looking at the credit side, what is an acceptable credit rate? When does it become evil and immoral?
(I have no links to any kind of credit busness thingy, I just believe people should have the choice for this kind of thing, in certain legal circumstances)
I think the answer to this is complex with literally dozens of factors to take into account.
It's reasonable to weight risk against interest rate. And that may result in charges that most of us would find obscene; say for arguments sake approaching the 40%. But I think when you get into a situation that the risk factors result in say only a 50:50 charge of getting your money back, then it becomes irresponsible to lend at all. Particularly if the purpose of the loan is something transient and trivial.
Wholly inadequate though it is there IS a 'crisis loans' mechanism available via the DSS for emergencies!
But for the most part this is a case of loan sharks 'educating' people into becoming convinced they're a bad risk and have no other alternative. I recall my Grandmother's amazement when, at the age of 18 1/2 I was able to borrow £2000 to buy a car. She was even more dumfounded when I managed to get her outgoings cut to a third of what they had been with 'the provvy' simply by having her apply for a bank loan!
I know plenty of single parents on benefits who are more than grateful for their Capital One cards (29.9%).... And even the likes of 'Crazy George' offer reduced rates for established customers.
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Alice3537
- Original Poster
- #101
As most people do, I detest misrepresentation, flat-out lying, misleading, brow-beating, 'sales speak', spin, but just, as I have been, looking at the credit side, what is an acceptable credit rate? When does it become evil and immoral?
(I have no links to any kind of credit busness thingy, I just believe people should have the choice for this kind of thing, in certain legal circumstances)
A BofE base rate at 5.75%. Those applying for credit who wouldn't be touched by other institutions because they are high risk (meaning that it may be unlikely they can continue to make payments and therefore incur further charges and/or loss of possessions). Media stories criticizing store cards for having the audacity to charge 30% interest. An uneducated (or financially unaware) section of society who will take whatever they can get whether or not it is in their best interest. A business deliberately using language that leads to misinterpretations or misunderstanding.
You know what? I would say there is most certainly a point at which it becomes (at best) morally reprehensible and unethical. But that's just my opinion. Hell, a certain someone will probably be tacking on advice (for a charge) re IVAs pretty soon.
You are right - and people should have the choice. However, take some time to read the many stories about credit and how it goes very, very wrong or talk to people in your area who felt they had no choice - chat about where they went for credit and how the deal was 'pitched' to them.
I said to another FM tonight that I would not be posting here again and I've already done it! :redface:
However, I am incensed at the inability of someone who talks freely about their interest rates and ability to (in my opinion) rip others off to even come up with good 'spin' as to their business techniques.
On the other hand, I have worked in 'sub-prime' lending when I was a mortgage broker (typically about 2-4% over the SVR's of other lenders) - and these borrowers were actually a fairly good bet - they'd been in trouble before and made damn sure they didn't do it again! I had no problem because I found them a good deal, they knew it would be well over base and were happy to get a deal....but I would never have suggested a rate that was so ludicrous it shouldn't even be offered. I also had no problem because I took enough information to know whether or not they could afford it. Yes - I did turn people down and they no doubt got the deal elsewhere, but my conscience is clear. For those rates of interest, someone could pay for the item through savings in a fraction of the time - and to go door to door offering something people didn't even know they needed purely in order to gain a database for loans is just not on (and, although I'd need to check, may well be contravening the Data Protection Act).
Long post, and I am sorry for that. I'm not sorry for my views though.
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Tobes
- Original Poster
- #102
Matt:
I am surprised that you seem to think that people should have restrictions on how they can spend their credit.
I also don't think that many people are unaware of the many mainstream credit options.
***
I do wonder also whether people recognise the difference between APR, EAR, interest rate etc
I am surprised that you seem to think that people should have restrictions on how they can spend their credit.
I also don't think that many people are unaware of the many mainstream credit options.
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I do wonder also whether people recognise the difference between APR, EAR, interest rate etc
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BusinessIdeas
- Original Poster
- #103
It is truly staggering how so many people can reach their conclusions without having any knowledge of the industry so I will explain. This is not "spin" these are the actual facts:
What most people dont realise is that the %APR bears no relation whatsoever to the amount that is added on as interest to the amount loaned. You would think wouldnt you that if you lend someone £100 and add say £55 in interest that the APR would look something like 55%, but of course that depends over what period the loan is paid back over. The actual APR on a £100 loan with £55 added on for interest and paid over 31 weeks works out at a staggering 365.1%APR and to be perfectly honest that is the industry standard Yep 365.1% APR is the most used rate in the industry not 177% which is most quoted here. Still £55 on a hundred sounds a lot of interest, so the lender is making lots of money right? WRONG! There is an AWFUL lot of bad debt to take into account, and dont forget if a customer defaults it isnt just the interest that they lose its the actual amount of the loan. The bad debt rate among these types of customers is around 25% so if you have loaned out £400 you can virtually guarantee that you will lose £100. So ok you have loaned out £400 and you are only going to get back £300 plus the £155 you have charged at £55 per hundred from the 3 customers left who are likely to pay, so £300 + £165 = £465 you have only made £65 on an outlay of £400 this actually works out at 16.25% on your money, any retailer will make at least 25% on their money and usually a lot more. In the musical instrument trade the normal mark up is 55%. You then have expenses of actually collecting the money: running an office, car expenses, and all the other fixed expenses of running a business. If someone could work out a way of lending these people money and making a reasonable living without charging these sort or rates I would love to hear it.
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Alice3537
- Original Poster
- #105
You can spin it anyway you wish, crewgirl25a/crewboy25a - my opinion still stands.
To be honest, I don't find you credible. I am surprised that you post in this way on this site as it gets picked up by Google et al (including the responses).
I don't like the way you 'do business' or the way you 'promote' your business. I have already stated that I would not use your services or encourage others to do so.
Quite frankly, you can be as flippant as you want - you can justify in any way you like - you can tell me I know nothing of 'the facts'. That doesn't change my opinion of you in any way, shape or form.
I've had a look at your site and the way in which you encourage others to work and have concerns about that as well. Happy to state them, but to be honest, I'd rather put you on ignore and not have to deal with you in future.
Personally, I'd take it out of the extortionate rate I charged people who did pay up, but that's just my opinion.
To be honest, I don't find you credible. I am surprised that you post in this way on this site as it gets picked up by Google et al (including the responses).
I don't like the way you 'do business' or the way you 'promote' your business. I have already stated that I would not use your services or encourage others to do so.
Quite frankly, you can be as flippant as you want - you can justify in any way you like - you can tell me I know nothing of 'the facts'. That doesn't change my opinion of you in any way, shape or form.
I've had a look at your site and the way in which you encourage others to work and have concerns about that as well. Happy to state them, but to be honest, I'd rather put you on ignore and not have to deal with you in future.
Personally, I'd take it out of the extortionate rate I charged people who did pay up, but that's just my opinion.
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hi alice,
i think that you are missing the points.
the above is your opinion and maybe shared with others.
the fact is that you wouldnt take it and no doubt i wouldnt need to.
the point is that to so many families and individuals these loans are a life saver and puts food on the table for many whether you agree or not.
someone is always going to offer these therefore why not crewgirl - shes in the business and has the contacts and maybe has the product to sell to the customers.
i think that you are missing the points.
the above is your opinion and maybe shared with others.
the fact is that you wouldnt take it and no doubt i wouldnt need to.
the point is that to so many families and individuals these loans are a life saver and puts food on the table for many whether you agree or not.
someone is always going to offer these therefore why not crewgirl - shes in the business and has the contacts and maybe has the product to sell to the customers.
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BusinessIdeas
- Original Poster
- #109
To further enlighten people about how the industry works:
The people that borrow money in the so called doorstep lending industry are usually very canny people, they are not the unsuspecting mugs that some people chose to believe that they are. These customers do not need to be pitched at all, and no high pressure is put on them either to take out loans or even to pay them back. The industry rarely takes anyone to court, they are mostly council house tenants so wont lose their houses as they would in lots of credit card and bank loan situations. The usually remedy when a customer doesnt pay is to try and come to a reasonable arrangement whereby they reduce their weekly payments. There is no extra charge added for this arrangement, no late payment fees, no charges for letters sent etc etc. If they default they are informed of the measures open to help them to resolve the situation, as in telling them about the free service from the CAB. The industry also funds a charity called the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), which offers free counselling for those in serious debt. There is no such thing as bullying people for payments or any other strong-arm methods. These are the real facts about the industry.
The people that borrow money in the so called doorstep lending industry are usually very canny people, they are not the unsuspecting mugs that some people chose to believe that they are. These customers do not need to be pitched at all, and no high pressure is put on them either to take out loans or even to pay them back. The industry rarely takes anyone to court, they are mostly council house tenants so wont lose their houses as they would in lots of credit card and bank loan situations. The usually remedy when a customer doesnt pay is to try and come to a reasonable arrangement whereby they reduce their weekly payments. There is no extra charge added for this arrangement, no late payment fees, no charges for letters sent etc etc. If they default they are informed of the measures open to help them to resolve the situation, as in telling them about the free service from the CAB. The industry also funds a charity called the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), which offers free counselling for those in serious debt. There is no such thing as bullying people for payments or any other strong-arm methods. These are the real facts about the industry.
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hi crewgirl,
i wouldnt feel the need to have to verify your business to anyone.
the original posts were about your new potential business venture not the workings of the credit industry.
if your glow in the dark or other products can be offered and the customer takes a loan to pay for it great.
i wouldnt feel the need to have to verify your business to anyone.
the original posts were about your new potential business venture not the workings of the credit industry.
if your glow in the dark or other products can be offered and the customer takes a loan to pay for it great.
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Alice3537
- Original Poster
- #112
I don't think I am missing the points, to be honest. if I thought the poster in question would give a fair and reasonable indication and the cost involved I'd be happy. Given the comments and responses of that poster, I do not believe that to be the case.
177% to someone who perceives the loan as a life saver, from a provider who -posts in the way crewgirl (boy) does is, in my opinion extortion.
You know what? To state that 'someone is always going to offer these therefore why not crewgirl' makes me question whether or not you truely understand the way in which people are being manipulated.
If I posted here saying I had a great new credit card at 45% interest, would you be saying that it was a great offer? I doubt it. Why should those who have had problems be ripped off? And this kind of rate IS a rip off.
I worked under FSA reg's for a number of years - and you know what? There's a whole load of stuff they like to see re 'know your customer'; 'best advice' (including advice NOT to take a product).
You talk about putting food on the table - would you feel the same way if it was a family member? I quoted the BofE base before - compare that to the rates quoted.
In fact, forget the rates - take a look at the comments made about cowgirl's methods os 'selling'....now if that isn't a blatant way in which to confuse and to mislead I don't know what is.
My problem is not with an industry in general (although I have concerns). It is with a business person who has so little regard for their customer and is so arrogant as to post in the way in which they do.
177% to someone who perceives the loan as a life saver, from a provider who -posts in the way crewgirl (boy) does is, in my opinion extortion.
You know what? To state that 'someone is always going to offer these therefore why not crewgirl' makes me question whether or not you truely understand the way in which people are being manipulated.
If I posted here saying I had a great new credit card at 45% interest, would you be saying that it was a great offer? I doubt it. Why should those who have had problems be ripped off? And this kind of rate IS a rip off.
I worked under FSA reg's for a number of years - and you know what? There's a whole load of stuff they like to see re 'know your customer'; 'best advice' (including advice NOT to take a product).
You talk about putting food on the table - would you feel the same way if it was a family member? I quoted the BofE base before - compare that to the rates quoted.
In fact, forget the rates - take a look at the comments made about cowgirl's methods os 'selling'....now if that isn't a blatant way in which to confuse and to mislead I don't know what is.
My problem is not with an industry in general (although I have concerns). It is with a business person who has so little regard for their customer and is so arrogant as to post in the way in which they do.
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A
Alice3537
- Original Poster
- #114
crewgirl25a
I don't like the way you do business. I don't like the way you encourage others to do business. I don't like the way you respond to those who have concerns about your business. I don't like you.
Good luck with your venture. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but that's clearly just me.
I wish you could have been a little more civil, but as we won't be conversing in future, I can live with it.
I don't like the way you do business. I don't like the way you encourage others to do business. I don't like the way you respond to those who have concerns about your business. I don't like you.
Good luck with your venture. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but that's clearly just me.
I wish you could have been a little more civil, but as we won't be conversing in future, I can live with it.
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B
BusinessIdeas
- Original Poster
- #115
Yes I would ignore it, but I dont see why I should lie down for this nonsense which potential customers for my business might see as damning, albeit through innuendo. Matt Quinn's remarks are downright libelous, accsuing me of things from running up the national debt to being a loan shark, and not polishing my shoes before I go out.
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I can smell something, is it cod & chips, is it egg, no it is and to quote the great Mr Jim Bowen..........
"A Bit Of Bully"
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I have been trying not to get involved ont his one, but I have to say that the above is absolute b*ll*cks.
This is the UK, we have a welfare system. If there is a front door to knock on then noone there is starving, The loans don't put food on the table, they put non-essentials on the table.
Don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about, I grew up on council estates and in childrens homes.
A lot of "these people" are financially illiterate and don't realise how badly they are being taken advantage of.
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P
pash
- Original Poster
- #120
I have been trying not to get involved ont his one, but I have to say that the above is absolute b*ll*cks.
This is the UK, we have a welfare system. If there is a front door to knock on then noone there is starving, The loans don't put food on the table, they put non-essentials on the table.
Don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about, I grew up on council estates and in childrens homes.
A lot of "these people" are financially illiterate and don't realise how badly they are being taken advantage of.[/quote]
Ooo i was just about to say i have had these loans in the past till you put this LOL.
But yeh, when i first moved into my own house and we had our first child, i found it really hard to get the stuff we needed. We lived with a duvet on the hard tiled floor so our baby could roll around as we didnt even have a carpet for 6 months. We had no bed and everything we had was given to us by other friends and family. We were 21 years old (not too young) I had just left college, and my other half had just got into college. We had a great amount of help from our family but really there is only so much you can take from them. When it got to xmas that was it, i ended up with one of these loans for £300, great when i was out buying gifts and the xmas food, but flipping heck it was worse for the months that follwed when i had even less money to live on cos i was paying back tha loan. By the time our baby was 5 we had moved back to my home town, and i had gotten into a spiral of debt from these door to door loans. I was getting one loan out with exrta to pay back the last one, and then i couldnt afford the new bed my daughter needed so i got another with extra to pay back tha last one and so on. My other half couldnt find a job and i could only get part time. In the end i had to bite to bullet and tell my mum, who paid of the total amount for me. I never used one of these companies again and i would not give advice to anyone to use them either.
My mum has never got into that debt and i wish i had learnt from her sooner. When my mum packed me and sister up from Iran and moved us to the Uk to live with our grandparents during the war in 1984, she was not allowed to leave the country, so we lived here for 3 years before she eventually fled Iran with £1.50 in her pocket and a case of clothes. She never got into debt, but me and sister always had nice things and a bedroom full of stuff, and NEVER went hungry!!!! Ok so we might have had to wait a few weeks before we got something so she could save up, but we never had anyone knocking at our door and telling us to pay up!
On the other hand, i like the stary night and if i had the money i would love it in a garden room. I love stars and i wished at school i could go to space, so i guess its as close as i could get. I think its good that you didnt take any extra to get on credit too. Hope the 5 customers really like your work
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