Irresponsible Personal Borrowing

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-benefits-left-3000-debt-2959223

I read the above with much consternation. Why on earth has she borrowed all this money?

She has 2 kids, aged 8 & 3. The 3 year old would be happy with a few 2nd hand toys & loads of cardboard boxes. The older boy only needed 1 big present which to be honest could have had a 2nd hand bike!

It’s people like this who put their kids into poverty and for what? Those kids will go without for the whole of next year.

Great presents aren’t any use if kids are starving or she can’t afford to pay electricity bill. What on earth does a 3 year old need a TV/DVD player for? It’s crazy & unnecessary. It’s all been bought on expensive credit which to me is even more stupid!

The kids will remember, eventually, and then they too will follow suit! It’s the wrong kind of example and she isn’t giving the children the correct life lessons to aid them in the future.

I know we all want our kids to have the things we didn’t but there are limits. I have 3 children there are around 4 years between each one. Christmas has always been expensive but I’d buy stuff in sales & hide it away. I still do that even though my eldest kids have left home. No body got a big expensive present at Christmas what I did was to make a bigger fuss at birthdays because it meant there was respite between each birthday to save again.

My youngest lad decided he wanted a new TV. I refused to buy one because there were decent enough ones he could access. So he saved his Christmas & Birthday money (his birthday is 10th January) and bought his own TV.

I’ve never bought “named/labelled” items of clothing. They had what I felt was appropriate & would be very smart but on a budget.

Even when there is little money you can shop around and find bargains to stow away.

This woman borrowed £1,700 knowing her whole income for the next year (or indeed more) would suffer for it! She has no idea of budgeting, no comprehension of the concept of living within within her means.

If she’d have put away a few pounds every week she could have got the bikes on e-bay or Amazon – refurbished & at half the price.

It really doesn’t make any logical sense to do what she’s done and when she’s no money for food in the coming months will she then travel to a foodbank because she has got a voucher from her social worker, GP or whomever?

I honestly understand wanting to give your kids the best BUT you give them the best you can afford not what you can borrow!

Even this year my youngest has had refurbished items which I have bought for less than half the price of new. I have to do that because he’d never get these things otherwise. I hasten to add that the items he’s got are going to be helpful to his education as he’s doing GCSE’s now.

My hubby & I don’t have money to burn and neither does this woman. £3,000 debt for one Christmas is totally irresponsible.

I’m not sure how these sorts of lenders work but from the info I have gleaned from various sources would indicate that you needn’t be in work to get a PayDay Loan. An oxymoron if ever there was one. How do you get a payday loan if your payday is based on out of work benefits?

Why are there no checks to see what level of debt you’re in already? Suppose that is easily bypassed if you apply for each of these pay day loans on the same day & thus the records wouldn’t be updated until the next day there would be no records to check.

Just as I was writing this blog I received a text:

www.justlendcash.co.uk We dont look at past credit history, as long as it is affordable for you now. Come and build a new history with us. 2 opt out reply END

I have not given my number to any of these companies so why are they contacting me unsolicited?

I’m not going to reply to the text, I have deleted it. However, with companies sending such texts & bombarding people with the offer of credit then at weaker moments some may just give in.

I thought this sort of lending was illegal as is people coming to your door offering you a loan? Maybe the Consumer Credit Act has changed?

Anyway what do you think of this lady & hundreds of thousands of others like her who have borrowed heavily & irresponsibly just to buy things their kids don’t need!