MR LENDER, Mr QuickQuid and Mr Wonga sound like jolly children’s party entertainers instead of three company bosses accused of being legal loan sharks.
The silly names and funny adverts they use to ply their trade are part of a remeditated campaign to make their industry more attractive and accessible.
However, their appearance before MPs last week was no laughing matter.
Being asked how many people you’ve put in “real pain” can’t be a comfortable experience but I suppose the discomfort is eased when you’re making profits of millions of pounds.
Payday lenders are nothing new but what is different is that the new breed of companies portray borrowing as a normal lifestyle choice and not something that should only be used after a great deal of thought.
As ever, it fell to consumer guru Martin Lewis to get to the root of the problem when he accused the firms of “grooming” the next generation of borrowers and called for their catchy child-friendly TV ads to be banned.
There are people who say you should never borrow money – that if you can’t afford
something, you should do without.
I agree with the principle but I’m afraid such ideals are difficult to live by. As a child, I vividly recall my mum and I scanning shop windows for a little card with a tick.
This meant the shop accepted something called the Provy cheque. The Provy – or
Provident – lending experience meant you’d borrow a certain amount, spend it in shops that stamped your card and you’d pay it back weekly to a collector who came to the house.
It’s how I got everything, from my school uniform to most of my Christmas presents.
I remember my mum’s embarrassment when we went into a shop that didn’t accept the Provy. The assistant would shake her head and we’d awkwardly scuttle out.
There was nothing fun about living on cash that wasn’t yours. There were no puppets or quirky ads to make the experience cool but, with kids in the house and Christmas around the corner, it took a hard heart not to take the route of “borrow now and think about the consequences later”.
I don’t want to make the Provy experience appear rose-tinted as a method of lending money.
The interest rates were high and the repayment regime strict. It was a money-making business and using it wasn’t viewed as a bit of a laugh, nor was being described as “living on the Provy” anything to shout about.
In fact, it was used as an insult by other working class kids if they discovered that was the source of your new dress or shoes.
If, as we’re told, children are now happily pestering their parents to take out loans, then something is very wrong.
The current controversy over the payday loan companies includes calls for them to be banned. I’m not sure if that wouldn’t send their desperate clients into far murkier waters with bigger and hungrier loan sharks.
But I agree with Martin that banning the happy-go-lucky TV ads would be a start in removing the idea of a loan as a giggle and putting it back into the category of last resort.
