NUS vice president says payday loan borrowing is having a real impact on students' wellbeing and education
“Research by the NUS suggests as many as 10% of students in vulnerable groups had used payday loans, cash-a-cheque services and doorstep loans, and that students with caring responsibilities are three times more likely to do so than other students.
Payday loan companies offer high interest borrowing, often at more than 4,000%. Although they say the loans are supposed to be run over days rather than months, borrowers often find that costs add up quickly if they extend the borrowing period.
Concerns have been growing after a series of reports from charities highlighted increasing numbers of people falling into debt problems with the loans, and some irresponsible lending by some firms.
Pete Mercer, NUS national vice-president of welfare, said: "Students are struggling to make ends meet and this is having a real impact on their wellbeing and their education."It is clear that at least some payday lenders are targeting vulnerable students and the government has so far failed to act, so it is important we do everything we can to limit their ability to reach our campuses…
In 2012, the payday lender Wonga was heavily criticised for targeting pages on its website at students, and seeming to suggest its products may have advantages over traditional student loans.
It took down the pages, but there are still lenders offering high cost loans specifically to students, including one, Smart-Pig.com, which offers loans of up to £250 over 90-day periods at an APR of 1,264%.”
See the original source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jun/10/ban-payday-loans-advertising-campus-nus/print
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As a Chinese proverb says 'The fish rots from the head' and so it is with businesses, politics, economics, governments and other organisations. The question is: how can decent, honest and good people stop the loan sharks operating at the universities, when the political parties and governments are financed and supported by such financial institutions? See below for more:
How the fruits of financier’s high-cost loans found their way into Tory coffers
Conservative party grandee controls firm which charges interest at 75 per cent APR
“A top Conservative Party funder is revealed today as the man behind one of Britain’s biggest high-cost lenders.
Financier Henry Angest – a friend of the Camerons and a former Tory Treasurer – gave the Conservatives a £5m overdraft facility shortly before the last General Election at an attractive interest rate of just 3.5 per cent.
The high-cost credit company Mr Angest controls, Everyday Loans, charges members of the public interest at an average 74.8 per cent APR.
…Mr Angest becomes the second high-profile Tory donor profiting from the growing high-cost credit industry.
The Conservative donor and government adviser Adrian Beecroft has a major stake in Wonga, Britain’s best-known payday lender, which charges borrowers more than 4,000 per cent APR.
Mr Beecroft has given almost £800,000 to the Tories in the last seven years, contributing more than £100,000 last December.
Last October, Jonathan Luff, a senior adviser to David Cameron, quit Downing Street to become a lobbyist for Wonga.”