to be hacked off that the Brighthouse vultures are opening a shop in our town?

[Meglet]

I know they charge extortionate interest rates so had a Google and am disheartened that they can take advantage of people like they do.

Yep good point... there are no doubt some credit cards which do require a credit check which charge the same/similar APR. So even those of us who don't need to go to BH may still be paying similar repayment rates.

This is all going a bit off the OP's original topic. Though to answer the OP - YANBU to be hacked off that BH are opening a store in your town. As I would wonder what affect that would have on house prices. Though house prices may have already begun dropping, for BH to consider opening a store there in the first place.

"The thing with guarantees for electrical items is that people don't need them. They should automatically be guaranteed, they have a 'shelf life' and legally they should last a minumum period, 10 years for a washing machine for example (assuming normal usage)."

Unfortunately, while that may be true for run of the mill purchases, the situation (according to BH's FAQ document, item 6) is that any goods bought under Hire Purchase need to be covered against fire, theft or damage.

For some people, house contents insurance is an option they cannot afford to take up, so without (even relatively cheap) insurance, BH would probably be able to withhold delivery until insurance was present, or the customer agrees to pay for rip off Damage Liability Cover.

My household contents insurance is £10 a month! Far less then BH for one item.

that much higher, too.

It's often the case (not pointing any fingers at anyone) that for those who have, more shall be given - hence, someone with a PC and internet may save because they can have paperless billing, and they use direct debit for payments (as they can check with online banking), and see offers mentioned online or via free subscription to 'newsletters' by e-mail such as offers highlighted by MoneySavingExpert.com

I don't know, you have to be very stupid to get anything from brighthouse, ditto the home loan sharks, provident etc. There are great things to be had second hand, we have a furniture recycling/charity doodah near us that is superb for bargains. If you are stupid/greedy enough for those inflated apr's then good luck to you.

Very stupid... or simply uneducated? I remember the loan shark who came to my door offering me a "free £400 to welcome me onto the estate". When I asked him about repayment, he prattled on with such confident bluster using every euphemism to avoid disclosing the APR that it was hard to actually do the maths of what he was offering. Had I not got a fairly good grade at maths GCSE, I think I could easily have been taken in...

I know when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is, but hearing the word "free" should be enough to ring alarm bells!

that was a bit harsh coinopgirl. not everyone has had the same recieved wisdom and education. companies like BH blatantly prey on the naive.

"My household contents insurance is £10 a month! "

Probably not in a flat on a council estate, though.

there's a car log book loan place opened up here, the APR is 10 x that of brighthouse.

cheap and affordable safe credit is being denied to people who need it. if you're already in the poverty trap , you end up in th debt trap too

£200 for a washing machine is cheap IF you have the £200 cash to buy it or the credit rating decent enough to get it on tick from somewhere that is not going to charge you insane amounts of interest.

£4 a week for a washing machine sounds cheaper if you don't have the £200.

how much is it to do a load at the launderette these days?

laundrette - I paid 6 pounds for the big drum last week.
the small drums were 4 pounds I think. so not really cheap at all.

so it is cheaper short term to buy the brighthouse washing machine isn't it?

Lulumaam - would be hard to compare as you don't have all costs. Laundrette costs include power and water. Doesn't include the cost of getting to the laundrette though.

very true.

i think that the whole issue of credit per se is a difficult one

no threads saying 'middle class' families should not get stuff on credit at 8 or 9 % or not have their store cards at probably 29 % or so.

if you are in the poverty trap and you need a washing machine or t.v .. you can't go to curry's or argos or order from tesco direct .

you need somewhere you can go with a crappy or non existent credit rating and get what you need and owrry about the long term implicatons later

so is it better ot have plcaes like brighthouse or not?

it's really difficult .

They are opening one in my town centre too. I am saddened by it. There is quite a low percentage of people working for anything like a decent wage where i am and i know that the chances are that this shop will be packed out with people buying things for so vastly overpriced poorly made rubbish that they will be throwing it out before they have even finished paying for it.

There really needs to be stricter regulations about such shops

Well I walked past one of these branches today and quite honestly unless you sign your name by marking an X you'd be able to see what you are getting into.
On each item in the window there was a break down of the cash price, the apr and the difference between the two prices.
Buyer beware.

yes but when your washing machine breaks down, you have zero funds and the only way of getting one is to go to one of these places.

They specifically aim their products at the demographic that cannot afford to be wise consumers.

They are aiming it at the "no deporit, no credit check pay us weekly" market.

They are specifically targeting those on beneifts/low income and who cannot get credit anywhere else.

It is a vile vile business that is ripping off those who can least afford it

"It is a vile vile business that is ripping off those who can least afford it"

Or, alternatively, it's a high-risk business delivering a service to those who can't afford anything else. I don't see anyone racing to lend money at more reasonable rates.

Half the stuff people are getting through there isn't essentials anyway... no one NEEDS a flat screen TV (there are tonnes of old-style ones on Freecycle - I've got our old one I keep meaning to put on there FFS), no one NEEDS a Playstation3 - yes you might need a washing machine or a cooker - but I see tonnes of very low priced ones outside the second hand shops on our local high street - just people want the snob value of having a new one.

My washing machine btw which so far I've got about 7 years out of cost me the princely sum of £20 when I rescued it from a friend's garden where it was awaiting the binman, got it fixed (the wally had jammed it up by putting too much powder in) and it's been going strong ever since! Yes we have nice shiny electrical stuff (I'm an unashamed gadget nut) but we saved for things and bought them when we had the money - not doing it arse backwards which seems to be the way these days! I think the only stuff we have on credit at the moment are our PCs which are on a buy now pay next year deal and the money for them is sat in an ISA making a bit of interest until then.

People have screwed up priorities though - my cousin is the sort who'd be the BrightHouse queen - she thinks it's her fundamental right to have stuff NOW, without thinking it through and prioritizing things (taken us a decade to hammer home the fact that your rent is not an optional extra to pay when you can be bothered). None of it's stuff she needs - heck, no one in the family would see her out a washing machine or anything like that - but games consoles, fancy tellys and the like.

You can talk about preying on the vulnerable all you want - but they're not THAT flipping vulnerable if they're getting themselves into this for a flipping Playstation.

The one thing you CAN reasonably argue is there's a need for better financial education within schools in regards to things like interest rates on loans and the like. But at the end of the day - they're providing quite a high-risk financial investment and the interest rates reflect that (same as we're in the middle of getting a mortgage as first time buyers - smaller deposit so we're going to get less awesome interest rates)... a fairly sizeable chunk of their client base probably WILL default and not pay - however much I hate the stereotyping of people in privately rented houses (as we've rented for years), they're more mobile and harder to trace.

when i lived in a homeless hostel i used provident occasionally ,but i only ever borrowed the minimum of £50 and never missed a payment ,paid back £65 ,but when you are trying to feed and clothe a child and yourself on £45 a week sometimes they come in useful ,yes i knew it was a total rip off but we dont have any other option .

I think emptyshell says it. The BH aren't about providing affordable essential household goods to those with no other option... they do most of their business of non-essential irresponsible consumerism. The make people switch their heating off and put their kids in overtight shoes with cracked soles to be able to afford huge TVs and the latest Playstation.

"The make people switch their heating off and put their kids in overtight shoes with cracked soles to be able to afford huge TVs and the latest Playstation."

Which is lamentable, but removing one source of people's ability to be idiotic doesn't stop them from being idiots. Look how well "banning" drugs is working. Most of these debates boil down to "why can't everyone be sensible middle-class parents like me?", which I sympathise with, but it's hard to see how you can force everyone to behave like Biddy Baxter.

Agree secondhand or wait!The stuff they sell is not exactly 'essential' Our local one has the most hideous sofa in teh window which is ££££££££££££ and completely unneccesary if you are on a budget.

The way they work annoys me, but unfortunately they do meet a need - if you have little money and something breaks down the means are not there to replace it. Many people don't know about Freecycle (and if you need somethign there and then it's not so useful), buying second-hand would still involve paying a chunk of money one might not have (and if you are on low-income/benefits credit is often unavailable to you) and when options are low signign up for one of their deals becomes really attractive. Same way a lot of credit works, I suppose.

I agree with Marjee - as a student I got into a lot of debt with storecards because I wasn't used to budgeting, didn't get APRs and 10% off seemed a really good deal. I've learned since then but my credit rating is still recovering, right at the age when I might be wanting to think about buying a house or other big purchases.

Yuk - we've got one opening here next week. With that and all the cheapy-chains moving in to one end of town where there's no roof/shelter from the rain and the fancy stuff in the fancy covered shopping mall, it'll be 'poor people outside in the rain and rich people inside under cover'. In this town, social mobility means being able to go shopping inside.