to think that owning a flatscreen TV proves nothing about someone's income

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Here is a flatscreen TV from Brighthouse

As you can see the APR is horrible but the weekly payments are fairly affordable. They are designed to be.

Now that we've established how people on low incomes can afford flatscreen T.V's, perhaps we can move on to accepting the legitimacy of people wanting nice things in their houses even supposing they have less money to you, or indeed different taste.

And then maybe we can have an adult conversation about the problems facing this country without it descending into a mean spirited picking apart of the minutiae of how individual working class people choose to spend their limited money.

Jeez

No-one said they shouldn't have a tv.

Its not really a radical idea to suggest that people don't buy things on massively inflated interest charges. All that happens is that poor people get poorer. Surely if you actually cared about poor people, you would be agreeing with me, rather than disagreeing?

I have enough empathy to think that if I lived in a shitty area with no safe outdoor space for my children I'd consider a tv a bit of a lifeline. If I had that few choices in life Brighthouse would seem like a life saver.

As someone pointed out up thread it is considerably cheaper to be rich than poor. Buying in bulk, best credit terms or indeed no need for credit. Direct debit always cheaper, ability to shop around online for best deals etc. I do wish some people would have a think before casting judgement because this is a problem that is only going to get worse in the next few years, sadly.

Goinnowhere: agree with that. I think some people forget that TV might be someones only entertainment

Of course it's awful to suck people into debt, but a tv is a great and relatively cheap entertainment and way of feeling plugged in to society.

Well I wouldn't be calling them idiots Virginia.

I would try and suggest a few alternatives of course. No one thinks that getting things on credit is a marvellous idea but calling people stupid is not how I would handle it.

I do understand the argument for having a tv, shit I watch way too much and am not poor. But surely there is another company or way of raising the cash, before using these complete bastards. Room 101 for them and payday loan pigs.

Brighthouse is the scurge of some people's lives they exploit people and some are daft enough to use them, you tell the person who brought a tv from brighthouse just a normal tv and then had the brighthouse thug knocking at her door ,

I didn't mean to say daft that isn't fair what I meant is some people see it as easy credit and places like brighthouse exploit that,

Loan pigs are always having their ads pulled for being misleading and displaying the apr so small you need a microscope.

With tvs and the like I think you have a few more options but I suppose people aren't aware from them or don't want to be totally without for 6 months while they save up.

It's the shitty companies people should be slagging off though in my opinion not the poor bleeders using them.

They are fuckers but payday loans are worse for aprs, some of them are in the thousands of percent.

I agree get at the companies

last advert I saw was over a thousand percent I was I hate the one where the woman who needed money for car repairs cos it was essential to get around, just really gets on my wick, I have had to use finance companies many years ago and they are shite but sometimes needs must to get by , I had a pound coin tv in the early 90s that is how the poor people rolled back then sigh

Yes, hod only knows how badly you were getting ripped off with the pound slot ones!

it wasn't too bad we always seemed to get a few quid back everytime it got emptied thing is these are all easy credit these companies will give to anybody whatever their income and it is all well and good if you can keep up with the payments some can't Nobody is saying people dont deserve a telly but these bloody companies make me

I remember when nearly everyone used to rent their TV. I think you still can rent nearly anything that might break down and leave you with a huge repair/replacement bill.

I'm not sure what happened to thinking that if you can't afford something, you just don't have one. Or you have a second-hand one.

My first couple of TVs were brought from the rental warehouse after they'd been returened at the end of their contracts. I was really amazed that I could actually afford a TV.

How things change.

www.forbes-rentals.co.uk/why-rent.asp

www.forbes-rentals.co.uk/why-rent.asp

all the rental places have closed near me 1 small shop does it near us my mum bought her first TV about 10 years ago she always rented before than, there is a thing of I MUST HAVE IT now culture I don't agree with it,

There are on-line rental places now
www.boxclever.co.uk/

They are very useful for flatshare rental etc, because no-one is lumbered with the reponsibility for a large-ticket item if someone does a moonlight flit.

I do wonder if in-built obsolescence is part of the issue with second hand tv's now - after all 30 years ago fixing a broken CRT tv would be a matter of replacing a part, a bulb or a circuit etc. Now a broken down LED or LCD TV is more complex and less robust. Digital TV and freeview is required to be able to watch TV.

Our last TV before our current was CRT and cost £12 from a carboot sale - but it lasted a couple of years though only one scart was operating and there were missing pixels. But when it died we finally joined the HD flat screen on the wall convention. It is easy to become accustomed to such tech and feel you 'need' it. It demonstrates an almost wilful lack of imagination to refuse to see why anyone would be willing to pay over the odds but in an affordable payment plsn over a few years for a TV.

I noticed when I was in Asda the other day that they are offering a kind of payment plan on their electricals no interest just a few months to pay. They do a 32" for about £190 and the payment plans seem to cover goods over £50. Hopefully it'll keep people away from sharks like Brighthouse.

Plenty of families who purchased their TV before they lost their jobs and needed to claim benefits.....

The trouble is credit references, even for Asda I should imagine Whatsthatnoise

Credit references is as big a scam to make money for institutions as PPI or anything ever was, but the govt won't do anything about it. Why don't they clamp down on any business charging over, say, 15% APR on any goods or service? Oops, I'm making myself laugh now.

A friend's partner who's unemployed got a 60" TV recently, swapped for their old 42" plus £100 because the guy with the 60" found it TOO BIG! I'm still pondering about this one [hconfused]

Sorry I wasn't clear the way i read it and bearing in mind it was a poster on the back of a toilet door with Asda i don't think you get the goods until they have been fully paid for. This means they wouldn't need credit references but I suppose wouldn't appeal to those who need the goods right now.

I have no problem with anyone having a flat screen tv and I have no problem where they buy it from, how big it is or how they pay for it.

However, your flat screen tv should NEVER be bigger than you bookcase.

i have a flat wall tv thingy i brought it a few weeks ago from a friend who likes the latest gadget thingy. but i also have a library so i guess thats ok.

the last tv i owned before that was a huge boxy one that had lasted me years and years, i gave it to my friend. she was quite happy with it as it ment she didnt have to buy one

Say what you like but I couldn't help think "oh this is odd" when I went to my colleague's house last year and she had a humongous wall-mounted TV at least 40" wide considering she lives in a shabby one bedroom bungalow and she's always moaning that she's sometimes too skint to buy toilet paper!