To be irritated by people on C4 news taking out payday loans

[SilverSixpence]

I am at people taking out loans to buy brand new fridge freezers and playstations from Bright House instead of buying secondhand/doing without if they can't afford it. 8 year olds are old enough to understand they cant have the latest thing if their parents can't afford it. If your kids are influenced by ads just turn them off! Isn't this basic common sense?

I think it's not the wisest thing, but I think it's understandable. It must be shit being poor and having no way out. I don't honestly think a lot of us will ever appreciate the reality of it, the drugery and the constant sacrifice and never quite making ends meet.

I think I can quite understand the desire to escape from that for one day a year, regardless of the cost.

I too think payday loan places should be made illegal. It is usury which is talked about in most religous texts as being very bad. You would think 2000 years of history would provide us with enough hindsight to see this is what payday loans are and ban them.

I think the vast majority of people are using payday loans for what I consider necessities and not things like playstations. Our MP's have done a terrible job of protecting and supporting the poor. This is one thing I would change, along with restricting the movement of people to the UK who are unskilled or semi skilled thus driving down wages and opportunities for those already here.

Thing is ziggie I'm not sure it is just one day of the year.

The fridges/washing machines that people are talking about on this thread make up only 20% of bright houses sales.

the heavy burden of credit on low income families barnardos

the poverty premium, the poorer you are the more yu pay - save the children

I think that's separate; the report touched on both subjects. I think if you're that hard up, even £50 for a second hand fridge is less affordable than £5 a week or what have you. I'm not making excuses, just trying to see both sides.

I also think that if there's no chance you're going to ever be comfortably off, you'd think 'might as well treat myself to the bright house sofa' because £100 on a second hand one is as unattainable as a £500 one.

And I think the drudgery would get to you. Youd get sick of having second hand stuff all the time, never having the choice of colour.

I don't know. I'm probably totally wrong. But it's how I'd feel.

That's why furniture banks are good and need more support
Why in this day and need they should exist is another thread really

I had a poor childhood it wasn't much fun having nothing I've been piss poor as an adult too. That wasn't much fun either.
I do wish people would take their rose tinted spectacles off.

Many on this thread don't have a fucking clue and preach to and judge the poor from their comfortable lives.

Get over yourselves.

Well said usualsuspect I do think a lot of people comment regarding issues such as this but they themselves have never been in a position they have gone without food to feed their kid's, or had an emergency bill and not had money to pay. Maybe if they had they would be a bit more sympathetic.

usualsuspect you put it better than I did - the op sort of sounds like a conversation David Cameron might start. Unfortunately, loans are a life saver for some people.

On Curry's web site, a large fridge-freezer and a washing machine can each be had for £200, delivered, and those aren't the absolute cheapest ones.

I went to look on Brighthouse site to see what weekly payments would be for similar items, as presumably that amount of saving would be affordable. I wanted to calculate how many months you would have to do without if you chose to save instead and buy from Currys. However the cheapest full size fridge, equivalent in size to a £250 Indesit at Curry's, costs £1300 from Brighthouse. I'm sorry, you would have to be fucking insane to sign up for the Brighthouse deal.

(That fridge is £8.50 a week, so you would have to save for seven months to get a similar size from Curry's.)

Where's the joy in living without a fridge, for seven months? Well I'd have difficulty enjoying paying for five fridges and getting one.

Are you in that position though?

Do you know what it's like to not have a fridge 7 months?

for*

fraidycat you've kind of missed the fact that some people don't have a choice. They don't actually have the cash available to buy a fridge outright.

I expect Fraidycat is another one telling the 'poor' to save up.

While drinking champers chilled from the Smeg.

I really hope some of the snobbier posters on here never find themselves desperate enough to borrow money - life can be unpredictable, after all.

And what do we keep food in for 7 months, or milk for the kids? My post about borrowing a washer was a short term solution not 7 months!!!

Interesting idea this "don't comment unless you've been in this situation". Are you logically consistent and apply this to everything, or is it just a tactic for silencing opinions you don't like? So for example should we not pass comment on gays being sentenced to death in Uganda, unless we've been a gay in Uganda awaiting execution ourselves?

Fridges are essential. I managed three months without one in my council flat back when I was young, single and had no children. I was having to buy tiny packs of chilled stuff like margarine (have you noticed how buyers of small packs pay more per gram?) In summer, stuff didn't keep at all, and I remember becoming ill.

By that time, I had managed to save enough to pay upfront, fortunately.

If I'd had children, I would have been buying a fridge via hire-purchase the same week I signed the tenancy.

I dont know why i am returning to this thread.
Lets just say that you manage somehow to save 50 pounds.And you find someone to collect it.
Then a month later it brakes down. You lost what is for you a fortune. You see the more comfortable you are the more risks you can take. Sometimes the risks will work out and you will feel smart, sometimes they wont but thats ok if you are not poor.

Something that i dont think it has been mentioned: the cheap second hand ones are usually b or c rating but the new ones are AA.
Combine this with a key meter
. This is why they call it poverty trap.

I think a gay person in Uganda would be better qualified to tell you how it felt,yes.

Yes! Economy ratings! That fridge. I was young, able to go without eating a healthy diet for a bit and all that, and I had a key meter. I saved up to get an A-rated fridge, because I knew a second hand one could end up costing me more in the long run.

But I couldn't do that now.

to judge - verb 1. form an opinion or conclusion about.

I would say commenting and judging are more or less the same in this context, certainly nobody would comment if they hadn't formed an opinion.

And the point about logical consistency still stands, many bad things in the world would never be questioned if people did not form an opinion about circumstances they had not experienced personally. Telling people "don't judge" comes across as a cheap tactic to attempt to silence debate ignoring the material points somebody is attempting to make. If their judgement is wrong, share the refutation with them.