Provident don't lend £350 as a first loan. don't work for them but have used them and Greenwards in the recent past through lack of choice and a house move with only 9 days notice
Their first loan is for a maximum of £150. Their interest rates on their loans is a fucking shocking 423% APR.
On a £350 loan, that works out to...£1,480.50. Which would be £28.47 a week to pay back.
However, you can choose to pay it back in less than a year, which lowers the rate of interest you pay, but pushes up the weekly payment to even sillier amounts - over 26 weeks, you would likely have an APR of 212%, which WOULD make the total repayable amount £742, making the payment still £28.54 a week.
Can you tell I hate having had to rely on fucking Provident?!
But they REALLY DO make you aware of the APR AND the total amount that you will have to repay. And there us a 7 day 'cooling off' period too, where if you return the full amount of money to them, they cannot charge you any of the interest.
I can't see that this could possibly be the first loan your DM has had from Provident, to be able to get a £350 loan.
They ARE bastards, and very pushy when it comes to asking for the repayments though - they can hound you by phone, and knocking on the door as many days a week as they can, as soon as you miss two payments - which is easy to do if you are ill, for example. And they expect you to catch up ASAP.
I borrowed £150 at 212% interest, to be paid back over 6 months, but because I've missed a few payments here and there, I have about a month left to pay. I was paying back £15 a week.
Some people have NO choice but to borrow from loan companies like Provident, in my case, I had just 9 days notice of a HA house move, and a removal van to pay for. I can't magic up £150, and nobody else is queuing up to lend to an unemployed, disabled Lone Parent on benefits...
Like it or not, they provide a service that people DO need, especially since the demise of the Social Fund loan.
There are times when I have to resort to the likes of Provident and Greensward (it might be an idea to check that she doesn't have any loans with them, too, as they are now just branches of the same business, often with the same collector, but are able to loan completely separately to each other...) because there just IS nowhere else to get credit from.
But I how into it with my eyes open, knowing what the interest rates are, and knowing that the alternative is Wonga et al, whose interest rates make Provident's pale into insignificance...5348% interest on a loan, anybody?!
I make the choice to use Provident, in times of emergency need only (TRUE 'I need money NOW, and not just for electricity, but for a removal van / cooker / fridge freezer kind of expense), as the 'least shitty' of two very shitty options.
I would LOVE to be able to get a credit card at 29.9% interest...
BUT, the reason for Provident's high interest rates is because something like 45% of their customers don't even pay back their initial LOAN amount - so they are lending to an incredibly 'high risk of default' section of society, and their interest rates therefore reflect that level of risk as a business.
The lending to an elderly woman with MH issues and medical issues is questionable at best though...does anyone have Power of Attorney over your DM's finances? And did they at the time she took out the loan? If not, then she will be deemed as capable of making her own financial decisions. However, if someone DOES have Power of Attorney over her finances, then they may well have no choice but to write off the loan, as it would be easy to prove that your DM was incapable of agreeing to the terms of the contract.