To be delighted that Brighthouse is about to go bust?

[AgeLikeWine]

It’s not all bad news at the moment. .

Brighthouse is a nasty, exploitative business which rips off the poor, the uneducated and the vulnerable by selling household goods at inflated prices on finance at extortionate interest rates. Their business model relies on creating spirals of debt in a similar way to Wonga.

Normally I would sympathise with the staff of businesses which go bust, but not in this case. Good riddance.

Certainly no worse than vile predators who financially profit from people's misery.

There’s something deeply unpleasant with people who revel in other people’s misery.

But that’s exactly what Brighthouse did. They targeted people who were poor and got them further into debt. They profited from other people’s financial misery.

I have as much sympathy for Brighthouse workers as I do when I hear about the scam call centres being raided in India and everyone being arrested

For goodness sake! Brighthouse workers are not fraudsters.

Don't you realise that, apart from not-for-profit co-operatives, every business that sells you something is making a profit from you? Where do you draw the line?

I doubt it costs thousands of £ to produce a designer handbag but no one goes round saying Louis Vuitton workers are immoral.

A MacDonalds hamburger costs less than a penny to make but you don't call MacDonalds workers immoral.

Since you have appointed yourself as arbiter, please let us know what an acceptable retail mark up is, so the rest of us can boycott any companies that exceed it.

A £800 washing machine when it can be bought for £149 in Argos? When I was poor I bought my washing machine for £30 off Facebook

If you only have £5 a week spare then a £149 machine from Argos isn't affordable. If you only have £5 a week spare then even £30 isn't affordable, especially if you then have to pay another £10/£20 to get someone to deliver it for you.

Thing is whilst I agree that those businesses are exploitative, how are poor people meant to get finance?

They join a credit union. I used to work for one. We offered laptops, white goods, all kinds. Not just loans.

It's sickening.

I so glad it's closed. I hope the staff get new, less exploitative jobs.

I would rather do ANYTHING than work for a company that prey on people's vulnerabilities.

Great post @TheMemoryLingers

The difference is being able to come up with £149 or even £30 but still really needing a washing machine. So you sign up to pay £5 a week for a few months and don't think about the fact that it will go up to £30 in a few months time and that you'll end up spending £2000 on an £800 washing machine because you didn't have £30 or £149.

But that's how poor people live most of the time really not much choice than to pay over the odds a lot of the time

I understand the need to use places like Brighthouse for things you need urgently - fridges or washers. For non-essential goods though, surely you could just save up the money you would be paying weekly to Brighthouse, and ultimately save £££s in interest.

No flamingo, in saying that you are assuming the role of parent.

That is not your role.

It's nice to look down your nose at places that help out the poor when you've never needed their services, just like it's nice to be a small minded judgemental ass hat when you've always had a cushy life.

'Brighthouse' and 'help the poor' do not fit in the same sentence.

Ridiculous

Excellent news. No sympathy for their staff. If you had a moral compass you wouldn’t work for the bastards.

Brilliant news, and the government needs to bring in legislation preventing companies like this exploiting the vulnerable and poor.

All the people saying "yes but Brighthouse is better than nothing and the poor have no other options", the poor do have other options: they are called "credit unions".

Credit unions charge reasonable interest and you can spend the loan at any shop on the most suitable appliance for you, you're not tied into Brighthouse's range.

If you don't need a loan right now, join a credit union anyway: you save your money for a rainy day and it's lent to others who need it.

They have been one of our customers and their collapse will severely affect the suppliers cashflow and in turn their employees, I won't join in with the glee.

Credit unions are a possible option.

They are not an absolute panacea when the washing machine suddenly breaks.

Not quite sure why there's any surprise that a business founded on giving credit to people with poor credit ratings could have failed ...

The difference is being able to come up with £149 or even £30 but still really needing a washing machine. So you sign up to pay £5 a week for a few months and don't think about the fact that it will go up to £30 in a few months time and that you'll end up spending £2000 on an £800 washing machine because you didn't have £30 or £149.

from Terry Pratchett ...

The Sam Vimes "Boots" Theory of Economic Injustice runs thus:

At the time of Men at Arms, Samuel Vimes earned thirty-eight dollars a month as a Captain of the Watch, plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots, the sort that would last years and years, cost fifty dollars. This was beyond his pocket and the most he could hope for was an affordable pair of boots costing ten dollars, which might with luck last a year or so before he would need to resort to makeshift cardboard insoles so as to prolong the moment of shelling out another ten dollars.

Therefore over a period of ten years, he might have paid out a hundred dollars on boots, twice as much as the man who could afford fifty dollars up front ten years before. And he would still have wet feet.

@Alsohuman

Excellent news. No sympathy for their staff. If you had a moral compass you wouldn’t work for the bastards.

Would you let your children go hungry rather than work at Brighthouse? Or become homeless?

I've not voted either way.

I'm very glad if the company has gone. Exploitative does not begin to cover them.

However, I feel sorry for the staff. I doubt it was the first choice job for many of them - sometimes you ahve to take what you can get

All the people saying "yes but Brighthouse is better than nothing and the poor have no other options", the poor do have other options: they are called "credit unions".

Not everywhere has credit unions easily accessible.

Plus the credit union where I live for your first loan you can only borrow out the same as what you've paid in. So to borrow £150 for a cooker someone would have to have been paying in for the best part of a year already

They can all go out and get jobs doing something useful to society, like working at Tesco.

Jesus, this place gets worse every day. Has it not occurred to you that when they took the job a Brighthouse they might have had no other option?

I doubt it costs thousands of £ to produce a designer handbag but no one goes round saying Louis Vuitton workers are immoral.

A luxury product, targetted at the rich with an upfront honest price tag, is not comparable to ripping off the poorest in our society.

A MacDonalds hamburger costs less than a penny to make but you don't call MacDonalds workers immoral.

Again, a luxury product, insofar as it is a "treat" meal, not staple food, and the price tag is an honest one.

You are completely ignoring how companies like Brighthouse do their best to hide the total repayment value in the smallest of small print, and the only reason why they've put it there at all is because the law compels them to. This goes beyond profit making, they are actually trying to deceive people when they are at their most vulnerable.

Credit unions are a possible option.They are not an absolute panacea when the washing machine suddenly breaks.

Under that circumstance, I would suggest a payday loan to pay for the appliance repair whilst you apply for the credit union loan, then pay off the payday loan ASAP using the credit union loan. Yes, you are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, but when Peter offers a competitive interest rate and Paul offers instant cash, it's a sensible thing to do. I don't like payday loan companies much but I concede that credit unions can't provide an immediate loan.

Wow. Sadly your principles don't pay other people's bills.

Wow, stop defending exploitative businesses.