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.

"That’s the one big thing I hate about mumsnet the sneering middle class high handedness , the just go and get a job in Tesco / Asda , just buy yourself a secondhand whatever, your not worth anything else"

People can't win on MN. One one hand we have posters here saying that people should just rely on kettles/microwaves to prepare food, but you wouldn't have to look very hard to find other posts about how poor people should eat things like lentils/pasta/ etc, that take time, energy and a COOKER to prepare.

@wherethecloudsaregoing

I hear you. You should try washing your hands in one after changing a tampon.

But that doesn't mean you should espect others to be.

But exactly. Why would you, if you had any other alternative at all - not envious.

judging others who are actually in that situation for not making the same choice.

When does it stop being OK to judge someone for making choices that you wouldn't make yourself?
Working as a hitman - always OK to judge
Cold calling call centre staff - probably OK to judge
Staffing a "kill" animal shelter - not OK to judge
Working in debt collection of a bank - probably not OK to judge
Brighthouse staff - ??

You might not even agree with my assessments of those occupations above.

My point is that there are limits to "live and let live" and who gets to draw the line? You say I shouldn't judge, I think I can, which of us is right?

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

Very, very true.

There are so many areas of life where the poorer you are, the more you have to pay for things - whether it's not having the money upfront to buy two of something on 3 for 2 or 'spend £50 get £10 off' all the way down to getting charged an extra 10% for your essential insurances if you have to pay them monthly; even the government is in on the racket of exploiting the poor by charging you an extra 5% if you can't afford your year's road tax in one single payment.

I don't think anybody would deny that the poor should be able to get their hands on essentials like basic TVs, cookers, fridges, washing machines etc - I'm guessing the PS4s, leather 3-piece suites and top of the range laptops were probably aggressively persuasively upsold - but Brighthouse isn't it.

At least standard loan sharks don't usually force you to spend the money with them as well as borrowing it from them at exorbitant rates.

Without wanting to patronise anybody, to buy at such atrociously high overall prices, you would have to either be unable to comprehend just how much it was actually going to cost you or otherwise just be extremely desperate. All of their customers are being exploited, whether they realise it or not. I personally couldn't sleep at night owning or working for company run on such Faustian principles.

As long as you can buy your agas and smeg fridges with cash, who cares about the poor, eh?

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I tried economics on this thread. It didn't work or go down well.

At least standard loan sharks don't usually force you to spend the money with them as well as borrowing it from them at exorbitant rates.

At least Brighthouse don't threaten to break your legs or firebomb your house if you miss a payment...

What a ridiculous sentence to utter.

I cannot believe anyone would start a sentence suggesting that a loan shark would be a better option

What planet are you on?

just buy yourself a secondhand whatever, your not worth anything else

What? How does buying second hand equate with being worthless? I earn a good salary but bought all my furniture from the charity shop because it was an absolute bargain, and I think new sofas/tables are a rippoff. I got my sofa and table for £35 each. Second hand is great and something we should be doing more of, what with the climate crisis.

I personally couldn't sleep at night owning or working for company run on such Faustian principles.

Let's hope you never fall on hard times eh? With principles like that you might struggle to pay the mortgage on that ivory tower you're living in.

When does it stop being OK to judge someone for making choices that you wouldn't make yourself?

I never said you can't judge. You feel free to judge people for not wanting to make themselves homeless. And I will feel free to judge you for judging them.

How do you know - do you have recruitment data for the localities of every single person who works there?

The unemployment rate in the U.K. is the lowest it’s been for 70 years. The chances that in any given area the only single job going is in one retail outlet are vanishingly small.

But let’s assume that mythical situation arises, are you suggesting there is no point at which a person should say “actually no, I’m not prepared to do that”

I personally couldn't sleep at night owning or working for company run on such Faustian principles.

Let's hope you never fall on hard times eh? With principles like that you might struggle to pay the mortgage on that ivory tower you're living in.

I'm currently (slowly) approaching the end of two years of extremely difficult financial times - to the extent where I haven't been able to sleep properly or relax in the day because of constant money worries. I'm very grateful that things are now finally starting on the up, but I'm fully aware that some people never get that eventual amnesty and their circumstances will be the same until the day they die.

You're dead right about struggling to pay the mortgage and living on tenterhooks as to whether the bank will honour the payment and then charge through the nose for an unauthorised overdraft or otherwise refuse it and leave you fielding letters, calls and texts from the mortgage company and panicking about whether you'll lose your home because you simply have no money to pay them. My car broke down at the end of August last year and hasn't moved since - I'm looking at hopefully getting it fixed again by the end of this July.

I think that it's actually experiencing very dark financial times that gives you the empathy for those for whom it's their permanent state - and which would make the idea of deliberately visiting that on to another person pure anathema.

For some comfortably-off people who've never experienced hardship, and who tend towards the 'the poor are all just a load of lazy scum who should try harder' mentality, I can kind of see how they might justify running a racket like this and seeing their customers as not actually quite human.

I'm not saying that their actions are on the same level as those who traffic barely-adult women into prostitution, thousands of miles away from their homes, with false promises and deceit; but I believe that the principles along which they think and how they value other humans are not a million miles apart.

Clearly they weren't making lots of profit from misery or other, because they've gone bust! They charged such high rates because the risk of people not repaying them was so high. Their model was clearly flawed somewhere, but if they'd been making lots of money, they'd still be here.

Clearly they weren't making lots of profit from misery or other, because they've gone bust!

The reason they went bust is because a lot of people claimed against them for miss selling. They had to pay back so many claims that they have gone bust. It’s not because they weren’t making money. I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t be making money if you are selling £250 items for £2000

The reason they went bust is because a lot of people claimed against them for miss selling.

This is an important point - thank god for the army of lawyers who we often find an annoyance running around drumming up business. They're a crucial check on predatory business.

This is an important point - thank god for the army of lawyers who we often find an annoyance running around drumming up business. They're a crucial check on predatory business.

Except these lawyers are also a predatory business. Often they are taking up to 30% of the money that people are entitled to for sending 1 bog standard letter. They may be fronted by one lawyer, but a lawyer won't be handling the case, it will be an admin person who is paid buttons, adding in a person's details to a letter they've probably copied from Martin Lewis' website.

I've not read the whole thread, but has anyone mentioned Fair For You? They are an ethical social enterprise lending to people on lower incomes. I think that unlike many of the other of these type of companies they share credit scores, allowing you to build up a good rating, rather than the other companies who keep the information to keep people dependent. They don't put a massive mark up on the goods either.

Except these lawyers are also a predatory business. Often they are taking up to 30% of the money that people are entitled to for sending 1 bog standard letter. They may be fronted by one lawyer, but a lawyer won't be handling the case, it will be an admin person who is paid buttons, adding in a person's details to a letter they've probably copied from Martin Lewis' website.

While that may be true, they are the ones who relentlessly scrutinise and publicise these infractions.

thank god for the army of lawyers who we often find an annoyance running around drumming up business

Yes thank god for the higher insurance premiums we pay for our car insurance due to frivolous/fraudulent no win no fee claims. I for one am delighted to pay more

In what circumstances do you imagine low income families need items from Bright House? There are always alternative options. Freecycle, second hand.

I bought my bed from Brighthouse 7 years ago. It’s all paid off now and I never had a problem with payments. I would not have been able to afford the whole coat upfront at a bed shop, so Brighthouse really came in handy. No way was I getting a bed from free cycle.

*cost

There is no may about it, it is undoubtedly true but they are also making vast profits for doing a little more than fuck all.

Yes thank god for the higher insurance premiums we pay for our car insurance due to frivolous/fraudulent no win no fee claims. I for one am delighted to pay more

That's entirely different from a class action law suit, which has brought down Brighthouse.

Not to mention the enormous success of the PPI lawsuit, which actually caused a discernible dip in the GDP when the claims expired - which has left banks a bit nervous about how they manage their fees and charges.