Fair For You Loan Referral Code

[Dreamwhisper]

Just posting to say I have a code for the fair for you scheme which applies if you take out a Fair For You loan or apply for an Iceland food club card:

secure.fairforyou.co.uk/refer-a-friend/W5L6DD/

I signed up for the food club card and found it incredibly handy, especially as once you make your first £10 payment you can change the payment schedule and pay less per month, and change it to match your pay schedule. It's interest free and they allow you to top up the loan for each school holiday so it's really handy for covering having DC around for every meal!

OP, I say this kindly but the APR on loans from this company is 55%.

It's a mystery as to how they are able to call themselves 'fair' when this is an outrageous amount of interest. This is loan shark territory and I'm completely stumped as to how they've managed to get linked in with a charity.

If you need to borrow money, please look into local cooperative groups. Or if you're in receipt of benefits and desperately need household appliances, I believe there are short term government schemes.

Ah apparently the food card is 0% interest but their other loans are 55%. I'd be very wary about this type of scheme. 😳

You could have saved yourself the effort of writing that post, by reading the op's post properly.

They're a business not a charity and they still have the same operational costs (staff, equipment, systems, compliance, debt recovery) as those who lend far higher amounts of money at lower APRs.

Yes, the APR looks scary, but they're a lot better than the alternative for people who can't get mainstream credit.

For example, they sell a washing machine for £260 that you can pay for at £9 ish per week for 32 weeks and yes, it does cost nearly £300 over time and that's more than better off people who'd just go and buy one without thinking would pay, but they're a huge amount better than the likes of Provident, or Bright House, where you'd probably end up paying more like £500.

Plus yes, they have the Iceland microloan scheme, which is admittedly likely a loss leader for their main credit business, but used wisely, for essentials, I think on balance it's a good thing they're doing. And they report to credit reference agencies, so build good credit histories, which can help people access 0% finance and credit cards, so they don't need to use this sort of company.

And of course we have to treat people like adults, in charge of their own decisions, so while a minority might use the service to buy things they don't need and can't afford, we can't restrict what people can or can't buy or the range of goods that a private company sells, providing they're not illegal.

You could have saved yourself the effort of writing that post, by reading the op's post properly.
*
You're right, I could have.* 😂

"Plus yes, they have the Iceland microloan scheme, which is admittedly likely a loss leader for their main credit business"

Yes, I would imagine that's the strategy. Hopefully they don't apply pressure to people who are using it, in order to move to a loan. But you're right, people are adults and can make their own decisions. I just know a couple of people who got into horrendous difficulties with large APR short term loans and wanted to offer a wee warning in case OP wasn't aware. Genuinely meant from a place of concern 😬

Hi sorry I forgot I posted this!

Apologies, I didn't realise the rates of the loans. I specifically use the Iceland food club card which is definitely interest fee and can be used by people with not great credit scores too. Given that food bank stocks are reportedly going to be further effected by supermarkets efforts to cut food wastage, I thought it might be useful especially over the winter, as families have just come through the school holidays and now have half terms and Christmas holidays too!

I would not advise taking a loan out on credit for their goods to be honest, it looks like one of those seemingly good but quite nasty schemes like Bright House.

@blinkingtelly