Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

High interest rate debt for young relative

1 reply

Unbeleevable · 11/03/2025 19:16

NC for this post. A young person I know (very young dc of a neighbour, only just 18) has developed a gambling addiction and is now deeply into debt with what sounds like a loan shark (informal lending, no proper paperwork, very high interest).

The family can bail the young person out, but is wondering can you stop someone from taking on more “unauthorised” debt again in future? I don’t know what happens in a situation like that; if the family reported the “lender” or refused to pay the debt, would someone end up getting physically hurt? Would it rebound on the dc in some way?

I live a very staid lower middle class life and in all my days never came across a situation like this outside programs like Eastenders!

OP posts:
IamSmarticus · 12/03/2025 09:00

Someone with a gambling addiction will find anyway they can to get money so I am not sure they could be prevented from taking on any debt in the future. I woud. be tying to support him with his addiction firstly.

The lender could be reported to the Police but I'm not sure what they would/could do, it maybe worth your neighbour having a chat with them anyway. If the lender is as didgyas you describe, I too would be afraid of repercussions if the debt wasn't paid!

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread