What is the worst loan you have been offered?

[scorrie]

I had a letter delivered today from a Company called Provident Personal Credit. They offer you a cash loan or a loan pre-loaded onto a Visa debit card. If you take a £300 loan you then pay back £9 a week for 55 weeks ie £495 and the typical APR is 177% (no, I haven't missed the decimal point!!)

To add to that woe, the Agent (heavy) calls every week to collect your repayment.

Has anyone seen similar or worse loans than this? It seems like legalised loan sharking to me.

[emb123]

I got one too. Was even addressed to me. Spooky!

Must admit I was thinking about the card option to xfer a blanace from another card for reduced rate of interest so I looked for APR on the Visa card and couldn't find it anywhere. Thanks for the APR warning!

I'd almost go for it just to see how long the collector/heavy survived, trudging up to Bettyhill every week through the winter snow. :evil

[kriklah]

yep Provident are high interest loaners but they are legit, i used them years ago. they tend to specilise in small loans (largest they do is 1000 and only then if youve been with them for years) and cater to the unemployed, who cant get loans otherwise. as far as im aware though they dont have a collections agent up here in lil old caithness, so seems pointless advertising up here!!!! theres another company called Greenwoods who are the same

[chiccool]

yep Provident are high interest loaners but they are legit, i used them years ago. they tend to specilise in small loans (largest they do is 1000 and only then if youve been with them for years) and cater to the unemployed, who cant get loans otherwise. as far as im aware though they dont have a collections agent up here in lil old caithness, so seems pointless advertising up here!!!! theres another company called Greenwoods who are the same

They have an office in Princess st. in Thurso ,next to the hairdressers.

[orkneylass]

the worst loan you can be offered is one you cannot afford - as thousands of people find out too late. the trouble is, people think that if they are offered the loan, the loan company must have done their thinking for them and worked out that they could afford it.

[DeHaviLand]

I've worked for both companies ( Greenwood is wholly owned by Provident) in Glasgow. Although expensive, they have their place in society. They offer quick and easy loans to those people who cannot borrow from mainstream lenders. Consequently, they take a massive hit from bad debtors, hence the reason their interest rates are so high.
Interestingly, their rates seem to have come down. When I last worked with them, APR was 367.
And their "heavies" are just as likely to be women, often working just one day a week for pin money.