I'm really bemused.

[Til]

i agree - scary that the government allow interest of 182% - I always thought there were limits to that sort of thing but guess not!

[Til]

i know ladyh - it's amazing isn't it!
first time i saw that interest rate advertised i kept rubbing my eyes in disbelief!!!

[size5]

I wish I had the time to find the previous thread on this, but there is a place for everyone in the marketplace and, believe it or not, despite the APR's quoted, Provident are a very reputable company.

Depending on what the FTSE says on any particular day, they are bigger than British Airways, and many other household names, so to dismiss their service on the basis of an APR without investigating everything behind it is foolish in the extreme.


Personally, I would rather owe money to them than to many of the High Street Banks.

Regards.

[Til]

oh yes they are very professional from what i know and reputable - would never bad mouth them for that as they clearly advertise their apr well and there is obviously a need for them - just personally I would hate to owe money to a company who collected weekly payments on my doorstep! that's a little too close to home for me but sure they are a good choice for some - however that said the woman i knew who used to work for them for years often said she would never ever ever loan from them herself!

suppose you some it up well size5 - there is a place for everyone in the marketplace - i just worry about younger versions of myself being drawn in too easily since in my area these 'doorstep' loans are all too accessible for people already struggling...

each to their own i guess x

[size5]

Til

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but if we all owed money to Provident and their ilk then iva.co.uk would not exist.

I don't know your age, but my parents, and everyone of their time, owed money to the building society for the mortgage and the "Provi man" or his or her equivalent, for the little extras, and that was it.

If you needed an overdraft then it was an interview with the bank manager, and you got it only on cast iron proposals of repayment.

It is not the doorstep loans that you need to worry about, it is the availability of credit from the so called responsible lenders, i.e the High St Banks that causes the problems.

In many years in this industry, I have yet to come across more than 10 cases of Provident agents lending clients more than they can afford to repay, simply because they have a personal relationship with each customer, which is something that the big lenders would do well to re-introduce.

Regards.

[Til]

sorry but i wasn't intending an argument - just explaining how it is in my area and i don't think my age is an issue on that... merely an observation that many people feel 182% apr is high... and also my personal experience of hearing stories of clients being passed to debt collectors after claiming they couldn't pay because their mothers had died for the 3rd time that year or hiding from the door when the 'provi man' came... i know of one collector who parked up in their car to 'stake out' the house of the person who was late paying and then ran down the street to catch them!

like i said I am not on here for argument so sorry if you took my comments on my personal experience in the wrong way

[size5]

No worries.

Like I said, each to their own view and if you have had a bad experience then you SHOULD share it with the forum.

The point I was trying to make, and I am sorry if I was a little clumsy in doing so, is that I consider Provident to be a far more responsible lender, despite the massive APR's, than almost any high st bank. In fact, I will go further than that and say that they are a more responsible lender that ALL the high st banks put together.

I have yet to hear of Provident's share price being hit by the same factors that have hit all the other lenders.

Regards.

[angelrainbow]

Can you go on the telephone and mailing preference list? Wouldn't this stop most of the unsolicited mail etc???

I keep getting stuff from my own bank and keep meaning to have words with them about not sending it out..wonder if I will get anywhere!