[Mike Osbourne]

Vacman

The point is not they need to charge more interest because they are risky (sub prime), it's because they shouldn't have been lent in the first place, This is why the world economy is in the mess it's in now because a few greedy people took risks and collected right up until it went tits up and we, not them, are paying the consequences for the next decade.

[vacman]

Mike i totally disagree with you. The lenders who have gone belly-up were lending to what were actually considered a 'good risk'. The downfall was the amount which these people were allowed to borrow. And quite frankly, the borrowers have to accept some responsibility for that as well, but of course in this 'blame culture' of ours where no beggar is capable of saying 'i am at fault too', you don't her people admitting it.

Provident has been around for donkeys years and was always aimed at its niche market. So have Brighthouse for instance. They too have their own policies, prices, and ways of dealing with their business. Lots of shops have closed down recently, Brighthouse is not one of them. Have you heard of Provie or Brighthouse leading the world to hell in a handcart? As yet i haven't.

[Mike Osbourne]

Yeah, whatever.

[Dave_Lee]

CCJ's (county court judgements) and Defaults stay on your credit file for 6 years.
Dave.

[vacman]

Yeah, whatever.

Yes, if in doubt, apply the 'whatever'.  :

[Mike Osbourne]

I applied the whatever because I there's no point trying to talk sense with the deluded. These companies in my opinion are basically using the same mechanisms loan sharks use except they wear suits and have flashes offices.

[vacman]

Mike, i am not deluded on the subject, i happen to have an opinion on it that differs to yours. Yours is not the only answer.

[John Kelly]

Sub prime is exactly what its says. They are customers who wouldn't normally be considered for credit. The banks and finance companies are greed driven and weren't happy with the billions in profits they were making from good customers they decided to start taking risks with customers they would have not normally touched with a barge pole.
In America, once the mortgage lenders got the green light to do this they were like rabid dogs. A lot of them were in partnership with slum landlords and callouded to offer their tennants the chance to buy the property they were renting with the lure that the mortgage payments were lower than the rent they were paying. The areas they targetted were primarily Black and poor White areas.
What the numptys didn't tell them was that the mortgage rates were capped for 2 years and after 2 years they went a lot higher than what they had been paying in rent. This was done on a huge scale and ran into to Billions of Dollars. Consequently hundreds of thousands of them defaulted and were reposessed.
Guess who then bought the property back at a cheap price, the original landlords.
In the meantime those mortgages were packaged up as class A investments and sold on the world markets. Again the greedy banks that bought them didn't do due diligence and got their fingers burnt. This is the crux of what caused the crash and what annoys me is apart from a few individuals nobody has really been brought to task. In the meantime all of us and our children are going to suffering for decades to come.
As regards door step credit agencys my sister used to work for one in the office. Their customers were the dregs of society and charged rediculous rates but what boiled my p was before Xmas they organised toy fairs where their customers would go and pay nearly double for toys for their kids, all on credit. And worse was the agents used to buy wholesale jewellry and tout this to them on the premise it was only a quid or two a week. Scumbags the lot of them.