youthmoney

Gaurdian Society has just launched a monthly column on financial exclusion and poverty. It’s written by Faisel Rahman, managing director of the not-for-profit social enterprise Fair Finance.
Today’s article looks at payday loans. Underneath it is a bunch of google ads promoting the very services – from companies such as the Money Shop – that Rahman is [...]

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“Loan fat cats prey on the desperate poor to fund mansion lifestyle,” said yesterday’s News of the World. Under a headline “You vultures!”, it laid charges of cashing in on Britain’s poorest against  high-street store BrightHouse and its rent-to-buy schemes for household goods.
The paper reports that the company is “raking in record profits of £20million [...]

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Buckle sells clothes to young people. To be more precise, its 388 stores around the US offer a unique mix of high-quality, on-trend apparel, accessories, and footwear to fashion-conscious young men and women. That’s according to the guff on its website.
 
There’s nothing remarkable about what it sells. But how it sells is a bit different.
It [...]

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TV presenter Rebecca Wilcox took a hidden camera into various New Look branches to see how store cards are sold.
The conversation she had in one went something like this:
Sales assistant: “There’s no APR for three months. It’s free of charge and literally takes two minutes. Just your name and your address.
Rebecca Wilcox: What did you [...]

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What is the product or service most heavily advertised to young people?
I posed that question earlier in the week. It occurred to me following the launch of the inquiry into the commercialisation of childhood.
There’s nothing scientific about the answer I’m going to give. It’s not based on industry metrics. It is simply the astute observation of [...]

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While researching this Observer Cash piece on mobile phone defaulters, I talked to a lot of people who seemed surprised about what happens.
It is as if people know what a mobile phone contract is. They know they are hard to get out of. But they don’t seem to think through the implications…

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