Back in November I attended a lecture entitled, “Is Vulture lending good for Britain?”
It was all about loan companies lending people money and charging ridiculously high interest rates.
Some of these companies are targetting students and young people through social media channels. I hadn’t realised quite how serious the issue was until this lecture where there were a series of speakers who really highlighted the huge issue of vulture lending.
This is particularly pertinent for students as we are already storing up debt from our loans and finding a job can be difficult in the current climate and thus loans may be quite appealing.
There is currently a petition to lobby the Government to do more about this and act at a faster pace and stop loan companies from charging such high interest rates. This is the link to the petition http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20219 . I’d encourage you to sign it.
There’s also a survey being conducted about vulture lending (aka loan sharks) for students to see what you know about it. Again I’d encourage you to fill this in: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7QXH9RJ
If you have any concerns or queries about your finances, remember you can attend weekly finance drop in sessions in The Advice Centre on a Tuesday from 10am-4pm or you can contact The Advice Centre on 023 8059 2085 or on advice@susu.org. Also check out the finance section on the life tab www.susu.org/life for some helpful tips.