Students: payday loans are not your only option
If you’re counting down the days until your next student loan payment, think twice before turning to payday loans websites. Photograph: Alamy
If you’re counting down the days until your next student loan payment, think twice before turning to payday loans websites. Photograph: Alamy
T he top testimonial for payday loan company Se, who declares in block capitals: I love you Smart-Pig! You are my favourite pig ever! Who needs Peppa when you’re in my life!
Noor has clearly only met pigs willing to give her a 782% representative APR loan, a full 1% worse than the offer from Smart Pig.
Smart Pig is just one of a number of high interest payday lenders now offering their services to students. Their adverts, which have been reported to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), highlight prizes you can get your hands on, including the opportunity to win a term’s rent. All in a space they could have used to explain their APR.
Targeting Students
A worrying number of undergraduates are turning to payday loans. Around 2% of undergraduates used them last year, according to a survey by the National Union of Students (NUS). This may not sound like a lot, until you consider this means up to 46,000 students are risking the debt spiral associated with payday loans.
Despite a NUS campaign in 2013 to ban payday loan adverts on campuses, payday lenders are still heavily targeting students.
Peachy Loans have recently had complaints upheld against them by the ASA for an advert they ran on sandwich wrappers in cafes opposite university campuses and colleges. The campaign, it was found, encouraged a casual attitude to taking out a loan. Its slogan was: Small bites put a smile on your lips! You can now get a loan from ?50 to ?500 and pay it back in small bits. emanating from a cartoon mouth.
People willing to take financial advice from their sandwich wrappers may seem like a financially unsound group unlikely to return your investment but, unfortunately, these are probably the same group of well-meaning but naive people that will incur late fees. […]
