If in debt - offer 'em another!... 19th March 2004

That's the approach taken by Welcome Finance, a subsidiary of Cattles Plc, as reported by Glasgow's Sunday Mail recently. They detail the story of Craig Brown, a 23 year old van driver, who took out a loan for £500 and saw it grow to a debt of £3072 in just over 12 months as the company encouraged him to borrow to pay off missed payments. To add further insult to injury, Craig had payed for optional payment protection insurance with the loan, only to find out that when he was actually ill, his health condition wasn't covered by the policy.

Yet again, lenders such as Welcome who put themselves forward to Government as "responsible" companies, are caught playing the oldest games in the book and keeping people trapped in growing levels of indebtedness. Last year, Provident even tried to pursue debtors from beyond the grave, and tried to recoup outstanding loans from surviving family members.