The long-term damage of loan sharks
Unofficial doorstep lenders are making a significant reappearance across the UK as the recession continues to bite and more and more people find it difficult to make ends meet. The government recently introduced a number of regulations which were designed to stamp out unofficial doorstep lending but under the surface the system, predominantly in low-income areas, has continued, taking advantage of those in dire straits.
Many people do not realise that by lending just a few hundred pounds they may well be forced to pay back thousands of pounds if at any time they fall behind on their payments. These loan sharks will also be very willing, in the beginning, to increase your loan thereby ensuring that you are paying them back for a long time at catastrophic interest rates. For a number of consumers around the UK, by the time they realise the trouble they are in it is literally too late and many have been forced to pay back many many times what they originally loaned.
There are legal regulations in place to protect the consumer from illegal and unofficial loan sharks but with more and more people in the UK struggling to survive it is very much a situation of "better the devil you know".
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