The media love this kind of story, it gets people angry.
Last year the BBC interviewed a single mother who couldnt afford new shoes for her children. They just happened to interview her in her plush living-room which had a massive TV with surround sound and a couple of games consols in the background.

*shrugs*
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Fri 11 Dec 2009, 9:20, 2 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

That was almost certainly bought on one of those £3 a week for 7 years kind of deals.
They cost about twice as much eventually as someone who can buy them in cash or even on a credit card. It's one of the reasons the poor stay poor and those companies really are fucking scum.
(PsychoChomp, Fri 11 Dec 2009, 9:31, Reply)

...and because they're thick.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 11 Dec 2009, 9:32, Reply)

Well yes the poor tend to be less educated.
That's why these companies aggressivley advertise to them, and deliberatly use obtuse and vague language in their terms and conditions.
(PsychoChomp, Fri 11 Dec 2009, 9:41, Reply)

I once had a business card through my door
advertising cash loans of between £10 and £300 - 'no need to make payments at a bank, we will call round and collect each week'.

I'll bet you fucking will. With a crowbar.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 11 Dec 2009, 9:43, Reply)

I bet if you were in there would have been someone there literally waving the money in your face.

(PsychoChomp, Fri 11 Dec 2009, 9:44, Reply)

within an hour the debt would have trebled
and I'd have ended up in a motorway bridge within a month.

Gawd love the East End.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 11 Dec 2009, 9:57, Reply)

Meh, fair point
Not everyone is a rampant breeder without considering how their children are going to be housed, fed or cared for. The media, eh? Winding people up since 1642.
(Deadly Octopus no deaths since, Fri 11 Dec 2009, 9:36, Reply)