1. The first thing that is thrown at you when you walk into The Money Shop to enquire about
a loan is the rule that you have to be working. And then came the ID requirements: a bank
card, photo ID, proof of address and a pay slip. They need more information than Barclays
do to open an account, and if that doesn’t set alarm bells ringing, what follows will.
I asked for information on taking out a £500 loan. I was surprised when the lady serving me
immediately worked out the interest I would pay - £149.99 at 29.99%. My initial reaction
was surprise; I had thought it would be a lot higher than that. It is. The ‘3375% APR
representative’ mentioned in the leaflet was completely ignored. I don’t even really know
what that means and I work in a bank: is that on top of the 29.99%? A repercussion of late
payment? What is it and what would it mean for my £500 loan? But I didn’t understand it,
so I pushed it aside and focused on the facts I had received. When it came to pay that
£500 back I would have to pay £649.99 up front; no instalments, no leniency, no give
whatsoever. There was very little information on repayments in general and when I asked,
all I was told was that I would pay it back on my next payday, further enquiries led to the
same answer and I became concerned. And there was still no mention of the 3375%.
Further investigation into The Money Shop’s FAQs has given me some answers. If you fail
to pay the loan back on time, the Debt Recovery Team will take that money from your
account via a CATs payment, plus a £15 admin fee. If the full amount can’t be recovered,
daily interest of 0.769% is charged for the first two months you’re in arrears. That’s
around £3.85 per day in fees alone.
My mind went straight to those people in a desperate state who can’t see beyond what
they need that £500 for: a family Christmas, a broken boiler as it gets colder, university
supplies. The thought of ‘Oh, I have until next pay day; that’ll be fine! The interest isn’t
that bad...’, but surely if you’re in that situation in October, how will November yield the
money you didn’t have, plus 30% more? There was no mention of the late charges that The
Money Shop leaflet promises and the ‘serious money problems’ late repayment can lead
to.
And there is no opportunity to sit down and discuss this! You walk in and talk to a woman
over the counter. There are no desks or chairs for you to sit down with a member of staff;
it felt very quick and perfunctory. I almost felt like I was being hurried into agreeing to
bring in the required ID with no explanations or reassurances. There’s no conversation of
whether you can actually afford to pay back that loan, they just ensure that you are
earning at least 5k a year and want proof of that.
Before I left, I asked them whether I should talk to my bank first as I hadn’t really
considered them yet. The answer was direct: no. I stayed quiet, hoping she would expand,
and she did. ‘Banks don’t really give short-terms loans so here is the best place for you.’ I
froze in shock. Someone with lesser knowledge of what a bank can offer you, which is a
lot of people, would have accepted that at face value, but it sent my mind whirring. A
Barclaycard, an overdraft, an overdraft extension, a slightly larger loan that would clear
other debts. All of these things would provide me with that emergency £500 without
permanently damaging my credit rating, my credit worthiness with the bank and pushing
me further into debt.

2. At Barclays, we Never Just Say No. If a loan is declined, they will have everything
explained to them. They will be advised on how they can build their credit rating with
Barclays so that they could borrow in the future, and maybe even inform them of ways
they can prevent themselves from needing emergency cash in the future. We strive to let
our customers know that Barclays will help in any way we can and that they only have to
pop in to the branch. But no, The Money Shop was the only solution for me. The scariest
thing? The advertisement on the back of The Money Shop leaflet: ‘With over 500 branches
nationwide, there’s sure to be one near you’. And then there’s always the website where
you can apply for a loan and receive in it only 30 minutes...
It’s astonishingly easy to get into debt with places like these so we need to educate our
customers, let us know we’re here for them. In most cases, we can help in ways that The
Money Shop can only harm.