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Is the name ‘Brighthouse’ ironic? Because I can’t imagine your house will be feeling very bright once you’ve stocked up on useless crap and are hit with massive weekly bills that you can’t afford to pay…
I’ve had a bit of a bugbear with Brighthouse for a while now. I suppose its not just Brighthouse – many hire purchase stores operate the same lack of morals, sorry, I mean business models – but Brighthouse are the ones in the press. One of the ones doing well at the moment. One of the ones making a fast buck off the back of this whole banking disaster. And that’s why I mention them in particular.
Apparently formerly called Crazy Georges (presumable crazy old George came up with some crazy old payment terms and some more crazy people called George came and entered into these crazy agreements with crazy George and his crazy company), Brighthouse offer a way for people with poor credit to buy stuff. DING DONG, first alarm bell right there. I am aware that there are a number of reasons one might have a bad credit rating, but feel fairly confident in saying that mostly, its just cos they spent more money than they were able to pay back.
So that’s my first issue; it’s actually irresponsible lending. You don’t have to have a credit check, you just have to be able to prove your address and that you have an income and give them some references, who must promise to give them your new address should you move and *cough* fail to do so.
My second issue; the APR. Typically 29.9%, it’s actually not that bad, compared to the rates offered by similar ‘poor credit’ lenders, but it’s still not great, and there are hidden extras to pay…
Case in point: 1x Phillips 42'' Ambilight TV. Google Product Search brings it in at £868.70 (not even the cheapest price). Brighthouses cash price? £999.13.
According to the example on the website, over 156 weeks at £9.22 per week plus APR, the total ends up at a whopping £1438.32. But if you have the ‘optional’ service cover, which you pretty much have to have, because, er, they nearly always make you, the total looks a lot different…£2213.64. Isn’t that over 100% interest?!
These figures are on their website, so they’re not even being shy about the maths, yet people continue to go there and plough their money into products they just do not need. A comfortable sofa is nice, and a big shiny laptop really wouldn’t go amiss, agreed, but the products Brighthouse ‘sell’ are complete luxuries and actually, companies like this offering aspirational products to those who haven’t aspired to be able to afford them are just as responsible for our £x trillion worth of bad debt as the banks themselves.
Turnover at good old BH was up 18.7 for the quarter ended 28/12/2008. I can almost see their smug faces, grinning through the shiny storefront windows, reflected in the perfectly polished plasmas. Gets my goat it does, and there’s nothing that anyone can do about it.
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