Shylock misses out...

Today I want to have a bit of a rant about companies offer quick loans.

A few days ago I heard of a twenty year old, unemployed man who had been given a completely unsecured loan by one of these companies that advertise on the TV.

This young man has no job, does not sign on and has no other income. Yet, on the strength of a debit card and a pound in his bank account, he was loaned £250 for a month. He has no apparent concept of responsibility and is reputedly borrowing money from all his friends. It would seem that one of these friends directed him to the easy and instant money available from this loan company.

The loan was for a month (he clearly had no idea of how he would repay the loan) and fell due a few weeks ago. The company are now chasing him for the money and his family are going to have to bail him out.

You may feel this problem is the sole fault of the young man (as I did initially), but perhaps we should ask ourselves how he obtained this loan in the first place.

This company states it is a responsible lender, but how responsible can you be if you lend money to someone with no way of paying it back? The interest so far is close to 70% and growing. I suspect this is the only aspect of the loan that interests many of these companies...

We need to look at the many loan companies currently preying on the poor, needy and the frankly stupid people who use these businesses. This country has massive debt problems and shocking poverty. How can it be right to licence the companies to drive people into debts they cannot afford? After hearing of this story I googled the company name and found story after story from people regretting ever taking a loan from them.

I know the banks have tightened lending, but permitting these  companies to operate in the way they do is not the solution. Sometimes banks refuse a loan because you really cannot afford the extra debt. 

These companies merely provide the opportunity to get further in trouble before the crash.

Shylock would be amazed at the business opportunities these companies would offer him in the 21st century.

How much are you offering? Nothing? Okay!

I've just spent the last hour or so looking at ads for 'writers wanted'.

I cannot believe how many of these businesses state they "do not offer payment but you can see your work in print". What other line of work expects professional standards for free?

I am frankly amazed that anyone is foolish enough to provide these businesses with their hard work in return for a name check. Would you go to the office for free if your boss promised to put your name on the door? Of course not, so why do it as a writer?


We write because we love it, but that doesn't mean we should be taken advantage of by these people. Everything we write has taken time and effort and this should be recognised.


I know we are told you need to build a portfolio of published works before we can start negotiating fees but I just feel this is a perfect example of an industry taking advantage. If my work is good enough to be published in a 'proper' forum then it is good enough to be paid for. 


I'm not talking about an in-house student mag like Chapter & Verse - that's something you expect to make a contribution to without expectation of pay - but publications that pay everyone else who works for them. Because, let's be honest, that is what you have done - worked for them!

I recently saw a post on the Student forum where someone had a couple of articles accepted without pay because the budget was spent. How did they intend publishing the magazine without a budget to pay for articles? I very much doubt this was actually the case; they probably saw an opportunity to save a few quid and take advantage of our desire to get in print. 

Perhaps we should contact the magazine and ask for free copies as our budget for magazines has been spent. Do you think they'd say "Oh, of course!". No, nor do I.....