Govanhill success for GLC's Payday Loan Survival Guide as relaunched with Glasgow University's Student Representative Council

Govan Law Centre's (GLC) Payday Loan Survival Guide has been redesigned and relaunched with the support of Glasgow University's Student Representative Council (GUSRC).  You can download the new GLC 'Breaking free from payday loan debt' leaflet here.

Working in partnership with GUSRC, we have also launched a separate Glasgow student version of the guide, which is available from GUSRC on Glasgow University's campus at the John McIntyre Building.

The guide has been used to help empower citizens to regain control of their finances and challenge unfair charges and interest whereever possible. Govanhill Law Centre (GhLC) solicitor, Rachel Moon, recently used the legal arguments in the guide to secure a fantastic outcome for a client in Glasgow's Govanhill.

GhLC's Rachel Moon, Solicitor

GhLC's Rachel Moon said: "Wonga currently have an advert showing the 'real life' stories of people who use Wonga, however the stories do not correspond with our experience with this pay day loan company and others.

Our client was hospitalised and off work and as a result receiving only statutory sick pay. Our client took out pay day loans as she was struggling to maintain her court agreed rent payment arrangement. These loans were continually rolled over incurring the additional fees and costs in addition to the high rates of interest. The money was taken directly from her account leaving her with little or no money to buy food and other necessities and certainly no money to pay her rent.

We made a complaint on behalf of our client to the 23 pay day loan companies who had given her credit in a matter of minutes. This was on the basis that the companies had not undertaken proper creditworthy assessments under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, as they are required to do and that the loans should be written off as a result. We argued that it should have been apparent from the assessment carried out that the loan was not suitable or affordable for our client.

Payday loans aren't cuddly or cheap

We have had some success and a number of the companies have confirmed that they will write off the debt in its entirety; other companies have advised that no further interest will be added to the outstanding amounts and would offer a settlement figure of capital alone. During this process, it was discovered that an administration fee was incurred when our client went through a broker website. When requested to do so, these have all been repaid within a number of days".

Govanhill success for GLC's Payday Loan Survival Guide as relaunched with Glasgow University's Student Representative Council