Today, I got a letter from a bank that I have a credit card with. It was one of the ones I got when I was deep in debt and needed to keep rotating through interest-free cards. It’s been paid off for a long time and I have no real use for it.

So, because I don’t use their card, they aren’t making money off me. That means they tempt me, by any means possible, to spend on their card, so that I can make them some money again. Here’s what they did – they sent me some lovely cheques. Just normal looking cheques, like the ones we all used to use before debit cards. They were ‘for my convenience’…

“How ever-so-helpful, I thought. I don’t need them, but suppose I were in a fix, they might be just the thing to get me out of it. Let me read the small print” Because, that’s something I’ve learnt to do since clearing my debt. Guess what? They offered me a very special rate if I use the cheques before May 1st. Be still, my beating heart… How much? Just 23.95%! OMG. After that, the cheques revert to the normal rate of 27.95%.

Wow. I lived in The East End (of London for non-Brits), land of The Krays, for a long time. I knew a few money-lenders and loan sharks in my time (thankfully, never had to use their services) and their interest rates were not a million miles from the rates attached to this special offer. These rates are staggering. How are banks allowed to do this? Please, there are much better ways of borrowing. Don’t be tempted or get so desperate that you would use these things. Come to our Forum and find a better way – keep the sharks at bay.

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