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by NoPicklez 1501 days ago
I think the challenge with these online services now is that their barrier to entry is minimal.

You can sign up to these services at the click of a button and they're also heavily promoted next to payment providers such as Visa. As opposed to them being a separate service you would sign up for, they're integrated into the checkout process as easily as PayPal.

I even saw a service similar to this here in Australia called "My pay now", where they say you can access a portion of your pay early. When in reality you're just borrowing an amount that is a portion of your upcoming pay, with the expectation that you will pay it back when you get paid. The way it was marketed I thought it was a government scheme where you would actually access a portion of your pay early, but no.
2 comments
denkmoon 1501 days ago
>The way it was marketed I thought it was a government scheme where you would actually access a portion of your pay early, but no.

I don't want to be insulting or make this a flamewar, but really? c'mon. It's not like they're putting the coat of arms in their logo, there is _zero_ indication this is a government run scheme.

If a presumably fairly well educated and tech literate person thinks "MyPayNow" button next to their latest order of trendy clothing/smartphone accessories/whatever is a government scheme, I'm not sure how much anyone can do to prevent less well educated and tech literate people being taken advantage of...

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NoPicklez 1501 days ago
My thoughts when I first heard the radio commercials was that it was a government scheme, having said that their website and their other visual marketing doesn't give me that indication at all. However I was never interested in using it to do any research.

My point being that the wording "My pay now" and the description of it allowing you access upto a quarter of your pay early, is fairly misleading. You aren't accessing your pay, you're obtaining a loan, of which the amount is a percentage of your salary/wage, which you will pay back with your pay.

Forget the idea of it being a government scheme, that was irrelevant to my argument.

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mr_toad 1501 days ago
> I even saw a service similar to this here in Australia called "My pay now"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payday_loan

This sort of behaviour is why “money lenders” became a pejorative term.

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