Liverpool
The payday loan shop in Breck Road erupts from its grey surroundings. Everything is painted yellow, black and red — colours that in the natural world mean ‘do not touch’ but that serve here as a lure. ‘Need cash now?’ ask the posters in the windows, in scarlet block capitals on a sunburst background. ‘We can help.’
The shop is well placed. Breck Road is where Everton meets Anfield — the centre of Liverpool’s football rivalry, but also of its destitution. Industrial decline has put the streets around here into a decades-long slump. One in three adults is out of work. There are plenty of people here who need cash now, and will take it from wherever it comes.
Once, this might have meant dealing with a predatory doorstep lender. Payday loan shops offer a reputable alternative. Like supermarkets, they have outlets across the country, and they offer a bit of everything. Want to sell a gold necklace? You can do it here. Want to buy a gold necklace? Likewise. The Breck Road shop even has an arrangement of glittering fairy statues by its entrance: £10 each, or a £2 deposit and six monthly instalments.
Payday loans, however, are the mainstay. The process is simple. All you need to do is fill in a few forms and, circumstances permitting, up to £1,000 will be in your account later that day, to be repaid when your next wage arrives. It is as easy and as swift as credit can be. But you will be charged interest at a typical annual rate of 1,737 per cent.
Asked why she uses payday loan shops, Sally Fletcher replies, ‘Why shouldn’t I borrow some money to tide me over for a few days?’ She lives in Anfield and, like almost everyone else, has one of those salaries that is enough to keep her comfortable but not enough that she doesn’t need help from time to time.
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