Out of work with long term health problems
Jane and her partner Mike, both in their fifties are out of work with long term health problems.
Their cooker and tumble dryer had both been “broken for months”. They had been drying clothes on the radiators and living off microwave meals, which they were finding expensive. On occasion they had to have meals provided to them by their adult children who visited.
Although Jane had not used rent to own stores, and did not generally like using credit at all, she described Fair For You as “brilliant” and gave us “10 out of 10 for ease of use, friendliness of service, and value for money.”
Taking the struggle out of Christmas
“Thank you Fair For You!
I needed a dishwasher for Christmas as I had family coming over for Christmas dinner. I knew that I would struggle as I’ve had invasive surgery on my back nine months ago and although I am a long way better that I was prior to having the operation I still struggle to stand for long periods at a time, I also struggle to walk any distance without assistance and I am still experiencing a great deal of pain when I have done too much in a day.
The thought of standing up all day cooking and then clearing up after filled me with dread. My budget was already stretched due to all the additional costs of Christmas and therefore I had resigned myself to fact that I would have to be without a dishwasher for Christmas and would struggle on as best as I could. I had been discussing this prospect with a family member and they had suggested that I checked the Fair For You website and see whether or not this could be a solution for me.
I went onto the website via my smartphone and made my application during my lunch break whilst at work. I found the website very easy to use, the products are a high quality brand and are actually reasonably priced. I had chosen the product and applied for my loan on the 21st December and my brand new dishwasher was delivered on Christmas Eve morning and the old dishwasher had been taken away. Fabulous!
I had opted to take a loan over a six month period, but I do intend to pay this off over three months. One of things I have to say makes me really happy is that I can actually repay my loan early without any additional charges. There’s no catch! The customer service at Fair For You is second to none! It was all very quick and very simple. I would happily recommend Fair For You to anyone.
Well Done Fair For You! And once again Thank you!” – December 2015
Unable to work due to disability
“I’m not allowed to work due to disability. I have anxiety attacks, so I’m not allowed out alone.
I have family members that take care of stuff. I’ve got four children; three girls and a boy, aged 17, 16, 13 and 11.
I had the cooker for three years. The oven blew, so I had no oven.
I looked around, and Fair for You was the cheapest option. My other cooker was from another weekly payment store and the interest was really high, so I didn’t really want to use them again, so I looked online. I put in Google ‘cheap electric cookers that could be paid weekly’ and you were the first to come up. The online process was quite easy, I got a phone call quite quickly, 2 hours after I applied.
I’m actually paying off a fridge freezer and the bunk beds for the children, but I’m trying to get them paid off so I don’t have to use another weekly payment store anymore because of the interest rate. You’re paying nearly double back for the item.” – March 2016
John, partially deaf after the removal of a brain tumour, and also has spinal problems
John is living wit
h his wife, Karen, who is waiting for a hip replacement.
John had previously used another weekly payment store to get a cooker and a tumble dryer. However, the cooker was now on its way out and John was aware that he had been charged a lot of money for the tumble dryer, “paying well in excess of £900 for an item that should ‘probably have only cost about £200”. He had never missed a payment with the weekly payment store, but found it “heartbreaking that he had paid out so much in interest.”
The cooker needed an urgent replacement, as he and his wife were getting very anxious that they wouldn’t be able to eat properly. If Fair for You hadn’t been available he would have had no choice but to “pay over the odds again with another weekly payment store”, who he describes as “greedy”.
While he was getting the cooker, he also used Fair for You to get a new kettle, which was “falling to pieces”. He describes his new products as being “absolutely perfect” and is “99% certain” that he “won’t be using another weekly payment store again.”
He rated us “10 out of 10 for ease of use, friendliness, and value for money” and only wished that we could expand our range of products so that he could get other household items through us.
Flexible payment terms
“I think it’s brilliant because you only allow three loans at a time, and you have to pay off a third of one before you can have another one. It ensures that the loan is always affordable. It’s very reasonable rates and you can pay it off a lot quicker that other loans without any hidden fees. The items are quality too.”
Leila, single mum of two
Leila’s cooker broke and for five days she had not been able to cook a ‘proper meal’ for her or the kids. She had to freeze all the food that they had bought to be oven cooked and do a whole new food shop to get microwave meals. She had to rely on the help of friends and family, especially as it was her four year old son’s birthday party at the time.
Leila had previously used another weekly payment store to furnish her flat. However, the experience could “not have been worse”. She describes the service as “terrible”, and told us that they were “always on the phone chasing payments” and were “very patronising.”
Having previously used another weekly payment store she explains that the repayments meant she had only £25 per week left for food. “It was a real struggle”, she said. However, she felt she had no other choice available to her at the time.
Single mum and carer for severely autistic son
“I can’t fault them at all. It was all done very quickly, and they were very helpful. You get a good price for what you are buying and a really low rate of interest. And you can choose the length of time you need to pay over as well.”
Louise sometimes finds it a struggle to make ends meet, and borrowed from a payday loan company in the “run up to Christmas when she was very short of money”. She has also previously used another weekly payment store, to obtain a cooker, although this was a “very long time ago”. She knew that they were not good value for money and didn’t want to use them but felt she had no choice.
She found Fair for You online when searching for options to get a new washing machine, as her other one was on its way out. She was really pleased with the service that she received and with the cost of the loan. Rating us as 10/10 on ease of use, friendliness of service, and value for money!
Replacing a broken washing machine
“I’m a night worker at and a bit all over the place during the day- so I’ll give you 
a few details over email.
Applying to Fair for you was extremely simple. Non complex forms, everything explained in black and white. Precontract information the same, everything nice and clear.
I found Fair for you via Google, our washing machine has been on and off for months- I spent six years in the white goods repair industry, mainly via insurance; so I know its not worth repairing. I chose a Hotpoint appliance, as from previous experience I know they’re pretty solid machines.
Unfortunately, I use the machine on a daily basis- we have a three year old and my partner is currently retraining as a chef; so it gets a lot of use. When I came home early on the 23rd to find it was allergic to doing whites/lights, I started to look for a replacement.
Certain high Street retailers are charging between 69%-99% APR for people in our situation. While I work, it supports three people and paying another weekly payment store £1700+ for a new machine that costs a fraction of that, didn’t really appeal to me; but felt left with little choice.” – December 2015
Single mum and carer for her son
“I’m a single mum but I’m a carer for my son, he had disabilities and stuff. I’ve got two other children as well.
My fridge was leaking, and the prices that you offer is so much better than – a weekly payment store I’d used before, and their prices were horrendous and the loan goes on forever. So when I found yours, it’s a hundred times better, hundreds.
I mean you at least pay about twice the amount back with other weekly payment stores. If you got a half decent washing machine you’d be paying it off for three years, £10 a week or something like that, you know.
The same fridge that I got from you guys would cost me about £13 a week, but I’d be paying for three years with another weekly payment store. With Fair for You I’m paying over a year – I’ve got a tumble dryer and a fridge from you, so both of them £800 and that’s with your interest. That’s a huge difference!
A lot of these companies, they hit on the people that do struggle. If you got the cash you can get it a lot cheaper, but these companies put on such high interest that you’re paying it off forever. But because they’ve got no other choice, they don’t have the finances, they got no choice they got to go to these companies. And it’s sad because it’s the people who really need it who the companies are making the money off of.
It’s terrible. It’s sad.
When I saw your site I phoned my mum! I called a couple people and said look, if you need anything, these people are decent.
A lot of the items that they have are three year contracts. That fridge I got from you now, it cost me £13 a week, and that’s okay you can find that – but for three years?
You are realistic. You’ve set up a system where people can have decent products but also they are affordable. You come from a place where – like I said, I can afford to pay off my loan over a year. But if I couldn’t, if something happened and I couldn’t, you’ve given me the option that I can add another six months onto it.
Every so often things break down and you have to replace them because it’s no good getting it fixed, because it’s probably not going to last much longer.
Until you get into that scenario and put yourself in a situation that you are on a budget, then you’ll realise that people don’t have something for when something breaks down. If I have £500 in my bank, I could go out and buy a brand new one, or get something on sale or something cheaper – I don’t have that kind of money lying around, you know?
With other weekly payment stores my weekly payments have been £13.50 but they make you pay more if you don’t’ have house insurance. This is how they get you. And if you don’t have house insurance, your weekly payment is £15.26, the annual fixed interest rate is 69.99%. It’s a 156 week payment term so you would pay back £1559 if you were paying back £13.50, if you have insurance. So that would be over £1500, over three years.
What a difference!” – Feb 2016
Flexibility in payment plans
“I like the fact that you can choose how much you can pay weekly, and the fact that you can round it off to suit our own needs. That’s what we really do love about you, the fact that we can choose how much we pay weekly. And the amount of time, we can choose the period of time we pay it back over, that’s what I tell everybody. Certains times of year are harder, like Christmas. We can select a lower payment plan at certain times of the year. IN my life next month I’ve got lots of birthdays for the children, so we’d choose lower payments to get us through it.
We’ve recently had a Ashton study bunk delivered and from start to finish the process was easy and straight forward. Once again, Thank you to everyone involved.”
Single parent, works part-time in a
local supermarket
Susan lives with her 20 year old daughter, who is also working, and her 14 year old son.
When she broke-up with the children’s father, Susan had to deal with a number of debts that had been incurred and also suffered with depression. However, she has managed to be in permanent employment for the past four years.
She used another weekly payment store before, most recently to get a mobile phone for her son at Christmas. However, she didn’t find the application process easy. “I didn’t get an instant decision and had to take all the paperwork to the shop.”
She found the staff very unfriendly, and received a number of phone calls afterwards “hassling her for payment,” even though she was on top of her payments.
Then Susan’s oven; which was pretty old anyway, began to give out, taking twice as long to cook meals, that cost more on energy bills too. So, we gave Susan a loan for a new cooker, which was delivered to her within three working days.
When asked about the service she received from us, Susan gave us a “10/10’ for ease of use, friendliness of service, and value for money!”
She said she would like to see us expand our product range beyond just white goods so that there wouldn’t be any need to use any other weekly payment store again.
Single parent with a 14 year old son
Zena works full time in a customer service centre. When the freezer stopped working she couldn’t buy in bulk any more, which meant missing out on deals and paying more for food. She lived like that for a year.
Her previous fridge freezer was from another weekly payment store. However, she didn’t want to use them again because she had found them to be very expensive. At the time she was desperate and felt she had no other options.
She rated us “10 out of 10 for ease of use, friendliness of service and value for money’ and was really happy” with her new fridge freezer. She would recommend us to others, and would be keen to see the range of products expanded to include TVs and other items so that “people didn’t have to go to another weekly payment store.”
