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Jendy* was seeing a financial mentor in South Auckland, because she was unwell and was sole caregiver to two children. Jendy had received a benefit when she went into hospital care, which resulted in missed payments with a finance company. The finance company started repossession action, which increased Jendy’s anxiety and a resultant heart attack put her back into hospital. There were also other stressful events happening in her household at the same time. Her financial mentor helped Jendy to explain her difficult circumstances from the hospital and the finance company stopped the repossession action. He then helped her to obtain an interest-free GetControl Debt Relief loan from Ngā Tāngata Microfinance. Jendy paid back $14 per week, for two years, and has now finished paying off the loan. Jendy says she has not taken on any more debt since she received the loan from Ngā Tāngata Microfinance. When asked what would have happened if she had not got the loan, her comment was “my head would have been in a bad place. I would have got unwell again.” She says that “things have been much better” since then. Her financial mentor told her she now has good credit with Ngā...

Commerce Commission media release reporting the closing down of a lender for charging borrowers unreasonable fees and excess interest.

A short interview with Radio NZ Checkpoint.