Archive: Client Stories

Vicki’s story: A GetControl Loan enabled her to spend more time with her granddaughter.

At age 28, Sonam discovered she was pregnant to her long-term partner – however, he didn’t want the baby at the time and was planning to leave the relationship. On top of that, her family couldn’t support or help her as they don’t live in New Zealand and their Visas were rejected when trying to come here for her baby’s delivery. “I had to go on the ‘single mum’ benefit. I was very grateful for it, but it wasn’t enough,” she explains. “I had previous debts from when I was working – things like the car, insurance – all of the things that come with life and children.” Fortunately, WINZ put her in touch with a financial mentor at Pakuranga and Howick Budgeting Service. He recommended that Sonam apply for a GetControl Debt Relief Loan from Ngā Tāngata Microfinance – and helped her with her application. “The $2,000 loan helped me to pay off my overdue bills and some debts. My financial mentor also helped me apply for emergency funds from my KiwiSaver and referred me to a local foodbank for help. I can’t thank him enough - he really helped me to get my money sorted,” she says. Sonam says...

Jude and her husband raised their family of four children in Wellington and owned their own home. When their youngest child was three years, Jude went back to work and worked until she reached retirement age. “We lived like so many people do – spending all that we earned. It was never a struggle, but we didn’t put anything away either. We had no insurances. When I look back, we didn’t do as well as I thought.” Later in their married life, Jude’s husband purchased a business in Palmerston North where they lived for 14 years. “We purchased the business, sold the house and moved to Palmy where we rented. While things went well initially, the business didn’t do well and it was eventually folded. My husband didn’t want to declare bankruptcy, so for many years we paid back our creditors and weren’t able to get back to the financial position we’d been in.” For Jude, there was a sequence of life events that led to her being in financial hardship. “When we reached retirement age, we moved to Foxton beach and rented a house there, which was wonderful. Then my husband lost most of his memory after a near-drowning...

Sandra* and her husband live in New Lynn in West Auckland and recently applied for a GetControl Debt Relief Loan to pay off some debts. Sandra had been working for a few months with a financial mentor at Henderson Budgeting, who suggested she should apply for a Ngā Tāngata Microfinance loan to reduce her debts. Sandra says she wasn’t sure initially, but she had a look at the NTM website and thought it looked good. “I read a bit of information and got hold of my financial mentor who emailed NTM and helped me apply for the loan.” She says the process was surprisingly easy. “To be honest, some of the questions worried me at first, like having to disclose personal information, but actually it was really easy. The money came through very quickly and went straight towards paying off our bills.” “I would definitely recommend a Ngā Tāngata loan to others in the same boat,” Sandra says. “I feel so relieved – like a real weight has been lifted off our shoulders. My husband is happy that the debt is off our record now, and we don’t have to keep worrying about it.” “Working with the financial mentor has...

Through no fault of her own, Tanya* (age 50) was in a really tough spot financially. She says she had never been in debt in her life, but then a partner left her with an outstanding loan that wasn’t hers. As the single mother of three children (two of who still live at home), she felt overwhelmed by the ever-increasing debt. “I’m normally really good at budgeting, but I just couldn’t get on top of the debt – especially with all the interest,” she explains. Tanya turned to Pakuranga and Howick Budgeting Service for ongoing advice, where one of their financial advisors suggested she apply to Ngā Tāngata Microfinance for a GetControl Debt Relief Loan. “I was really freaking out, but as soon as I heard I’d been accepted by Ngā Tāngata for a loan, it took all the pressure off – and all the anger that I’d been dumped with this debt. It was awesome,” she says. Tanya elected to pay off $25 a week and has since paid off the loan. “It was manageable with just a small amount a week. And not having all that interest continuing to add up was amazing. I absolutely recommend it to...

Things were really tough for Paula* when she applied for a loan from Ngā Tāngata Microfinance. She had borrowed $3,000 from her bank and hadn’t been able to pay it back due to a change of circumstances, so the bank was planning to foreclose on her home of 23 years. “The bank wouldn’t let me pay the loan off over time – they were going to sell my house,” she says. A single mum in her 40s, Paula had arranged an overdraft with her bank a couple of years ago when she was laid off from her job. There was a seven week stand-down period before she could get a benefit from WINZ and she was really stuck for money. She says she struggled for money before that, but once she lost her job, thing went from bad to worse. On top of that, she hasn’t been able to work since then due to poor health. “On the benefit, there is no extra money. You just can’t get rid of the debt,” she explains. In desperation, and very stressed about losing her house, Paula turned to the Salvation Army. There she talked to a Financial Mentor, who recommended applying to...

Virginia McCreadie is a financial mentor for Budget House Taupō. Like most financial mentors, she works with clients from all walks of life. “There is a perception that we deal with only one income bracket,” says Virginia. “But we work with clients right across the spectrum, from those who are homeless with no income, to those who are wealthy with assets – and everyone in between.” “Whether you have a little or a lot of money, financial challenges happen,” she explains. “Things can change in the blink of an eye; big life events like a marriage break-up, a death in the family or the impact of COVID-19 – there are all sorts of reasons that people need financial help. We’re here to help with people in crisis, but also with financial resilience and future planning, so there’s less chance that a financial crisis will happen again.” Organisations like Ngā Tāngata Microfinance are targeted at those who have fewer options, says Virginia. “ They’re here to ensure that people who were okay but now aren’t, are able to be okay again,” she explains. “Especially for those on low incomes who need to pay off high-interest debt or get the essential things...

Danny* had to give up work some years ago on advice from his doctor, because the solvents that were part of his work environment were causing him significant health issues. Unfortunately, before he left his job, he didn’t have enough time to pay off a couple of debts - a credit card and a finance company loan. His damaged health meant he couldn’t find other paid employment and suddenly had to cope with a major change in lifestyle. Now on a welfare benefit, Danny was only able to make the minimum required payments on his loans, so he made little progress in reducing his debts over the next couple of years. For Danny, this created huge anxiety which added further stress to his health issues, as he couldn’t see any way out of his situation. Work and Income helped by giving Danny Temporary Additional Support (TAS) to help him meet his debt commitments. However, even though Danny religiously made each repayment, spiralling interest rates meant he simply couldn’t free himself from the debts. Danny started seeing a financial mentor, who applied for a Debt Relief loan from Ngā Tāngata Microfinance and the application was approved. Because the loan has no...

Selena’s* cell phone was only 18 months old, but needed replacing as it was the only phone in the house, shared between Selena and her three children. A salesperson from a truck vendor company sold her a cell phone from a catalogue, which he said was good value at $300. Selena had just started attending a local financial literacy course and the discussion in the class at that time was around this type of high-pressure, high-cost sale. This affected Selena to the point where she went home that day and cancelled the sale using the 0800 number. She hadn’t yet received the phone because she was required to make a set of payments before receiving the goods. The company said they would cancel the order, but that it would incur an administration fee, which Selena accepted. In Selena’s neighbourhood, buying from truck vendors is common. Many people don’t go into retail shops because they cannot afford to pay cash for items, which means they can be widely out of touch about the prices for goods. Items sold door-to-door are not advertised in the catalogue at a full retail price but at a ‘per week’ cost, which can be very misleading....

Denise* purchased a car through a $10,000 loan, which soon became a nightmare. Not long after the purchase, the loan was converted into an Acme Loans Company* loan, picking up additional security in the contract without Denise’s knowledge or agreement. The interest rate on the loan was 24%, charged and added weekly to ensure maximum compounding interest. On top of that, an administration fee of $5 per week was also charged weekly. The monthly interest was $200, the administration fee $20 per month and monthly repayment $260 – which meant only $10 per week was actually going toward paying off the principal. Penalties were an additional 12% plus a $5.77 default fee, all compounded weekly. Denise hadn’t had the car for that long when it broke down. Denise had little incentive to keep paying off a debt that wasn’t reducing and the car was repossessed a few months later and then sold. During this time, further fees were added, including a tracing fee, phone calls and service fees. When the car broke down, Denise’s debt was $11,000 - by the time it was sold less than three months later, the debt had ballooned to a whopping $14,000 (including a $500...