ITV Documentaries 2015 09 01 Cash in Hand Payday Loans EN SUB WEBRIP [MPup]

ITV.Documentaries.2015.09.01.Cash.in.Hand.Payday.Loans.EN.SUB.WEBRIP.[MPup]

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For the first time, a broadcaster has been granted access to a payday loan firm - this film shows the business from the inside out as staff cope with the demands of the job.



Cash In Hand! Payday Loans

'No-one wakes up and says, 'I want to become a debt collector.''

"My dad responds to my job by saying I work in finance. It's like a family secret."

For the first time ever viewers will get to see the inner workings of the controversial payday loan industry as cameras film the team in the collections department of lenders Uncle Buck.

Founded by Steve Murray 10 years ago, from the backroom of a pawn broking shop, the payday lender now employs a staff of almost 70 at its offices in a discreet corner of Kent.

Cameras join the company's management and collection agents at the beginning of May, providing an insight into the range of characters, egos and working culture in a team in which employees must reach a collection target of £270,000 by the end of the month in order to receive their bonus, supplementing their £20,000 basic salary.

Cash In Hand! Payday Loans captures the tension of often cat-and-mouse exchanges between customers being pursued for unpaid loans and the team members whose bonuses depend on finding ways to make them agree to pay up.

Massimo is Uncle Buck's Head of Collections, and his challenge is to keep his troops upbeat without making them over zealous.

He says: "We need to create an atmosphere where the guys are motivated and happy, because they're speaking to people that have some kind of issue. But not putting things in place that almost incentivise them to do the wrong thing."

An additional goal for the collections team is to get their name on the 'Top Performer' shield, a champions-of-champions prize for all-round excellence.

However, those who work in the money-lending business don't always want the world to know about it.

One worker says: "My dad responds to my job by saying I work in finance. It's like a family secret."

Another adds: "No-one wakes up and says, 'I want to become a debt collector.'''

With just 10 per cent of loan applications approved, Uncle Buck issues around 12,000 payday loans every month, with almost 90 per cent repaid on time. But if a customer is late, they can expect to hear from one of the collection agents – and if they don't agree a repayment plan, the calls will keep on coming...

Boss Steve says: "If you were to take out a loan for £300 you would pay back about £458 over three months. We are expensive but it's very, very short-term. It could be a lot more if you went into your overdraft in an unauthorised way."

As for who takes out these loans, the agents say: "We could be dealing with police officers, solicitors, labourers, people working for the NHS, paramedics, cleaners, taxi drivers, people in the City, IT, a lot of people in the army, there's a TV presenter on our books at the moment."

Steve adds: "I like lending money, I like making the right decisions, I like the people here. If you're talking about how much money we're lending each month, we're talking about £2.4 million at the moment, which is a fair sum, but our market-share is comparatively very small, probably 2 or 3 per cent. So you can imagine the level of a demand there is for this product in the UK."

Political pressure at the beginning of 2015 saw regulators impose a price-cap and strict rules on lending and interest rates, though an unexpected result of this crackdown was an increase in consumer confidence in the payday product.

Many firms still trading have actually prospered.

With such demanding targets to reach, competitiveness is rife amongst the workers, with agent Jack known to regularly arrive two hours early for his shift in a bid to get his name on the shield that marks the best performing staff.

He says: "I'm the most competitive person on the floor, I don't like losing."

Team member Charles adds: "Quite a lot of people want to be like me. Some people say that I think I'm all that...I am all that. And then some."

And with the end of the month, and therefore payday, in sight it's time for the collections team to call in the money, with only a final few hours to try and hit their targets and get their bonuses...