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Submitted by Cherfleur

Courts (Barbados) Ltd aka Unicomer is offering Cash Loans at THIRTY PERCENT interest.

How are they doing it and to whom?

Courts advertises in the Classifieds section with the entreaty of waiving the payments for six months if and when the customer is made redundant. Naturally the who are the young vulnerable teen mothers, most of whom are in the Informatics Industry in the Harbour industrial Park.

It’s a wretched pipeline, like the ‘cradle to grave’ one in USA. Desperate to acquire much needed items on a subsistence wage, this group of the population in this sector is easy prey to such predatory practices and false marketing.

Crucible recently laid off a second batch of employees for this year. In June they advised the Labour Department that they lost a Contract and was forced to sever employees but that the amount was less than the 10% that would require Union/Labour Department Consultation. I would hope that Mr Mayers of the Labour Department investigate to ascertain whether Crucible lost another Contract in this half of the year or it is the same Contract they are now relieving more employees from. Working the loop holes of the Law (perhaps not).

Whatever the situation these employees are now on the bread line and some of them who had these treacherous loans from Courts approached the firm and applied to get the waiver only to be told by the floor Representatives that they do not know or never heard of such offerings. FALSE ADVERTISING.

So unemployed and cash strapped these vulnerable ladies have to cough up much needed dollars to service these illegal loans.

Courts is not licensed to lend money’ or are they? Nevertheless 30% is Usury. The Banks and Credit Unions are being had by Courts.

Attempts to reach the Director, Consumer Finance or the Marketing Manager went unanswered.

30 RASSHOLE percent!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY.


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216 responses to “PREDATORY MARKETING and the Vulnerable in Society”

  1. Piece the Legend Avatar

    De ole man said that as the 3rd or so comment on this blog Cherfleur

    But, it was in the interest of the Honourable Blogmaster to seek to obfuscate this issue with all sorts of red herring

    COURTS IS OFFERING HARD CASH!

    Look at the notice they mailed above.

    De management feel bajans Stoopid and readers stoopider


  2. @John A
    I don’t have a problem with entrepreneurs ‘exploiting’ a niche. But Predatory Marketing to achieve that is beyond the pale. Disgusting.

    If Courts et all are not making superhuman profits now, it serves them right. They, like the music industry and publishing houses and others had their heyday. Amazon etc eating into their markets and profits.
    My advice is: shut the darn retail down and get a licence for mony-lending and get on with it in an ethical manner.
    Don’ hide the Advertisements among classifieds and make promises (it would seem) they DO NOT INTEND TO KEEP


  3. @cherfleur: “…but FTC needs to look…

    I truly don’t know who you are, but there appears to be some energy and local knowledge there.

    But with regards to waiting for the FTC to do something, heuristically, my experiences would suggest one shouldn’t hang a lot of hope on that happening…


  4. @piece the Leged
    Well Sir, this came across my lap.
    Courts and anyone can do whatever they like as long as they like until ….

    There are 2 counts here.
    1 Courts lending money at 30% without a banking license or a deviation from their financing license
    2 False advertising

    i am wondering how many of those young ladies, severed, were traumatized by Court’s Reps, saying they know nothing of a waiver of payments and instead insisting on the sorry customers continuing to pay even though now unemployed.

    They actually harass you for those payments.


  5. @piece of Legend
    Will follow your advice re: putting Torproject.org (when I figure it out) on my browser.


  6. @Hal Austin
    ****Barbados is part of the wider world***
    Sometimes I rake my head and wonder. What you say is very true.
    But this here sanctuary really operates ‘like an island’.


  7. @)gzarts
    I’m with you.
    We need to inform the youths. I recently heard on the news someone in Tourism making the argument that Tourism should be taught in the Primary Schools since Barbados’ economy is laced by and hinged on Tourism. :O A travesty.
    But taking up from that call, I think more information needs to be put to the youths from Primary schools about Personal Financing. Balance of Payments on a micro-level. Then regardless of what industry they graduate to it would be in good stead and do them an the country wonders.

  8. Donks, Gripe and Josh Avatar
    Donks, Gripe and Josh

    Guyana News Room 26th Dec, 2019: Guyana has been ranked the highest in the Caribbean for countries where citizens have had to pay bribes to access Government services.
    According to a report published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), it also takes the longest to conduct business in Guyana with the average time being over five hours.
    The report titled ‘Wait No More: Citizens, Red Tape and Digital Government’ was published this month.

    The report referred to the 2019 Transparency International survey which states that the proportion of people in the five Caribbean countries surveyed that reported paying a bribe to access a public service was 18 percent.
    “Data from this same survey show that the percentage of people who pay bribes in exchange for services varies throughout the region: in Guyana 27 percent of those surveyed said they had to pay a bribe to access a public service, the highest proportion in the region,” according to the IDB published report.
    Guyana was followed by 20 percent in The Bahamas and 17 percent in both Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados registered the lowest rate, with only 9 percent of the surveyed reporting having paid a bribe to receive a public service.
    It cited manual government transactions, face-to-face interactions, and the lack of standardized processes mean that transactions as being responsible for dishonest behavior.

    When looking at the differences between Caribbean countries, “Guyana had the slowest times,” to conduct business. According to the report, it takes a citizen on average 5.9 hours to complete one transaction.
    In Barbados, this was 4.8 hours on average while in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, completing a government transaction took on average 4.1 and 3.9 hours, respectively.
    Bahamas had the lowest average times of the Caribbean with at 2.8 hours.
    One of the major contributors to this sloth is the lack of adequate services online.

    The annual report pointed out that basic conditions for making online transactions accessible are often absent.
    “For starters, it is complicated, if not impossible, to effectively make government transactions available online, beyond ad hoc efforts, without knowing exactly which transactions are managed by which government entities and the characteristics (purpose, requirements, cost) of each”
    Of the 25 countries consulted, 19 reported knowing how many government transactions existed, and 15 reported having a catalog of transactions.
    Another key platform service is the digital signature, which enables applicants to sign documents or forms online without having to submit a physical copy, and thereby reducing number of visits to a government office.

    Without the digital signature, there are many government transactions that—despite being digitized—still require an in-person visit to comply with this requirement.
    It was found that 25 of 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have a law establishing the legal validity of the digital signature. In fact, only Guyana lacks such a law.
    However, having a legal framework does not necessarily mean that there is a digital signature in place that can be used by all citizens and that is accepted by all private and public institutions.
    “Even if governments make the effort to put transactions online and citizens can, in theory, access them, oftentimes their experiences are negative. A lack of usability of government websites leads them to fail in their attempts to access services,” according to the report.

    It recommended that government websites all follow one format, making it easier for citizens to use.
    The survey was done in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Guyana via a Face-to-face survey methodology.

    Barbados is ranked lowest by every reputable international agency for the least susceptibility to corruption yet an election was won on allegations of Madoff/ Sicilian mafia level of corruption on that island. Go figure.


  9. Someone wants to keep the island corrupt. They are not the ones have to suffer the consequences, it’s the people who have to live with the scum in parliament and bar association who will bear the poverty and hardships..


  10. The issue here is that courts, fast cash, car dealers are lending to customers using different rates and terms. Are we happy with the level of regulation by the FSC? They are categorized as non bank financial institutions, it does not matter if the financing is to buy in-house products or cash.


  11. @ Cherfleur 9.19

    Your recommendation is part of the natural course of businesses. Some of us may remember General Electric as a manufacturing firm, but it subsequently became a major finance house and others have followed. There is a long list.


  12. @Donks, Gripe and Josh “Barbados is ranked lowest by every reputable international agency for the least susceptibility to corruption.”

    IT is not so much that we are nice.

    We are cheap.

    Hence we hate having to pay for anything twice.

    We know that our taxes pay for all of our “free” services and all of our civil and political “servants” so we resist having to pay twice

    I have a cousin who refused to do dressmaking business with her own daughter who lived in her home, because mummy had to pay, and then had to beg the daughter to complete the clothing. Mummy said “there is no way that I am going to pay and beg too”. So she paid a stranger to do her dressmaking. You will NEVER get a bribe out of an old fashioned morally centered Bajan like that. Mother and daughter still love each other and get along fine on a personal level, meals and so forth, but no business transactions.

    When I first went to work, my mummy, born in 1915, told me “don’t work twice on your job. You getting one pay check, do one job.” That was in reference to NEVER EVER giving any supervisor or any boss sex. Never. I worked for 45 years, from my virginity to retirement, and no boss or supervisor ever got any sex from me. I left one job though because a supervisor did annoy me for sex. The old fool was 3 times my age. I don’t why he thought a beautiful young person would want to have sex with his old wrinkly self?

    All Bajans must remember these old fashioned values. NEVER EVER pay twice.

    Because once you start it how are you going to stop it?

    Being cheap helps enormously.


  13. I don’t why he thought a beautiful young person would want to have sex with his old wrinkly self?(Quote)

    Be kind to the blind.


  14. Ahhh!! That’s because you missed beholding me when I was 20.

    Enormously handsome Gordon Greenidge knighted for his services to cricket.

    Now that is a man who has aged gracefully.


  15. Everyone is taking advantage of Bajans. 30% Courts?? and we complaining about the banks who are also juckin out our eyes with their many illegal fees. The government is allow these companies to take advantage of bajan by not putting the required regulations in place. So the government is part of the scam.


  16. @ Miked

    Poor regulation. A failure of government. But regulations are details, not photo opportunities. We do not have to re-invent the wheel. Since 2008 the world has seen a radical transformation of financial regulation. All we have to do in Barbados is look at the best of those, pick what suits Barbados, and introduce new legislation.


  17. cherfleur

    RE: “Simpson Motors offers financing for their cars. That is very different from “cash loans”. Simpson only offers the facility for customers to buy/borrow Simpson Motors’ goods.”

    Someone mentioned something about Courts “lending money to consumers to PURCHASE its own GOODS, it is carrying out the function of a bank and should be regulated as a bank,” to which I ASKED what is the difference between that and Simpson Motors Finance or Consolidated Finance lending people money to purchase their vehicles and should they be regulated as banks?

    Are you aware Consolidated Finance offer short-term loans as well?

    I’ll ask you these other questions.

    Were any laws broken when Courts Barbados Ltd. established Courts Ready Finance, which is finance company and a SEPARATE entity from Courts Barbados Ltd.?

    Or are we seeing Courts Barbados Ltd. and Courts Ready Finance as ONE entity?

    What are the differences between Courts Ready Finance…… Consolidated Finance, Fast Cash Loans Barbados, CashWiz Barbados, Axcel Finance Barbados and TravelCash Barbados lending people money, as you mentioned, “so they can go anywhere and buy anything: goods, hair, shoe, tampons – none of which could be had at” these places?

    What are the correlations between Courts hire purchase agreements and Courts Ready Cash terms of repayment?


  18. Artax, since you are a numbers man, you can tell us.

    On this blog only Silly Women are permitted to ask questions without also providing the answers.

    So you need to “man-up” too.


  19. @Simple Simon

    The point that Courts has established aa a financial entity was made several times. We have to be able to demonstrate basic comprehension. It is not the store lending the money, it is another legally incorporated entity regulated by the FSC. Do not respond only to the empty vessels.


  20. @ Hal

    Rest assured that as we continue on the chosen path of the Duopoly: hocus pocus economics and hop scotch development planning; more shady financial enterprises will emerge.
    They will employ university graduates and other well qualified professionals : accountants etc to remain hidden in the “ back room” designing more schemes.
    At the front end they will use lesser educated workers to take the heat. There will always be a private jet waiting at the airport to escape when necessary.
    Who will guard the guards?


  21. @ William

    The biggest financial scandal in Barbados is mortgage lending by the banks. At the height of the 2000s boom the UK had nearly 2000 different types of mortgages, from 100 per cent mortgages to offset mortgages. Borrowers benefited enormously.
    Then there is the matter of protection and the gangsterism of repossessing homes and selling them on to Mafia syndicates. The one that outs a smile on my face is the different charges for conveyancing. The same amount of work goes in to conveyancing for a $300000 home as for a $50m home, yet governments of all hues (the duopoly) allow lawyers to charge prices based on the price of the homes. This is nasty robbery.
    The other scandal is banks wanting all your financial details when you apply for a loan and not just affordability. They get away with it because nearly all borrowers have to go to banks for large loans. Until we develop a proper capital market the gangsters in suits will rob us.
    Our lawyer/politicians are part of the scam.

  22. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    Wow!!
    An excellent discussion. Very informative. I will be very disappointed to hear any member of Bu Household getting caught in these financial schemes. Please read the fine print and ask for the APRs. Better still use your 11 plus maths and a computer (excel) or hand calculator.


  23. What about those who failed 11+ math and every single math exam thereafter?

    What % of 11 year old’s achieve more than 50% in the 11+ exam?

    People with poor math skills, perhaps the majority of any population have to live in the same world as people with excellent math skills.

    What if somebody wh0 scored 100% in 11+ math and above 90% in every math exam after, writes the financial contracts for those who score less than 20%?

    Would you say that the financial negotiating playing field is even?


  24. @Simple Silly

    The products ARE designed by maths experts, actuaries. Quite often not even the CE of the banks understand the underlying maths. That is why we need good regulation and good consumer protection.


  25. My questions as always are rhetorical.

    What If an actuary says to someone with poor math skills “it is your fault and you are stupid if you do not read and understand the fine print”

    What if i understand Arabic and I prepared a contract in that language and said to an English speaking actuary “it is your fault and you are stupid if you do not read and understand the fine print”


  26. Contracts should be written in the language of the common people so that they can be understood by the common people who have to sign them when they need a very small short term loan.

    Common sense tells us that if someone wants to borrow $1,000 to $2,000 very likely thay are in no position to hire a lawyer or an actuary to review the contract for them.

    Didn’t some lawyer charge a Barbados government entity, I think that it was Caves of Barbados $700,000 to review a contract?

    A young lady working on the Harbour Road and needing a quick $1,000 to put her children back into school, school pants and shirts and shoes and pencils, calculators, socks and book bags etc. won’t have lawyer or actuarial fees.


  27. Good point, Simple Simon! Some are bad at Maths AND the language skills that are also needed in reading and understanding the fine print.

    As Hal says, That is precisely why we need good regulation and consumer protection.

    It is the VULNERABLE who need protection.

    Should not civilized society be judged upon the level of protection offered to those who cannot protect themselves? Is the world not a jungle if only the fittest survive?

    Are we no longer trying to separate ourselves from our base animal instincts?

    Is it again accepted that we are all just predators who should be allowed to prey on each other?

    Then, what the hell are we doing here at our keyboards complaining about injustice and corruption? There is no such thing in the jungle!


  28. Some of us, not you Hal, like to pretend that everybody has enough money everyday to take care of the necessities.

    I am from a family which had 7 children in school at the same time. “Yes” my parents, had to “trust” school supplies from the ‘coolie” man, otherwise some of us would have had to leave school at age 9 when we outgrew the village school.

    Many people in Barbados still struggle. In EVERY country of the world there are poor people who struggle AND who aspire for better for their children. I think that it was PLT who mentioned a number of about 40,000 very poor in Barbados. Those poor people also want to keep their children in school, and sometimes “yes” they need credit in order to do so, What else are they supposed to do? Permit their children to withdraw from school at age 9 or 10?


  29. Smart Phones are in the possession of most in Barbados, rich and poor.

    Google loan calculator!

    No need to understand math.


  30. Let us say that I desperately need $2,000 BDS so that Little Susie can complete her last semester at university. Let’s say that I have used up all of my other resources. Little Susie IS holding down a part time job. What am I supposed to do remortgage the house for a $2,000 BDS loan? What would the legal and banking fees etc cost me? What should I do rip a few windows off the house and sell them for cash? Force Little Susie to withdraw? Too old to prostitute myself. Don’t want to borrow from a drug dealer, LOL!!!

    Of course I would go to Courts even knowing that the 30% interest rate is burdensome. Doing so doesn’t make me stupid, careless nor nuthin’ so.

    it just makes me a good parent.

    This class is REAL LIFE: 101.

    You are now dismissed.


  31. If you need credit you need credit, end of story.

    If you don’t, you don’t.

    Plug in the numbers and look at the answer.

    The richest person can be in need of credit just as the poorest person.

    Similarly, the most intelligent person can be in need of credit just as the simplest fool.

    You never know.

    Ms. Mockley may need to go to Courts if it has all this cash it is lending out.


  32. @Hal Austin December 28, 2019 2:56 PM @Simple Silly. “The products ARE designed by maths experts, actuaries. Quite often not even the CE of the banks understand the underlying maths. That is why we need good regulation and good consumer protection.”

    Agreed 100%.


  33. Poor John, you don’t understand that that wouldn’t help some people to understand. Neither do you understand that some people are desperate.


  34. Silly Woman
    December 28, 2019 3:36 PM

    Let us say that I desperately need $2,000 BDS so that Little Susie can complete her last semester at university.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Ask little Suzie to use her $1,600.00 smart phone and let her tell you how much you need to pay back.


  35. What the 30% interest tells me is that Courts expects to have to deal with loan defaulters.

    … just like it has to routinely repossess items.


  36. @Donna December 28, 2019 3:24 PM “we are all just predators who should be allowed to prey on each other?”

    That is exactly what our boy Ewart whats-‘is-name seemed to be suggesting one day last week.

    I bet that Ewart could not have kept 7 children in school at the same time (we were all born before the oral contraceptive pill was invented) and long before the school meals program came to our rural village.but my parents with 16 years of formal education between the two of them did it.

    Poor people also have aspirations for their children. Poor people also have economic sense.

    But yes they need proper regulations (quoting Hal) to keep the rapacios predators offa them.


  37. West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein. I wunna be in America. Life can be great in America, if you are white in America…..Here you are free……if you stay on your own side…..


  38. Where is the evidence the regulation is poor?


  39. Courts must figure there is a market out there for the service it offers and knows from its every day hire purchase business that there are Bajans who would rather die than default.

    The 30% over 2 years also tells me that Courts knows how many such Bajans exist.

    They will cover the losses of the others who default.

    There are actually two predators, one is Courts and the other is the defaulter.

    The prey is the conscientious Bajan who makes sure all loans are paid off.

    … like Ms. Mockley and the international creditors.

    Some Bajans don’t give a damn while others are concerned about their country’s credit.


  40. The actuary just assesses how many predators Courts will need to fight and how much prey is there for the taking.


  41. What if Little Suzie has a $49.95 BDS Nokia?

    And even so how is knowing how much will have to be repaid help the person who has run out of options?

    This class is: Tales from the 1% (the bottom 1%)

    John NEEDS to be in this class.

    We hear so much about the (top) 1%

    But wunna understand that there is also a bottom 1% right?


  42. … and what interest rate and payback period will allow Courts to come out with returns that meet its goals.


  43. The actuary just assesses how many predators Courts will need to fight and how much prey is there for the taking.(Quote)

    @John, are you sure you won a Barbados Scholarship? You are Bajan to the core. Stop it.


  44. And since I am much older than John, n doubt some of my taxes helped to pay for his Barbados Scholarship

    Sigh!!!

    Can I ask for a refund, with 40+ years of interest at 30%?


  45. @Hal: “All we have to do in Barbados is look at the best of those, pick what suits Barbados, and introduce new legislation.

    Hear! Hear!

    IMHO (based on some knowledge and experience), there is often a “not invented here” mentality. Not just here in Barbados but throughout the world.

    Whenever someone wants to implement something new, or simply “upgrade”, it is highly advisable to first look around to see what others have done, and what the results were. This applies as much to a country’s laws as it does an individual’s software decisions. Law is, after all, nothing more than code written to be interpreted by humans.

    I can’t go into details, but the Barbados Telecommunications Act desperately needs revision. I have strongly encouraged that activity to include a review and consideration of the Estonia approach to telecoms regulation and enforcement. Estonia seriously got it correct — and are reaping the rewards now.

    The word “enforcement” in the above paragraph is, of course, critical.

  46. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Simple Simon

    The typical Bajan that engages in borrowing from financial Institutions understands interest rate charges. What this debate is deteriorating into is one of shifting the responsibility of making good financial decisions from the borrower onto the State.That is unreasonable. The anectdotal evidence you have provided is inadequate. Parents of our generation sent their children to school with out having to borrow. The income was fixed and one kept consumption within the parameters of ones income.


  47. Maybe your parents did not have to borrow. Maybe your mother did not give birth to 6 children in 9 years as mine did. There are many, many, Barbadoses, and perhaps my Barbados was not/is not your Barbados.

    I know parents enough who could not have kept their children in school unless they borrowed, against the sugar preference money which came in late November/December.

    But children had to be ready for school by September

    Wha’ to do???

    i have a dear friend whose parents had 1 child, she has no understanding of how it was possible to keep 7 in school AT THE SAME TIME,

    Your truth is your truth.

    My truth is my truth.

    BOTH are VALID.


  48. Many parents in Barbados still struggle to make ends meet.

    Some parents everywhere struggle to make ends meet.

    And nope nobody in my home had bad habits like smoking, drinking, gambling, womanising.

    Too poor to afford bad habits. Lolll!!!

  49. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Hal

    John is correct. The probability of default is calculated by the actuary; and the probability of “suckers”are also calculated mathematically. The same goes for those who credit furniture and domestic appliances. Using past data the credit department can work out the percentage of credit defaulters. Those who do not default pay for those who do .The interest rate is set accordingly. These things are done systematically. They are CALCULATED risks.


  50. @Simple Simon

    You are agreeing with Vincent, they borrowed against monies due to them, it was a prepayment if you will. How does that compare to what is being debated here?

    >

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