Lisa Kelly
Great BritainLisa Kelly: From Debt to Experiment Participant
Lisa Kelly is a participant in an experiment on microloan systems. These companies, offering "payday loans," have been proliferating rapidly, but the ease of obtaining a loan comes with high interest rates. The idea of microloans has gained popularity worldwide, and recently, a significant experiment was conducted with the help of a former victim of the allure of these loans.
At the age of 18, Lisa Kelly had already experienced significant difficulties with short-term microloans. The seemingly advantageous offers turned into horrifying overpayments, plunging Kelly deeper into debt. At that time, she had not yet mastered budget planning and was only able to escape her debts with the help of her relatives.
This experience not only made Kelly skeptical about the credit system as a whole but also severely damaged her credit history. Now, no reputable organization would grant her a loan. Microloan specialists might have been more accommodating, but this history had forever dissuaded Kelly from engaging with such loans.
Nevertheless, not long ago, Kelly once again turned to the services of familiar companies and accumulated £2340 in loans. However, this time, her inability to manage her household budget was not the driving factor. Lisa became a participant in a unique scientific experiment organized by the guarantor "Amigo Loans." At the age of 23, Kelly launched a massive attack on well-known microloan companies. Within three days, she managed to establish contact with 40 companies and received loans from eight of them, amounting to a total of £2340. With the interest included, she would have to repay £2983.
An interesting aspect of this experiment is that half of the companies that approved her microloan applications did not even bother to inquire about Lisa's salary. Two of these companies ultimately approved loans that significantly exceeded her monthly income: £550 and £800. In part, Lisa's "success" can be attributed to her prompt actions. She received all eight loan approvals within three days, while information about such loans only enters the credit bureau once a month.
However, only one out of the eight companies bothered to inquire about Lisa's existing microloans. Moreover, even when Lisa honestly admitted to having five outstanding debts, she was still granted a loan, albeit only £100. Kelly was chosen for this experiment as she had a good understanding of the microloan world, having experienced it firsthand.
As part of the experiment's conditions, Lisa had to provide the companies with all the requested information and answer their questions honestly. Interestingly, she hardly received any questions, which could be seen as an extension of that rule. Some might think that eight approvals out of 40 applications is not a particularly high success rate. Unfortunately, even if she had received more rejections, it would not have reduced Lisa's overall debt.
The interest on the loans collected by Lisa during the experiment was repaid by the organizing company. They also ensured that the experiment did not affect Lisa Kelly's credit history, which currently does not look promising with an additional £3000 in debts.
