Farepack...do the people who lost out really have the right to moan?

Question

I'm just surprised about the amount of media coverage. These people put money away each week/month into a private company that was giving them 0% interest.Why not use a bank? and isn't there a story in the bible called the three talents(or something) where one son burys money in the ground and upon his return the father is furious with him for not attempting to increase his wealth? I do have sympathy but if your going to be stupid with your money then you have no right to ask for recourse!

Answer 1

I'm quite in agreement with this. A bank is unlikely to go bust, and you're guarenteed to get back as much as you put in, if nt more, due to interest.
I would say that there is an interesting lesson to be learned from all this

Answer 2

Although I have seen some reports in the UK papers, basically, that agents were selling these schemes to family, friends etc and thus gaining a commission just like catalogue sales, I do have sympathy for the people who, by and large are at the bottom end of the socio-economic scale and who have little option but to pay a small amount weekly or whatever into schemes like this as their only real way of getting anything together for Christmas.
Do they have a "right" to moan - no I'm sorry but no, they don't.
Would I moan something vicious if I were in their place and it happened to me - you bet I would.
How Farepak actually managed to go bust is a complete mystery to me at the moment. They were on the receiving end of a cash flow, and had no outgoings until their time came to supply the goods. Maybe at the end of the period they could not supply the goods they had promised, but then surely they would be in a refund situation - even if that refund were not 100% of contributions. Who got what and how will come out at some point, but as I said earlier, the people who are caught are those least able to live with it.

Answer 3

I'm pretty sure that Farepak offered food hampers & store retail vouchers at a discount. They had bulk purchase power and no expensive high street real estate to manage, so kept operating costs low and purchasing power high.

They also offered the option of people clubbing together and spreading the cost over the year.

Therefore the return on investment would have been pretty good if the HSBC bank hadn't called in the loan and made them go bust.

So the idea to buy into Farepak makes sense if you're on low income. But life sucks, businesses go bust and you pays your money, you takes your risks.

A bank is safer, so it's a lesson I guess.

Answer 4

People save for Christmas this way so they cant be tempted to break into the money . A lot of the Farepack savers were people on low incomes who presumably knew they would be tempted if they saved through a bank.
I think you are being unfair saying they were stupid with their money. I dont know of any other types of savings plan that wont give you your money back until November and pays %. If there is one then I take that last sentence back.

Answer 5

No they dont, i dont see celebs trying to gain some good pr by doling out cash to the people who have had their pensions wiped out by various greedy companies taking a giant dump on employees.

The divs who have been on tv whinging becuase they've had their Christmas ruined can think themselves lucky, try paying into a company pension for 25 years and losing the lot because someone decides to use the cash to prop up fat cat salaries then going bust. Thats having your whole life ruined never mind christmas.

The person asking the question is totally right, stick the money in a bank and earn interest rather than paying through the nose for a crappy hamper that could be bought for a fraction of the cost down Tescos.

Sympathy? not here.

Answer 6

if they put it in a bank then the first time a big bill comes in they would withdraw the christmas fund from the bank to pay the bill with every intention of replacing the money when they can, of course they never will be able to replace that money,if that happens a few times over the course of the year then there won't be enough for presents at christmas,when you put your money into farepack then you can't get at it till xmas,so you can't withdraw the money until christmas.

Answer 7

i think that's a little below the belt some of these people find it hard to save so this works shame it was crook like people running it . i wonder will they have a crap Christmas? NO! because they still have there bank accounts and nice houses. they have`nt lost they knew this was gonna happen two years ago but still kept taking poor peoples money

Answer 8

Your attitude and general lack of ability or willingness to understand the situation these people find themselves in is troublesome to me. They are almost always people on *very* low incomes, and perhaps you don't know but most banks are getting more and more expensive for low-income people to use because the banks lose money on them (you may have noticed that some banks have started to charge for plain bank accounts with no add-ons).

In addition it's often difficult for people in this situation to actually get to a bank on a regular basis; so the fact that someone will undertake to call every week to collect a small sum of money towards saving for Christmas is very useful and it means that they have built in the strength of will to save this money rather than spend it - and on their very low incomes the temptation to spend on simple treats for themselves and the kids is huge. Look at the amount of TV and supermarket advertising designed to get at the kiddie-nag-parents market.

What nobody realised was that this kind of savings plan isn't regulated in the same way that many other financial organisations are, and so the Farepack business is probably the first time that anything like this has come to public attention. And as far as your reference to the Bible is concerned, these people are doing exactly what is advised - they are putting away tiny amounts of wealth in order to have a decent amount of 'wealth' at Christmas-time. Have you no friends or elderly relatives who have problems paying their heating bills etc., and - for instance - buy TV licence stamps or similar?

All that would have to someone like you, unless you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth as well as cloth ears and an absence of imagination is for you to have a bad accident at work for which you couldn't get compensation, or lose your job at a bad time, and you'd be surprised how quickly you'd find yourself in poverty and trying to scratch and save like these folk. I admire them for having the self-control to save for their families rather than go into debt; I think that the response of the bosses in charge of the outfit is shameful; and you have no right to sound off about people being stupid with their money.

I hope that you learn enough of this lesson the hard way to open your heart.

Answer 9

Yes. Many of these people live on the poverty line, they can't get credit cards or loans to buy Christmas in he same way that the majority can. They have trusted a scheme which embodies thrift and saving, but they have been let down in the worst way possible.

Answer 10

Your obviously just having a laugh

But if you are serious, you try living on a pittance every week and trying your best to give your kids a good crimbo, these people have had the foresight to save with an established company and they have been robbed, to them its no different to someone emptying there bank account.

You are just havin a laugh right???