Loan companies prey on the needs of vulnerable people

But sometimes we need protecting from ourselves.

She did it for the best of reasons she wanted to give her two young children a fantastic Christmas. But now the 28-year-old unemployed mum faces a new year with a mountain of debt.

Sadly, it’s an all-too-familiar story.

Katie McGill borrowed £1,700 from eight payday loan companies to buy toys, computer games, bikes, TVs and DVD players for her eight-year-old son Calvin and daughter Mya-Renee, 3.

I’ve no doubt that it seemed a great idea at the time.

The two kids would wake up to a huge pile of prezzies under the tree. It would be the best Christmas ever and that’s all she wanted. So reason went out the window and the mum borrowed the money.

We all get a bit emotional and extravagant at this time of year whether it’s buying more food than we can possibly eat over the festive season or letting the credit card work overtime at the till snapping up bargains in the Boxing Day sales.

Now Katie, from Wiltshire, like hundreds of others, faces the January blues when the time of reckoning comes.

Does she regret it?

Not really, I suspect. She’s already claiming it’s the fault of Wonga how can she pay back £3,000 when she has only £70 left over from her benefits after she’s paid the household bills?

“It will just be one big mess,” she said last week.

Afraid so, Katie. But will you learn from it?

Did the children need quite so many presents? And how stressful is home life going to be as you face the headache of paying your debts?

Loan companies prey on the needy feelings of vulnerable people. They exploit the longing for things beyond your reach.

I agree with Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, that there should be tighter controls on companies like Wonga. Sometimes we need protecting from ourselves.

I avoided the collective mania of the Boxng Day sales this year. Did I really want anything enough to be pushed and elbowed out of the way as I trawled through piles of “stuff”?

Not really, I decided.

Overheated shops, exhausted staff and mile-long queues at the tills. Then you get home and your “bargains” don’t look quite so amazing. What was going through your head, you wonder?

Shopping mania is a rare disease and someday they’ll find a cure.

But while ready money is offered to people who can’t afford it, mums like Katie McGill will spend, spend, spend.