An entrepreneur who has won awards for promoting opportunities for the disadvantaged is demanding the ban of advertising for high cost debt.
Alan Donegan, whose company the Rebel Business School won a Queen’s Award for Promoting Opportunity last year, has launched a petition on Parliament’s website to that effect.
His petition calls for the ban of advertising of finance of 12 percent and above – affecting the vast majority of credit cards, payday loans companies and many other financial products.
Mr Donegan says the cost of living crisis is hurting families and says they are easy prey for unethical loaners whose products are only likely to lead to great financial harm.
“People are really struggling with prices rising across the board. The last thing these people need is to be paying off interest on their debts, as well.
“Yet we are seeing advertisements for debt products of 25-30 percent interest, and higher.
“People who accept these terms will end up drowning in debt and the impact on families can be appalling. It’s simply wrong for banks to be promoting such high cost debt.”
In Mr Donegan’s petition, he notes how as a young man he was seriously affected by debt.
“The banks tried to take our family home. The judge ordered it to be repossessed and there’s never been a worse feeling than when that gavel came down.
“I don’t want anyone else to ever experience that feeling again.
“We appealed. I learned the law, represented my family in court and won. It was one of the hardest and most stressful things I’ve ever done.
“The banks should know. I’ve fought you before and I won – I am going to do so again.”
Later this month, Donegan and his wife, Katie, are running an entirely free to attend course called the Rebel Finance School, to help people overcome debt, gain a better relationship with money and become financially independent.
They launched the first version during 2020 in response to the pandemic attracting over 200 people to a free 10 week online course. Now, its membership is over 10,000 strong and growing.
“People are waking up to the harm debt does and seeing there are better ways to organise their finances.
“Katie and I gained our financial independence and with it our freedom. We want to help others to do the same.”
