by Karen Billington

Created on: October 18, 2008

Getting In The Red

"Yes," I said on the morning of my 18th birthday, "I am finally an adult and can legally go out and enjoy myself and get what I want". Jenny was a quite girl at school, she never had many friends and was constantly picked on because her parents were poor and couldn't afford the latest hi-tech trainers or designer school bag. Everyday was a nightmare for Jenny. She would have to be forced out of the house by her parents and made to go to school. Jenny was now 18. This is what she had been waiting for. Finally I can have a catalogue in my own name and order nice clothes and accessories. Before long Jenny's was on the internet browsing through different catalogue companies and looking for the best one. After only a couple of days from applying, Jenny's first catalogue arrived along with a letter saying that she had a credit limit of 300 and payment terms of up to 52 weeks. 43.50 a week is all she was paid for being on a Youth Training course. Her parents expected most of this and with bus fares taken out, there was not much left over, so she was easily tempted to buy new clothes from the catalogue and "Pay Later". After a few months, Jenny decided that she wanted to learn to drive. She took out a credit card with a credit limit of 500. She felt rich, but before long it was over the limit. Jenny didn't come from a wealthy family and her father always expected half of her wages, so she began to fall behind with payments. After completing the Youth Training course a year later, Jenny was employed full time and was now on a monthly wage of 500. The driving lessons continued and so did the spending. Before long a new mobile phone had been ordered and placed on a contract for 18 months. Applications for new credit cards kept arriving on the door mat every day. Jenny new she had no money so she applied for more cards. After getting another one with a limit of 200 and maxing it out, she applied for another and another. It wasn't long before 6 credit cards sat in her purse with zero balance available to spend on them. The bills kept arriving and using one card to pay the other was proving to be a pointless task. She went to the bank for a loan of 3000 to clear her debts. Jenny managed to clear the balances of 4 catalogue and 6 credit cards and a door-step caller who came on a weekly basis to collect 10 payments for a small loan of 300 taken out to go Christmas shopping. The payments on the loan were easy but Jenny got a little bored with sitting at home

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