End to Christmas credit woes sought

Press, 4 December 1985, Page 7

End to Christmas credit woes sought

A consumer action group may be formed in Christchurch as a result of a meeting last evening to discuss consumer credit. The meeting was organised by Christchurch advisory and welfare agencies concerned about the increasing number of people getting into monetary difficulties at Christmas. About 25 people from various agencies and the general public attended. After discussing the problems facing people at Christmas, the meeting decided that one of the best ways of dealing with these was to form a consumer action group. This would give consumers a voice with which to air their conerns.

Agencies already established could not take on this role as their source of fund-

ing often meant that they could not speak out on particular issues, the meeting decided.

Such a group would not need much funding initially, and items such as photocopying and envelopes could come from other agencies. The lack of information about credit at Christmas was a main concern of the meeting. Examples given by people told of advertising displaying one price for an item, while the true price was much higher because of the cost of credit.

Many sales people did not know the details of their shop’s credit plan and people who asked were “made to feel stupid.” To try to combat this, the meeting decided to draft a list of about six essential questions that people should

ask to find out all they needed to know about a firm’s credit scheme. The questions could then be sent to the bigger companies. The answers given could be displayed on community notice boards so that people could see exactly what they were going to get from each firm. A further meeting will be held to discuss the proposals from last evening and more on what can be done about the pressures of advertising at Christmas, on Friday, between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. at the Community Law Centre, Worcester Street For those who are unable to attend on Friday, another meeting will be held at the same time and place on Tuesday, December 10.