I'm assuming you smart-arses already knew all about this, but I just came across it today whilst looking at a credit website:
www.aquacard.co.uk/privacy-policy

So...there you have it.

35% APR...holy fucken sheeite

andyh wrote:
Innit.

But...they are helping people who have already been fucked over by financial institutions in the past and have thusly earned themselves a 'poor' credit rating, doubtless out of the kindness of their fat, sweaty, arses anorl.

Thats not helping, its taking the piss.

I pay 3.8% on mine.

I don't have any, which is why I was looking.

Pimpin' ain't easy.

Ab Origine wrote:

You need a manager. Someone who knows you

psketti wrote:
Would that mean you also get a cut of any royalties?

Ab Origine wrote:

Nah. I'll be able to make do with the pictures and video

Ab Origine wrote:
What exactly are they looking for?
Unless there's posts about financial shenanigans, I can't see why the personality of a potential customer is at all relevant when it comes to giving them a high APR credit card.... unless they're after advertising profiling.

Space Bandit wrote:
See the ferengi rules of acquisition lol

Space Bandit wrote:
Fekked if I know. It just irks me that it would not occur to most people that they'd even be remotely interested in what they had for tea or how shitty their day has been, yet here it is, in black and white.

YET...people still use things like Facebook. Now that's what I really can't get my head around.

Ab Origine wrote:
At the end of the day I guess it depends what people are willing to share and what they are not willing to share and whether its used for profit.

Tesco for example keep incredible amounts of info about shoppers habits, they in return give them vouchers but the savings made on less waste and getting accurate 'just in time' inventories are worth far far more to Tesco.
Do tesco then share this info with others and for what nefarious reasons etc? Thats the hassle basically.

Ab Origine wrote:
I absolutely refuse to get myself involved in credit ever again. I sold my mortgaged house and bought a cheaper house outright with the proceeds, so I am mortgage-free and rent-free. My one remaining credit card debt is unenforceable so I've had some fun with that too. But basically I would rather go without than ever get involved in debt again.

Anyway, to get back to the OP, there doesn't seem to be much logic to it, other than profiling as mentioned and the simple fact that these control freaks like to grab ever more control of our lives.

I'm quite careful about who I allow onto my Facebook anyway. People should be especially careful right now, as there's been a spate of randoms who have been making friend requests when they have absolutely nothing in common with you. These appear to be mainly phishing and identity fraud attacks. I know someone who accepted one of these fuckers, then they hacked her account by brute forcing the password and then spamming the shit out of everybody.

I'm tempted to apply for one of these cards & spunk it up the wall & then swerve it.
What they gonna do? Write to me?!

Space Bandit wrote:
Depends entirely on your circumstances and whether you care about having a credit rating or not. If you have no assets and don't give a shit about credit, go for it.

dreamweaver wrote:
There isn't much they can do is there? I've got a mortgage & that but they can't get charging orders can they?
I did it when I was young & nothing happened... just letters & eventually bad credit. Don't think mine could get much worse so they probably won't give me one anyway.

Space Bandit wrote:
They can, and do, get charging orders quite easily these days, which effectively turns an unsecured loan into a loan secured on your house. There is a notorious debt collecting agency, called Marlin, who are absolute cunts for this one.

The government recently introduced a threshold for charging orders, so that the CCJ has to be at least £1,000 before a charging order can be granted. So if you want to play this game, keep each individual debt below £1,000.

You will find that the courts are very familiar with "freeman" type arguments these days, so this is not a very successful route to go down either. I have found that the best advice when it comes to debts is from forums.all-about-debt.co.uk/index.php - they rely on the law as it actually is, rather than the "magic beans and crack" approach of getoutofdebtfree, and they don't have trolls defending the banks (which happens a lot on Moneysavingexpert, Consumeractiongroup etc) either.