How Fair for You’s Shopping Card Loan is helping people face down debt 

Around 20 million people in the UK are living in financially vulnerable circumstances and that means scores of Brits on low incomes struggle to access credit for life’s essentials or when disaster strikes. 

Fair for You’s Shopping Card Loan uses a pre-loaded Mastercard with up to £350 that can be used online or in-store at Dunelm, Argos, Iceland Foods, Tapi Carpets & Floors and Euronics as well as recent addition Currys. The Shopping Card Loan helps people who get turned down by banks and Buy Now, Pay Later firms and who may not meet the requirements for in-store credit options. 

These people may be forced to turn to loan sharks or unscrupulous lenders. Instead, charity-owned not-for-profit Fair for You will only lend to people who can afford to repay when given flexibility and control over repayments. 

Customers can pay weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly or monthly. They can repay early without an additional cost and can reschedule payments when facing tricky times. 

Read more:

• Store cards and buy now, pay later debt landed this single mum in court. What if there was another way?
• Ofgem’s plan to write off £500m of energy debt is welcome – but it’s not enough to solve the crisis
• Bailiffs tried taking my kids’ toys over council tax debt – people shouldn’t have to go through this

Simon Dukes, chief executive of Fair for You CIC, said the initiative is particularly popular with women and can help vulnerable women who may be subject to economic abuse, as the card can only be used for specific purposes. 

“Now that Currys accepts the Fair for You Shopping Card Loan we can help bring more laptops to families to support with education and washing machines to busy parents,” said Dukes. “We’re responding to high customer need for essential household tech. As a specialist not-for-profit lender we offer the control and flexibility that enables people with tight finances to repay successfully.

“The Fair for You Shopping Card Loan is offering a hand up rather than a handout to tens of thousands of families. Plus, every payment our customers make helps to repair their credit file.” 

Tapi Carpets & Floors is one of the retailers Fair for You works with. Alex Rogers, head of partnerships at Tapi Carpets & Floors, said a Shopping Card Loan can help low-income families facing higher energy bills due to inadequate flooring.

“Partnering with Fair For You helps customers, in particular those in rented accommodation, update their home with essential flooring,” said Rogers. “We know that approximately 1.2 million people are living without flooring in the UK and this partnership will help to reduce that number.” 

Fair For You launched 10 years ago this month in a bid to help people get fairer access to credit. The responsible lender launched at a time when high-cost credit through the likes of Wonga was commonplace. The decade since has seen the cost of living crisis driving more people into debt. 

Fair for You boss Dukes told Big Issue that they would like to work with more retailers, name-checking the likes of Shoezone, Matalan and Primark. Dukes added: “Big Issue Invest was one of our early investors. [Former Big Issue Invest managing director] Danyal [Sattar] and the team there, we owe a huge debt of gratitude for helping us when we were starting out.” 

In numbers

• 19,500 people have used the Shopping Card Loan 

• 44% of people who use the card are aged 35-44 

• 85% of those using the card over the last six months are female and 15% are male

• Since launching 10 years ago, Fair For You has advanced just under £100 million in loans. That’s created £750m of social value and 31.7% of Fair For You customers no longer need to use credit at all Rent and mortgage arrears have dropped by more than half and daily fruit consumption more than tripled among customers 

Find out more about how Fair for You‘s flexible lending.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

Reader-funded since 1991 – Big Issue brings you trustworthy journalism that drives real change.

Every day, our journalists dig deeper, speaking up for those society overlooks.

Could you help us keep doing this vital work? Support our journalism from £5 a month.