Can they do this?

[DSAT Man]

Just seen another one of those appalling adverts for 'Quickloanuk' featuring, what looks like, an RAF air officer and WRAF lass dressed in RAF uniforms save for a different badge. Website example of a loan: "£275 borrowed for 28 days. Annual interest rate of 359.40% (fixed). Total amount repayable by one repayment is £357.36. 1946.34% APR Representative." Questions: Have the RAF complained about this? Can they? I guess this company will argue that the badge removes them from the RAF but the 'Ops Room' background to the ad, and stupid 'banter talk' is a clear link. Boils my piss that my Service has even the remotest link to such a company!

[airborne_artist]

RAF air officer and WRAF lass dressed in RAF uniforms save for a different badge

Probably RAC employees then ;)

[diginagain]

Well, they've been doing it for at least the last six months or so, so my guess is that not enough feathers have been ruffled.

[Melchett01]

Boils my piss that my Service has even the remotest link to such a company

Best not let Commander JFC know that there's a loans company out there called Peachy.co.uk then!

[teeteringhead]

Servicepeople have always been targets for dodgy financial loans etc. For why? Cos they know they can go straight to the CO who will take action to recover in case of default.

You work for Tesco (or whoever) and default on a loan, the shop manager won't give a toss.

Recall one of our airmen once being so in debt that his pay only just covered his monthly repayments! And in order not to be "rankist", I know some officers who have had severe "financial overstretch" on dodgy deals too, borrowing to pay off the plastic etc etc.

Good dit in today's Torygraph by Bryony Gordon, who recalls in the past borrowing about £700 from these leeches (or similar) for a ticket to a mate's wedding in South Africa - cost her about £3K in the end!

[Tankertrashnav]

I think the different badge has got them covered, but I'm not sure. Back in the 70s an officers confidential order came out to the effect that officers were not to reprimand scruffy herberts in the street wearing ex-RAF greatcoats, etc, as these had been sold through surplus stores, and as long as the wearers were not impersonating service personnel they were not committing any offence. Annoying, agreed, and I am just amazed that anyone would take out one of these loans.

Btw - small point for the OP, there are no WRAF officers any more (or ORs for that matter) as they are now simply RAF - same story for Wrens and the navy

[Old-Duffer]

A few years ago there was an advert for a quote: retired RAFVR(T) Flight Lieutenant - un quote whose pension wasn't much and he was on hard times.

The clear implication for those not in the know was that this chap couldn't live on a measely air force pension.

I wrote to the chief of staff at the then Personnel and Training Command and suggested they get on the case. The response was that the legal eagles weren't bothered and no action was intended, despite the fact there is no RAFVR(T) pension and never was. It was this guy's civilian job that didn't have a decent pension but there was no mention of that.

Old Duffer

[NutLoose]

Surely the ideal retirement plan when old and decrepit with several ailments is to rob a bank, if you succeed you're financially secured, if you fail you will get provided with free accommodation, free food, free heating and will move to the front of the list on any medical requirements. And unlike an old folks home they will not sell your house from under you to pay for it all....

[lsd]

Oh Jenkins! Was that a slur on 78, flannel merchants we may have been.....but purveyors of fine crombies to the Trucial Oman States...? I think not!Was on the "nobody unprepared" in '67 and '68 and the last thing on our minds to haul up North out of Khormaksar was Aberdeens finest before the air conditioning units/fridges/electric fans had got past the various obstacles of AFME and the Naval Task Force.
Mine had a well earned rest before re-appearing in Northumberland, but it is nice to imagine a few wandering around the Firq-Saik neighbourhood ... Especially if worn with a certain tie........

[GalleyTeapot]

Servicepeople have always been targets for dodgy financial loans etc. For why? Cos they know they can go straight to the CO who will take action to recover in case of default.

A default would be a private matter, don't think many COs would give a toss either.

[Wensleydale]

A default would be a private matter, don't think many COs would give a toss
either.


Not so - RAFG used to be well known for young lads being in trouble for defaulting on their monthly payments on their tax-free car bought through the NAAFI. Financial difficulties were seen as a security issue and many careers were blighted by the NAAFI policy of writing to the OC first.

[Pontius Navigator]

WD, NAAFI was always a special case. They thought they were special, behaved as if they were special and held the whip hand when it came to the star signs. No mere gp capt would dare to cross the lowly NAAFI as they had a monopoly on overcharging and underselling.

[chopper2004]

John Barrowman wears an RAF Greatcoat as Captain Jack Harkness :) :mad::ouch:

[Roadster280]

The only reason the annual rate is so horrendous is that it is an annualised rate for a loan that is short term in nature. It's a "payday" loan, and if the loan of 275 quid gets you out of the mire for a cost of 75 quid, then to some, that's worth it.

Unfortunately, the services are prime pickings for these types of loans, as the services (and particularly the RAF) don't pay very well until you climb the pole a bit. If they showed three drunken SACs borrowing the money to go on the piss again, it doesn't have as much appeal as a nice officer and a bird. They don't show chavs in adverts for Corsas or little Peugeots, but that's who drives them.

I concur with Wensleydale. Financial worries lead to susceptibility to blackmail, and therefore a security issue. I knew plenty of chaps in the Royal Signals who lost their vetting because of these kind of issues. Perhaps the Corps is particularly susceptible to it, since nearly every job requires positive vetting, but I'd think the RAF is not far behind.

[aergid]

I remember being "conned" into opening a LLoyds Current Account in Basic training (FAA). The Navy had full access at the time on any account information eg overdrafts etc.

A year or so later I was summonsed to the UPO to answer why I was in debt to LLoyds bank (I had an unauthorised overdraft after a great 1st run ashore in Palma) as it is (was) an offence to be in debt in the RN....

I paid off the overdraft closed the account and have never stepped into a Lloyds bank since....

The Navy used to have an arrangement with LLoyds Bank in Plymouth, Portsmouth and Portland. Which meant they knew all about junior ratings finances (good or bad). I am not sure if this was an official arrangement or a localised thing....

BTW it was before all the palava of Data Protection etc....

[teeteringhead]

I imagine that "Teeters" is still paying off the loan which he must have taken to pay for the frightful hat which he wore when last spotted on TV. JENKS my old - that hat is fully paid for and still in use. Might have cost more had it been Bates ......

.... unless of you mean the "cap comforter" one's image was wearing on an unflattering Photfit on Crimewatch.;)

[Chugalug2]

Pontius Navigator:
No mere gp capt would dare to cross the lowly NAAFI as they had a monopoly on overcharging and underselling.
Er, well one did to my certain knowledge, Station Commander RAF Changi in the 60's. He backed up OC 48 Sqn who turned to a local contractor to provide refreshments to the Squadron, and in particular to the groundcrews on the nightshift as the local NAAFI manager said it was uneconomic, never mind Servitor Servientium. That arrangement persisted through the change from Hastings to Hercules until the latter left Singapore.

[unclenelli]

There was once a character on Ch4 Coach Trip who was wearing a current issue GPJ with SAC rank tabs.
No SWO would have ever let his hair get that long, or wear his uniform jacket Out-Of-Office

I forget his name, but he had curly ginger hair - I think it may have been one of Tom & Max in Series1

[baffman]

Back in the 70s an officers confidential order came out to the effect that officers were not to reprimand scruffy herberts in the street wearing ex-RAF greatcoats, etc, as these had been sold through surplus stores, and as long as the wearers were not impersonating service personnel they were not committing any offence...

Interesting. The staggering thing is that such an order would be thought necessary, even in the darkest 1970s.