Rip-off loans leave IVF women crippled by debts for years
WOMEN who are desperate for a baby but cannot afford IVF are being offered rip- off loans by fertility clinics.
They are given £8,500 to cover the cost of a cycle of treatment at such high interest they end up paying thousands over the odds.
Couples can be left in terrible debt even if the IVF fails and they do not have a baby.
At one clinic in Darlington, County Durham, the highinterest loans appear to be targeted specifically at people on low incomes who have been rejected for finance by banks.
The couples are left paying off the loan with an annual interest rate of 15.72 per cent – 63 times the Bank of England base rate of 0.25 per cent.
Critics accused clinics of ‘playing on the emotional distress’ of desperate people to milk them for profit.
Undercover reporters from the Mail were offered a loan at a clinic in the North East run by the London Women’s Clinic after saying they could not afford private treatment. Staff handed out a leaflet from Zebra Health Finance (ZHF), which specialises in loans to cover private healthcare.
It said the loan was ‘flexible’, ‘competitively priced’ and had a ‘simple and quick application process’. It claimed to offer ‘a way of allowing you to control and spread the cost more conveniently’.
One of the clinic’s staff said: ‘There’s not as much criteria that they check, which is probably why the interest rate is higher. Basic criteria they ask for is that either one of you earn a minimum of £1,000 a month and that you have a bank account that accepts direct debits.
‘I used to work in a bank so I know it’s not as strict as what a bank would be.’
The employee said the firm could offer an annual interest rate of 15.72 per cent. A loan of £8,500 could be paid back in £205.43 monthly instalments over five years. This would cost a total of £12,325.80 – a difference of almost £4,000.
The London Women’s Clinic – which has fertility centres across the country – also offers the loan deals at its branches in Swansea and Bristol.
Last night, former minister and finance campaigner Baroness Ros Altmann said: ‘It is scandalous for IVF clinics to entice people into debts that may not be affordable without any risk warnings or checks. It is playing on the emotional distress of people.’
Rachel Springall, of the comparison website Moneyfacts, said the loans were ‘worrying’, adding: ‘The rate is three or four times higher than from high street banks. Couples considering this will have walked through the door feel- ing they don’t have any other options. They may have bad credit or not know they can borrow cheaper elsewhere.’
The debt charity StepChange said: ‘There needs to be an extremely high threshold for any firms lending when an issue as emotive as IVF is involved. People can become extremely focused on the outcome of IVF and potentially are in a vulnerable position.’
The London Women’s Clinic North East said it had no financial interest in ZHF, which is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and works with around 50 major healthcare providers.
A spokesman added: ‘Loans are flexible and competitively priced, lower than the rates charged by many credit cards. All information is provided to patients at the outset.’
ZHF said the rate was competitive and cheaper than that charged by credit cards accepted by clinics. It said it did all appropriate credit and affordability checks to ensure it lent responsibly. A spokesman added: ‘We do not agree this is high-interest finance.’