Phone finance deal is no bargain

A UK MOBILE phone seller has come up with a wizard wheeze to make a swift buck off those who want a mobile phone but can't survive a conventional credit check.

PhonesonFinance will provide the credit blighted with a nice new LG "Chocolate" phone for ten percent of the selling price as a deposit. Punters, who are over 21, have a job and pass a basic credit check can pick one up from them.

The downside is that customers will have to shell out a whopping 92 to 100 interest on teh balance.

But the interest bill is not the only cost PhonesonFinance will hit you for, when we rang them up they told us that an LG Chocolate would set us back £429.99.

However a quick search reveals that the LG Chocolate normally retails elsewhere for £245 and can be found Amazon for £219.00. So punters are being hit by a double whammy - an over-priced phone and a huge rate of interest.

Paying £546.09 for a £219 phone does seem a little steep even if you have 40 weeks to pay it in.

We asked Phones on Finances a few questions about their business model and they declined. If they change their minds, we will post it here.

While it may be that people with blighted credit ratings represent a larger risk for the average finance company, this certainly deosn't appear to us to be a sensible way of buying a phone.

PhonesonFinance.com seems to be working within the credit law and is fairly legit. It also allows people to escape its clutches if they do not like the deal after a month. µ