[user104658]

It is obviously a stupid thing to do, but the cynic in me suggests that she plans to declare herself bankrupt (and planned this all along) and so won't have to repay at all.

To be honest, the saddest part of this is that Christmas has become so commercialised that people really DO feel pressured to push themselves financially to "make christmas good" by buying shedloads of "stuff". It's tragic that she thinks buying all of this stuff for her kids is what will make her a "good mum". But that's the message that's pushed... especially at Christmas. Remember last year's littlewoods advert? The "My lovely lovely motherrrr" song about how great Mummy was, because she bought games consoles and TVs from littlewoods on credit? ... yeah.

This story aside, as she was obviously deliberately playing the system, I do think "payday loans" are an absolute shambles. They're just pseudo-legitimate loan sharks. Except that instead of breaking your legs, they take your stuff and "break" your ability to obtain normal credit by forcing people onto the credit blacklist. In my opinion, loans of any sort should be capped at an absolute MAXIMUM of 100% APR.