Yesterday I was engaged in my favourite pastime on the tube – reading people’s phones over their shoulder (don’t judge me – you know you all do it…).

What I saw this time genuinely shocked me.

My fellow commuter was using excel to build a monthly budget planner – a very laudable exercise and one that most people would benefit from doing. He had a healthy income far in excess of the average, and most of his outgoings were small. However, what shocked me was that nearly half of his income was going out to payday loan providers. I was really upset that he’d ended up in this situation, and wondered how it could have been avoided. This is something I’ve never come across directly with my clients, but some of their children have ended up with unsustainable debts through the unscrupulous methods of loan providers.