Stop pushing debt on us

When I was a young, I was forced to go to court to save my family's home from repossession.   My father had taken out loans for his business totalling £3.6M and secured them against our house.

When the business failed, he couldn’t repay the loans and the banks came after our house and took us to court. 

Trying to argue against a trained bank barrister (Mr Bond) in court was futile with a judge that had no patience with us. 

Watching the judge's gavel come down after he ordered a repossession was the worst moment of my life.   My Mum cried, I shouted at the judge he was wrong and we were told we had 1 month to move out. 

But we appealed and I represented the family in court as we couldn’t afford a lawyer. I learned as much as I could about law, made my case and we settled getting enough back for my Mum to have somewhere to live. . 

Ever since then, I've always seen debt as a dangerous thing. I've met many other people who have suffered. Some of them have lost everything.  Debt doesn’t just harm the debtors - it hurts their family, too. 

It is time to band the advertising of debt

This is why I’ve decided to fight the banks and financial institutions and demand a ban on advertising for high cost loans.  If you want to help us them please sign the petition here. 

I recorded the video on the right to explain why we are doing this.  

​The experience my family went through with debt is why I set up the Rebel Finance School. 

I want to help you overcome debt. I want to help people avoid debt before it happens to them.  I’d like people to develop a better relationship with money. 

And, in time, to make investments, which will lead to security and perhaps even financial independence. 

But preventing me from helping people is a massive industry determined to keep things as they are.  The banks plough millions into slick advertising campaigns encouraging people to take out loans.  

Credit cards, payday loans, store cards, buy now, pay later schemes - there are many words for these ideas, but there’s only one you need to know - debt.   There are teams of marketing executives working for these companies coming up with ways to package debt and sell it to you. 

Often these ‘deals’ come with very bad terms and people find themselves trapped into them for years.  We met one family that if they continued to pay their minimum payments they would NEVER  pay off the loans.  They would be in debt forever. 

Enough is enough. We are taking a stand. 

Myself, Katie my wife and the Rebel Finance School have launched a petition on Parliament’s website. 

We are demanding that lawmakers in Parliament pass laws to prevent the spread of this misleading and deeply damaging advertising.   We have banned the advertising of cigarettes to protect people.  It is time to do the same for debt. 

We're urging MPs to ban the advertising of all kinds of debt where the interest rate is 12% or more. This includes most credit cards, payday loans and a whole string of other expensive finance.  If we get this law to pass it is going to have far reaching and re-formative impact on the finance industry and positively on many people's futures. 

If you, like me, believe that debt is a bad thing, or perhaps have been harmed yourself, I urge you to sign this petition today.   Please help me stand up to the financial industry. 

Let's force the government to respond. 

Let's force a debate in Parliament. 

And let's make the banks start to behave themselves by getting new laws passed which prevent the advertisement of this damaging debt.  

Please sign the petition and if you would like to help us take a stand then please use the images below and the link to share the petition online.  We need 10,000 votes to get an official government response and 100,000 to get this discussed in parliament.  Please help me take a stand!

Sign the petition at on the Parliamentary website

In 2020 I wrote an article warning people of the debt being pushed on them.  I reached a few people but it hasn't made the change and protected people as I wanted it to.  With the cost of living crisis raging around the world now is the time to go further and take a stand. 

HUGE thank you to Jon and Corinne Card at Full Story Media for being the inspiration for this campaign and for helping us make it happen including with the writing of this article.  Thank you for inspiring us to take action.