Mentally ill person can take a SMS-loan in Estonia
04.12.2008, 11:20 Fast loan companies do not check their
clients’ active legal capacity, which is why many mentally ill persons have
taken SMS-loans, Eesti Ekspress writes.
When about 5 pct of Estonia’s population has taken SMS-loan, then the
percentage is much higher among mentally ill persons.
One psychiatrist said nearly half of her patients have taken SMS-loan and
many of her patients have utility and telephone debts.
“Often young men, whose expectations to life are much bigger than reality,
take such loans,” Erika Saluveer, psychiatrist in the Põhja-Eesti regional
hospital psychiatric clinic said and added that this is a serious problem. ´
Because loan burden often falls to relatives’ or families’ shoulders, they
often turn to psychiatrist in hope that borrower will be divest of active legal
capacity and therefore they don’t have to pay the loan back.