Mentally ill person can take a SMS-loan in Estonia

 Add Comment

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.