Task 1: Which payment methods have you used?

Let’s find out how many payment methods there are! Think about the following payment methods. Have you or someone you know used any of these payment methods, or have you come across these payment methods in a book or show? Consider the following payments methods:

Task 1: Advantages and disadvantages of payment methods

Using your experiences and the information you learned through your interviews, let’s discuss the benefits and drawbacks that different methods of payment offer.

Complete the Payment Method Advantages and Disadvantages in your notebook, using speech to text, or using the following fillable and printable document.

Task 2: Paying for expenses

Adults are responsible for making many different payments. This may involve paying off a mortgage for a house, groceries, gas and transportation, internet and cable, and electricity and hydro. They may also allocate a sum of money for miscellaneous items used for entertainment, fashion, or gifts. Often, people allocate money between these items and budget accordingly. However, sometimes, unexpected financial expenses come up that make it difficult to continue paying all the bills.

Can you think of any examples of unexpected expenses?

Complete the Unexpected Expenses in your notebook, using speech to text, or using the following fillable and printable document.

In this situation, people need to try to make sure that they have enough money to pay their bills, while also meeting the unexpected expenses. What can people do if they are unable to pay their bills or extra expenses? Come up with some possible solutions.

Complete the Paying for Unexpected Expenses in your notebook, using speech to text, or using the following fillable and printable document.

Task 3: Advantages and disadvantages of acquiring money

Think about the scenario you created in Task 2 about an unexpected expense, and ways to generate funds to deal with that unexpected expense. As a solution, you may have thought of selling personal belongings, getting an extra job, borrowing money from a friend/relative, taking a loan from a financial institution, or paying for an expense on a credit card.

Task 4: Payday loans

Research one of the following companies. These financial institutions offer what is called a payday loan. A payday loan allows a person to get cash for a short time period against their next pay cheque. The company puts funds into the client’s accounts in less than one hour! Sounds awesome, right?

It seems like a great way to get fast money, but there are some drawbacks. Since it is paid against your next pay cheque, that means that the loan is temporary, and the borrower is expected to pay it back in full when they receive their next pay cheque. When they pay back the money, they will also be charged a fee. This is an amount of money that these companies charge for using their loans.

Some examples of companies that offer these kinds of loans are:

• Capital Cash
• iCASH
• Cash 4 You
• Cashco Official

Research one of these options with a partner, if possible, and answer the following questions, recording your responses using speech to text or an organizational tool of your choosing:

• What does a client need to be able to take a loan?
• How does the website entice you to “easily get money”?
• Why do people use payday loans?
• Can you find the fees charged on these loans? Where are they?
• What happens if you do not pay your loan back in time?
• What are some drawbacks to using a payday loan from this company?

You may notice that the payday loans from these companies charge very high fees. These fees include a charge for using this company. It is equivalent to being charged interest. The fee is extremely high. This means that the client will not only have to pay back all the money to the financial institution, but also additional fees on top of that amount. They will also charge additional fees if you do not pay the loan back on time.

Task 1: Payday loan scenario

If you would like, you can complete the next activity using TVO Mathify. You can also use your notebook or the following fillable and printable document.

A coffee shop employee makes $1,500.00 bi-weekly after taxes. They have weekly expenses of $500.00. Unfortunately, the employee wanted to make a few upgrades to their car, which will cost $750.00. The employee does not have any money in a savings account.

What are the coffee shop employee’s options? What would you advise them to do?

• The employee took a loan out from Capital Cash. They gave them $750.00 against their next pay cheque. They charge a fee of $17.00 for each $100.00 loaned. How much will the total fee be? How much will the employee need to pay the company back in total?
• What if the employee cannot pay the loan back on time (after 14 days)? They will be charged an additional fee of $40.00. How much will they be expected to pay back then?
• Every two-week period that the loan is not paid back, the company will charge an additional $40.00. If the employee continues to not pay the loan back for 4 more weeks, how much will they be charged in total? What about for 8 more weeks?

Reflection

As you read through these descriptions, which sentence best describes how you are feeling about your understanding of this learning activity? Press the button that is beside this sentence.

Now, record your ideas using a voice recorder, speech-to-text, or writing tool.

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