Farepak muppets

For those that don't know, Farepak is, or rather was, a Christmas savings club. Customers paid money monthly between January and October for goods (such as hampers) and vouchers, which would be delivered in time for Christmas.
It had around 150,000 customers, and agents across the country collected clients' funds. The firm has now gone into administration and insolvency practitioners have been called in.

Thanks to the collapse of this firm, those 150,000 customers are going to get pretty much nothing. For every £1 they saved with Farepak, only 4p of it is salvageable. So for some who saved £1000, they're left with £40, if they were lucky.

A response fund was set up by nice companies and individuals who clubbed together to help the poor Farepak savers who've lost just about everything they saved for.
Donations reached £6.8 million, which fell a little short of the estimated £45 million that's been lost. But it meant that some of the people who saved with Farepak got at least some chocolate treats and crackers in time for Christmas.

Now this is where I'm left a little bemused by the whole scheme: why use it?

There's a perfectly adequate scheme in place for saving money. It can be traced back as early as the 1700's B.C. in Babylon. It can be traced back to the 12th century with the Knights Templar through Europe and the Middle East, and the modern day equivalent goes back several hundred years to the opening of the London Royal Exchange in 1565.
It's now a global necessity, the likes of which form part of the essential foundation of civilisation.

It's called BANKS.

I know! Crazy innit!
Who'd have thought of putting money away in a bank to save money for Christmas! That's just lunacy!

The news goes to some woman in her 50's looking all sad to interview her about how much she lost with Farepak, and she says nearly £2000. What's she going to do? She doesn't know, she says. Christmas is ruined.

Perhaps if she'd have put her money in a high interest bank account, she'd have not only saved her £2000, but got over £100 in interest.
She could then have bought the finest hampers known to mankind from Harrods.

Yeah it's a bit naff these people have lost everything thanks once again to faceless company bosses drinking bacardi on a sandy island somewhere hot.
But you shunned banks that have evolved over several thousand years in favour of some commission based voucher scheme company. I've not much sympathy.