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The shop in Dingle Road was 'Telehire'.

I worked for Telebank in 1974/75, my area was Liverpool, the office was on Kirkby industrial estate. At that time the Wigan area came under the Bolton office. Telebank didn't have 'shops' as such, they got their business from local newspaper ads.

The idea was that customers would build up an account paying through the meter. This would pay the rental and any money left over could be used to buy household goods.

Some 'customers' didn't have enough in the meter for the rental, they would use washers instead of coins and in one area they used to cut lino into circles and use them. Others just broke into the meters, I suppose it was the same with gas and electric.