WARNING to couch potato soccer fans. Make sure lease on your car or fax machine and your credit card are up to date before you settle down to watch the next match on television.

Credit card and leasing companies have reached new levels of sophistication in ensuring that arrears and bad debt levels are kept to a minimum. The Margin has learned that scanning the TV guides for big football matches is the latest sophisticated technique to catch defaulting customers.

The logic is that men, in particular, are sure to be in glued to their TVs and, seemingly, people interrupted by a telephone call in the middle of a big match will agree to almost anything to get back to the game. You have been warned. Pay your bills or unplug the phone.