debt, wtf is happening ?

[Third Opinion]

debt, wtf is happening ?

Haven't you noticed this is Brown's miracle economy. House prices rise, people borrow against them, buy new cars, have expensive holidays and live life styles they couldn't usually afford. Then house prices rise again, people borrow against them, buy new cars, have expensive holidays and live life styles they couldn't usually afford. Then house prices rise again, people borrow against them, buy new cars, have expensive holidays and live life styles they couldn't usually afford.

Don't know how long this cycle can last.

 

[SpeedFreak]

Take things like cars for example, i cannot for the life of understand why someone with £2000 would put that down as a deposit for a £10000 vehicle. Why not simply buy a £2000 vehicle outright and save the monthly repayments up for a better vehicle later on?

My fiance did put down £5000 on a £12500 car, but it was 0% interest for three years so she was comfortable with it. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with credit, as long as you manage it properly.

 

[Felix Da Housecat]

I only have 2 credit cards, and neither of them have a penny on them. When I do use them I pay it off that month.

The national debt will always go up as a huge proportion of it is due to the cost of the housing market.

 

[A2Z]

im a student...living off my student bank account overdraft...parents gime £200/m for food though and pay for accomodation, but thats not enough, food is about £150/m for me, and i buy my own clothes and stuff i need..not to mention going out etc....just waiting to finally get my loan so can use it to clear my o/d

 

[Jez]

My fiance did put down £5000 on a £12500 car, but it was 0% interest for three years so she was comfortable with it. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with credit, as long as you manage it properly.

As i said before, i'd consider 0% as an exception and i too would take advantage of that offer

 

[Replicant]

Take things like cars for example, i cannot for the life of understand why someone with £2000 would put that down as a deposit for a £10000 vehicle. Why not simply buy a £2000 vehicle outright and save the monthly repayments up for a better vehicle later on?

Because for them paying extra money in interest is justified because they get a nicer car sooner.

 

[sniffy]

I have always been completely against credit unless its credit you can take advantage off such as 0% deals.

Guess it stems from my father who has never bought anything on credit other maybe a property or two when he was a lot younger. Ive always been in the mindset that you never buy anything unless its with cleared funds. Sadly i am going to have to buy my first house on credit like the rest of us, but nothing else i ever buy will ever be borrowed from the bank - i can safely say that.

Take things like cars for example, i cannot for the life of understand why someone with £2000 would put that down as a deposit for a £10000 vehicle. Why not simply buy a £2000 vehicle outright and save the monthly repayments up for a better vehicle later on?

I really hope I can take the same approach as you.

 

[Tesla]

I have always been completely against credit unless its credit you can take advantage off such as 0% deals.

Guess it stems from my father who has never bought anything on credit other maybe a property or two when he was a lot younger. Ive always been in the mindset that you never buy anything unless its with cleared funds. Sadly i am going to have to buy my first house on credit like the rest of us, but nothing else i ever buy will ever be borrowed from the bank - i can safely say that.

Take things like cars for example, i cannot for the life of understand why someone with £2000 would put that down as a deposit for a £10000 vehicle. Why not simply buy a £2000 vehicle outright and save the monthly repayments up for a better vehicle later on?

I have 100% the same view as you on credit Jez.

 

[bottletop]

Reminds me of the time I went into the Alliance and Leicester to make an overpayment on our mortgage. We were already overpaid by about 10k and as I handed the girl the cheque and mortgage statement to get the account number off she said I had been pre-approved for a 5k personal loan.

I stood there thinking wtf, and asked why I would want a loan when I am making overpayments on the mortgage...her reply was "yes, but you've been pre-approved for one" What a waste of space.

As it is we've had our house 4 years now and we're in the position to pay off our mortgage if need be.

 

[Cody]

I paid for most of my last PC on buy now pay six months later credit it was good - just put £100 a month into a cash ISA then transfered to bank account and paid it off. I am planning to do the same for my new PC apart from the case and memory - can't get them from the place that does credit.

 

[Vertigo]

I don't mind admitting I've had some money on credit cards which I've left longer than I shouldn't have but it's never been more than a couple of grand at the most and the couple of times it's got to that figure I decided that was enough and concentrated on getting rid of it, which I can do fairly quickly when I set my mind to it. The only debt I currently have is the mortgage, I don't owe any other money whatsoever.

I'm constantly staggered at how much debt some people seem to be able to get themselves into. I'm talking about five figures and upwards here. How do you get £10k or £20k in debt and still be able to sleep at night? I know many people in this situation can't sleep at night because of it but they must have realised what was happening as the debt mounted up?

I must confess that I see so many people (on these forums as well as elsewhere) spending shedloads of cash on things like computers and cars and you do wonder whether most of them have the cash or are just chucking it on plastic. I realise the demographics are skewed but the number of people on various forums who seem to have no qualms about spending £300+ on a graphics card or £600 on a monitor is amazing.

 

[schnipps]

Because you can get what you want now really, i dont have a problem with it atall, i always pay it back. So it costs more money in interest, im not bothered to be honest. Either that or save up 15k for a car which would take not far off how long it would take to pay back a 15k loan, so you save a few months from saving it up outright but in the mean time you need a car so you have to buy a banger, tax and insure it so you can save for the car you want, rubbish.

Credit is just a salary advance and when i dont agree with going barmy with 16% apr credit cards to buy shoes, buying houses and maybe a wedding on credit to me is perfectly normal.

 

[Vixen]

So many people are in debt because it is now stupidly easy to get credit. My mum got a shock a couple of years ago after my grandfather died and she had to start looking after her (mentally handicapped) sisters finances. Apparantly my aunt had managed to get a credit card and spent almost £1000 on it, but then got confused and didn't know what to do from there. I think there were also a couple of high interest store cards.

We really couldn't believe that a bank would give out a credit card to someone who has never worked a day in her life and is on disability benefits due to mentally being about 8.

Credit is given to people who will never be able to afford to pay it back, and most of the time, it's to buy things that they don't need.

 

[Scuzi]

So many people are in debt because it is now stupidly easy to get credit. My mum got a shock a couple of years ago after my grandfather died and she had to start looking after her (mentally handicapped) sisters finances. Apparantly my aunt had managed to get a credit card and spent almost £1000 on it, but then got confused and didn't know what to do from there. I think there were also a couple of high interest store cards.

We really couldn't believe that a bank would give out a credit card to someone who has never worked a day in her life and is on disability benefits due to mentally being about 8.

Credit is given to people who will never be able to afford to pay it back, and most of the time, it's to buy things that they don't need.

They throw money at people, it's ridiculous. I recently applied for the BMI credit card as I fly a lot with them and want to benefit from the air miles. I was talking to the nice lady on the phone during my application and she said this:

Her: "I'm happy to inform you that you've been accepted with a fifteen thousand pound credit limit."
Me: "Fifteen hundred pounds is a bit higher than I'd like, can I set it at five hundred?"
Her: "Well it's actually fifteen THOUSAND pounds but I can set it at five hundred if you want."
Me:

They were willing to throw £15k at me. If I had a £15k balance on a credit card I'd be screwed, I have no idea how they justify making that amount available to me. Something needs to be done to prevent this.

 

[cheets64]

Its an accepted thing now to buy on credit and it can only get worse, I want a HD TV I could go and get tomorrow for £556 but I am going to save up for it, I have just paid of my PC which was on my CC and I hated it, it would really have to be a bargain buy, at the end of the day nothing is that important in life to get into CC and if it is you can always find it cheap or 2nd hand.


I need a new washing machine as my other broke = store credit
I WANT a new TV = store credit.

2 different situations and 1 outcome.

 

[wiiija]

I'll put my opinion across as I myself got into crazy debt over the years since my teens.
I admit I had no self control and all the money the bank threw at me I took, I ended up in around £39000 debt and pretty much nothing to show for it, I ended up facing my problems and went through an IVA to sort myself out.
The people who dealt with my case could not believe how many seperate loans and credit cards this one particular bank let me have, no questions asked.

It is my fault, which I will happily admit, I didn't have to take this credit, but they do make it incredibly easy to get in way above your head, I ended up having more outgoings than incomings each month, how this bank didn't pick up on this before agreeing my loans I do not know.

In the end, around £21000 of my debt was written off completely, the rest I payed back in monthly installments which is overlooked by solicitors throughout.

I strongly suggest nobody has credit cards unless you have good self control and realise how astronomically high the interest can be. Anybody who is having difficulty its better to face upto it sooner rather than later.I was embarassed admitting it but felt much much better once I had and even better once the IVA was agreed.I'm not proud of it and would never want to go through it again.


Sean

 

[cheets64]

This is what I dont understand, get into debt and its wiped off, easy way to enjoy a good life for a few years.

Prision sentances should be brought in to people who are ignorant to credit.

My thoughts on it anyway,

 

[wolvotim]

I was a credit card company’s ideal customer I always paid the minimum payment every month and kept racking up more and more debt every month. Over a period of about 6 years I managed to get about 18k under over 3 cards a loan and overdraft.

As I want to buy a house I finally come to my senses last year. I started doing overtime at work and stopped blowing my cash on random crap.

Now a little under a year later my total debts amount to £1994 which I should be able to get rid off before the end of the year.

You can’t imagine the weight that has been lifted off my shoulders. I’m so proud of my self turning round my whole financial situation in a year .

 

[Vertigo]

In the end, around £21000 of my debt was written off completely, the rest I payed back in monthly installments which is overlooked by solicitors throughout.

If you don't mind talking about it some more, could you possibly elaborate on the circumstances under which this £21k was written off? Did you declare bankruptcy and if so, what were the long term implications if this.

Reason for asking is that many people see declaring bankruptcy as an "easy get-out" should they run up large debts. I think many young people think they can spend tens of thousands of pounds on credit and if it all gets too much they just declare bankruptcy and walk away.

You hear a lot of the financial advice that's given out trying to dispel this theory, trying to emphasise that declaring bankruptcy isn't the easy option it sounds like and that there are serious repercussions.

Personally, whilst I really don't envy your situation as I'd have no clue what I'd do if I was £39k in debt, I must confess that being allowed to write off £21k of it sounds like a dream come true. I know it's not that simple so I'm curious as to what you had to do in order to accomplish this reduction in your debt?

 

[schnipps]

If you don't mind talking about it some more, could you possibly elaborate on the circumstances under which this £21k was written off? Did you declare bankruptcy and if so, what were the long term implications if this.

Reason for asking is that many people see declaring bankruptcy as an "easy get-out" should they run up large debts. I think many young people think they can spend tens of thousands of pounds on credit and if it all gets too much they just declare bankruptcy and walk away.

You hear a lot of the financial advice that's given out trying to dispel this theory, trying to emphasise that declaring bankruptcy isn't the easy option it sounds like and that there are serious repercussions.

Personally, whilst I really don't envy your situation as I'd have no clue what I'd do if I was £39k in debt, I must confess that being allowed to write off £21k of it sounds like a dream come true. I know it's not that simple so I'm curious as to what you had to do in order to accomplish this reduction in your debt?

I wouldnt mind knowing either, at a guess id say you prove you cant pay it back and have to get rid of yor car etc as to prove you have noting that can be taken and then show a pay slip to show you cant afford to pay it. I mean im not being funny but why should you get away with not paying back 21k when i might get a loan for 39k and i HAVE to pay it back. So in effect you are getting a tax free lump? Whats going on in this country?

I think over the next 3 months i will max out and apply for every credit card i can and take every personal loan i can, i will also max my mortgage out to the value of my home, that should set me up with a tidy sum which i will go mad with, then 5 months later i will say i cant afford to pay it back and quit my job, sell my car and they will have to write of most of it. So in fact i have had a maillionaires lifestyle for 6 months!!