IMF tells the UK to consider dropping interest rates!

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

This. Even secured loans have increased. We used to get base rate plus 2% so we were borrowing money at 2.5% when it dropped to 0.5%.

Now the same institutions want base rate plus 4% = 4.5% as "it's a difficult market to lend money" and they have orders from head office that is the margin they need to work on. I even got a base rate plus 6% margin from a bank last week.

The only winners is like my boss who went on a 25 year base rate tracker mortgage just before the rates dropped and he is only paying 0.5% for his mortgage.

This was my point, a lot of financial (well and nonfinancial) businesses and institutions were really caught out by the dramatic plunging of rates and are now recovering their margins back to where they need to be. I cant see that there are that many people with long term trackers, most people tend to look shorter term on mortgages (probably wrongly) and go for discounts and low fixed, low trackers etc so once these fall out of the system the ultra low rates will be mainly gone.

Something like a base rate tracker in times like this is genuinely making a difference for life to those lucky enough to get themselves into that position.

 

[realBabelfish]

There's too many cars on the road as it is, so forcing poor people to take the bus is a good thing IMHO.

i cant get busses to work.

the thing is owning a car is expensive and public transport outside london and manchester etc is unreliable and expensive (more expensive that london for example). i need a car (i live in lincolnshire with crappy public transport)

i start work at 8am. to get here via public transport would take well over 90mins as i would have a 35min walk to here and catch 2 or 3 busses. no way im spending 3hours to get to and from work. i have a son and i dont see enough of him as it is.

it annoys me how much petrol tax i pay to get to and from work!

remember guys, not everyone lives on london and has good public transport.

 

[[TW]Fox]

It annoys me how much fuel tax I pay as well but in the grand scheme of things motoring is inexpensive. One of the biggest things that offsets the high cost of motoring in this country is the very low cost of used cars.

Just look how many there are on the roads these days in Audi's, BMW's, Mercedes-Benz cars. Compare this with 15 years ago. 15 years old Mr Average had a Ford Mondeo. Today he wouldn't be seen dead in anything less than an Audi A4 S-Line with a 2 litre diesel engine.

A quick glance on the road provides almost no evidence to support the claim that motoring is too expensive.

 

[realBabelfish]

It annoys me how much fuel tax I pay as well but in the grand scheme of things motoring is inexpensive. One of the biggest things that offsets the high cost of motoring in this country is the very low cost of used cars.

Just look how many there are on the roads these days in Audi's, BMW's, Mercedes-Benz cars. Compare this with 15 years ago. 15 years old Mr Average had a Ford Mondeo. Today he wouldn't be seen dead in anything less than an Audi A4 S-Line with a 2 litre diesel engine.

A quick glance on the road provides almost no evidence to support the claim that motoring is too expensive.

well. if many people have to own cars to work then what do you suggest? a 12 hour working day with travel or just not working?!? i would imagine the annual costs to be at least £2500 a year to own and run a car. thats 10% of average gross income. a pretty big chunk of average salary. which is often mainly used to get to work.

we are forced into owning a car, you simply cant live without one around here, unless you live and work in town.

odd, half the cars i see on roads arent expensive cars. do you live somewhere posh? most people i know with that type of car are on £50k+ so would definitely be in the minority.