Credit cards - more nannying for the dim
Discussion
I am off ill at the moment and was watching day time tv. There was a programe that was called beat the balif, where they take a look at all the debts of an individual and try to make them understand what happpens by taking all their goods like the balifs do.
This thick t
t of a man had run up over £100k on credit cards and was trying to appear the victim. His minimum monthly payment on one card was £295 per month.His view was it didn't matter as the big bad companies insure against the debt and that no one looses out. it is because of him and millions more like him that normal people have to have nanny laws forced on us.
This thick t
t of a man had run up over £100k on credit cards and was trying to appear the victim. His minimum monthly payment on one card was £295 per month.His view was it didn't matter as the big bad companies insure against the debt and that no one looses out. it is because of him and millions more like him that normal people have to have nanny laws forced on us.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Oh indeed, i always pay mine off totally each month - but i can see why they would want to restrict this. Far too people many people are bad with money and will be lured in with 10% or so, and crippled by 30%ish. Yes they should be more savvy and not enter into the agreements in the first place, but no doubt they will, so saving them some possible grief seems ok to me.
I have 4 cards. 1 work and 3 personal.
The limits have gradually been raised on all 3 I could have nearly £30k credit.
Most people have the common sense to realise they have to pay back what you borrow and that if you work it right, you get a month to pay it in interest free.
Whereas my parents would wait and save for items, today we want it now, unwilling to wait. In some cases people believe they can live the life of Reily and not pay for it. Take it all off them.
You wouldnt expect Tesco's to let you have a weeks shopping free would you? Or would you.....
The limits have gradually been raised on all 3 I could have nearly £30k credit.
Most people have the common sense to realise they have to pay back what you borrow and that if you work it right, you get a month to pay it in interest free.
Whereas my parents would wait and save for items, today we want it now, unwilling to wait. In some cases people believe they can live the life of Reily and not pay for it. Take it all off them.
You wouldnt expect Tesco's to let you have a weeks shopping free would you? Or would you.....
On the raising interest idea, MBNA hiked the rate on my card (credit limit £15k) from 15.9% to 34.9% in a single month. Never missed a payment, never been in arrears etc.
Needless to say I immediatly paid off the balance, and have never used the card again since.
There's a difference between variable rate and totally taking the piss.
Needless to say I immediatly paid off the balance, and have never used the card again since.
There's a difference between variable rate and totally taking the piss.
CRA2Y said:
On the raising interest idea, MBNA hiked the rate on my card (credit limit £15k) from 15.9% to 34.9% in a single month. Never missed a payment, never been in arrears etc.
Needless to say I immediatly paid off the balance, and have never used the card again since.
There's a difference between variable rate and totally taking the piss.
Why does the interest rate matter if payments are not missed and you're not in arrears?Needless to say I immediatly paid off the balance, and have never used the card again since.
There's a difference between variable rate and totally taking the piss.
I honestly do not know what the rate is on my cards, they were selected on different criteria (Cashback & Benefits).
ETA I just checked and my cashback card appears to be 12.4%, which I was surprised at.
I expected it to be higher as I thought if it wasn't a selling point for the card they'd look to capitalise on folks mistakes.
Edited by AndyAudi on Tuesday 27th October 10:03
JagLover said:
I take it they didn't mention in the report that it was Labour's changes to the Bankruptcy laws that helped create a more casual attitude to credit in the first place.
I don't agree with that point Jaglover, I think it's more that people want everything now, that caused the relaxed attitude to credit. They all want what the celebrities have and have no way of saving for it, so out comes the credit card. There are women I work with (keep in mind I'm only an average bloke, averae job, average salary) who don't think twice about spending £400+ on a pair of shoes each month? They can't afford them, they don't need them, but they've gotta have them. I think that's what's caused the relaxed attitude to credit. IMO of course.AshVX220 said:
JagLover said:
I take it they didn't mention in the report that it was Labour's changes to the Bankruptcy laws that helped create a more casual attitude to credit in the first place.
I don't agree with that point Jaglover, I think it's more that people want everything now, that caused the relaxed attitude to credit. They all want what the celebrities have and have no way of saving for it, so out comes the credit card. There are women I work with (keep in mind I'm only an average bloke, averae job, average salary) who don't think twice about spending £400+ on a pair of shoes each month? They can't afford them, they don't need them, but they've gotta have them. I think that's what's caused the relaxed attitude to credit. IMO of course.If the women couldn't get £400 a month in credit, they wouldn't be able to get the shoes.
If they couldn't raise an IVA when they couldn't pay their credit card bills after a couple of years running up piles of shoe-debt they'd have to declare themselves bankrupt, effectively knackering their credit-worthiness for a long time to come and (one would hope), learning a valuable lesson in finance to boot.
But they got the cheap credit, and if they can't pay it back they enter into an IVA with their creditors, have a few years of paying back a bit of the debt then start all over again. No lesson learned except that running up huge credit is someone else's problem.
AshVX220 said:
JagLover said:
I take it they didn't mention in the report that it was Labour's changes to the Bankruptcy laws that helped create a more casual attitude to credit in the first place.
I don't agree with that point Jaglover, I think it's more that people want everything now, that caused the relaxed attitude to credit. They all want what the celebrities have and have no way of saving for it, so out comes the credit card. There are women I work with (keep in mind I'm only an average bloke, averae job, average salary) who don't think twice about spending £400+ on a pair of shoes each month? They can't afford them, they don't need them, but they've gotta have them. I think that's what's caused the relaxed attitude to credit. IMO of course.When you buy something on credit then its just £x a month. You never see the full amount which makes its psycologically easier. Its money you never had so its easy to spend it, you can wake up in the morning without two cents to rub together and still have a shiney new LCD Telly and a PS3 in the lounge by lunchtime.
I recently bought a car, and it was hard. This is a cheap £3k shed we're talking about here. But the fact I had to trasfer money from my savings account and then take it out in cash at the bank made it more 'real'. It makes you think "All these months of saving and now i'm pissing it away on a car! Do I really want it that badly?"
If all I had to do was swipe a CC or sign a direct debit form I wouldn't have thought about it twice.
spaximus said:
I am off ill at the moment and was watching day time tv. There was a programe that was called beat the balif, where they take a look at all the debts of an individual and try to make them understand what happpens by taking all their goods like the balifs do.
This thick tt of a man had run up over £100k on credit cards and was trying to appear the victim. His minimum monthly payment on one card was £295 per month.His view was it didn't matter as the big bad companies insure against the debt and that no one looses out. it is because of him and millions more like him that normal people have to have nanny laws forced on us.
What was this guy's income? I'm guessing it wasn't multiples of £100K like it should be for a reasonable level of risk on what is effectively an unsecured loan?This thick t
t of a man had run up over £100k on credit cards and was trying to appear the victim. His minimum monthly payment on one card was £295 per month.His view was it didn't matter as the big bad companies insure against the debt and that no one looses out. it is because of him and millions more like him that normal people have to have nanny laws forced on us.It strikes me that there is something drastically wrong if that situation can occur, and if you believe these "let's all laugh and point at the thickos who borrow way more than they earn to spend on classless tat" programmes, it's quite a common occurrence.
Fair enough the individual should be responsible enough not to get themselves into a level of debt that they can't repay, but the credit card companies should also not be lending money that they cannot reasonably expect to be paid back. Let's not forget, it takes two parties to enter into a credit agreement.
It makes you wonder who made the money on extending this credit, it certainly can't be the credit card company as they're going to wind up writing off more than they can hope to recover in interest charges and any repayments.
I wouldn't mind a bet that it was the high street stores that issue cards with an introductory discount and encourage people to take credit on to buy their wares.
Edited by youngsyr on Tuesday 27th October 11:08
anonymous said:
[redacted]
You seem to be implying that there shouldn't be any regulation concering what or how a business sells to the general public, a point that it seems most would disagree with given how often people on here asking about their rights under the Sale of Goods Act and trading standards.I think one of the underlying issues in this problem is that historically British financial institutions had an extremely trustworthy reputation, the gentleman banker and so on. If you believe what the oldies tell you, it used to be the case that you knew and could trust your local bank manager to look after your affairs.
On top of that there simply weren't that many complicated financial products around (at least for the man on the street).
It now seems that financial products are becoming more and more complicated and the people that sell them are becoming less and less trustworthy. In that situation I don't think it's unreasonable to regulate the market in order to protect the general public from salesmen using the knowledge gap to exploit the customer.
On the subject of changing CC rates I believe (and I may be wrong) that you can reject the increase on any existing borrowing). So if you owe £1000 at 10% and they say it's going up to 20% you can refuse the rate rise and keep paying 10% as long as you don't borrow any more.
Whether this would work with those 0% deals I don't know.
Edit: Some detail
The only good bit about this legislation is the banning of credit card cheques. I seem to get about 3 sets a month and they're a) an invitation to fraud by stealing them from the post, b) spectacularly poor value for money and c) fill up my shreader bin too quickly.
Whether this would work with those 0% deals I don't know.
Edit: Some detail
The only good bit about this legislation is the banning of credit card cheques. I seem to get about 3 sets a month and they're a) an invitation to fraud by stealing them from the post, b) spectacularly poor value for money and c) fill up my shreader bin too quickly.
Edited by theaxe on Tuesday 27th October 11:23
Edited by theaxe on Tuesday 27th October 11:24
My niece works in a high street bank she told me a story about somthing that happend yesterday
A guy with an account with this bank was 10 pounds overdrawn , he had a 50 pound payment made to his account and had come in complaining that he only had 40 pounds in his account , she explained things to him as in how he was 10 pounds overdrawn but he could not grasp this concept and demanded she check again as he should have 50 pounds in his account
We are doomed
A guy with an account with this bank was 10 pounds overdrawn , he had a 50 pound payment made to his account and had come in complaining that he only had 40 pounds in his account , she explained things to him as in how he was 10 pounds overdrawn but he could not grasp this concept and demanded she check again as he should have 50 pounds in his account
We are doomed
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Yes, however my situation is not quite that simple (out of my own doing I admit).I have now moved my entire debt with Virgin to a 15 month 0% card which is in a drawer and never used. the point is, if you cannot readily get other credit because they dished it out in the good times and now other places don't wanna know, its not as simple as getting another card/loan. But then one would argue don't spend so much on it in the first place, that is correct, of course.
theaxe said:
On the subject of changing CC rates I believe (and I may be wrong) that you can reject the increase on any existing borrowing). So if you owe £1000 at 10% and they say it's going up to 20% you can refuse the rate rise and keep paying 10% as long as you don't borrow any more.
Whether this would work with those 0% deals I don't know.
Edit: Some detail
The only good bit about this legislation is the banning of credit card cheques. I seem to get about 3 sets a month and they're a) an invitation to fraud by stealing them from the post, b) spectacularly poor value for money and c) fill up my shreader bin too quickly.
Are you sure that opt-out option isn't US specific?Whether this would work with those 0% deals I don't know.
Edit: Some detail
The only good bit about this legislation is the banning of credit card cheques. I seem to get about 3 sets a month and they're a) an invitation to fraud by stealing them from the post, b) spectacularly poor value for money and c) fill up my shreader bin too quickly.
Edited by theaxe on Tuesday 27th October 11:23
Edited by theaxe on Tuesday 27th October 11:24
Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff