'Collossal cuts' on the way.

[Bonzo77]

I can and I will give you a concrete example:

 

We have acquaintances who always struggle with money. They are reliant on public transport for a not so well paid teaching job (in the southern half of the land but not London).

 

Recently they put on Facebook an image of their new telly! Yay! a 55" curved 4K telly. Yay!

 

Except that I know that they have no money, I looked up the model and it cost them 2000£ if they had paid in cash, I know they bought it via Brighthouse, I know that is going to cost them... what 100£ a month? "Easy pay-off plan? 70%APR"

 

The last half year most messages on their Facebook were about 'can't afford dinner tonight, who can help me with this bill, selling xbox so I can eat...'

 

Pathetic, complete lack of insight and understanding of how money works.

 

You can give me all the examples you like, i've worked in a bank and seen it happen in front of my eyes.

[JFKvsNixon]

I disagree. A bank is a necessity, they should not be allowed to chase an easy profit. It's not there money that they're gambling with.

 

A bank is a private business and they have a duty to maximise their profits towards their shareholders. We should expect the banks to be greedy, just like other salespeople, if more did then then maybe they wouldn't take their claims at face value.

 

It was a lack of moral hazard that was one of the primary causes of the last crash, not greed. It was the governments of the day responsibility to regulate against the conditions that meant that banks did not take the risks of the mortgages that they were issuing.

[Bonzo77]

A bank is a private business and they have a duty to maximise their profits towards their shareholders. We should expect the banks to be greedy, just like other salespeople, if more did then then maybe they wouldn't take their claims at face value.

 

It was a lack of moral hazard that was one of the primary causes of the last crash, not greed. It was the governments of the day responsibility to regulate against the conditions that meant that banks did not take the risks of the mortgages that they were issuing.

 

I'm not going to argue with you about the government's and regulation. But I stand by my comments about banks being greedy.

 

They're a private company, but unlike any other industry. They don't just sell products and send us on our way. They look after our money, our savings, our most valuable material possession. Without money, we can't survive. They should not be able to gamble with this. Well, not without our permission.

 

As I've said earlier, i've been in meetings where I've heard bank managers tell advisors to squeeze every last drop out of customers. Sell them PPI, offer them mortgages that are outside on affordability (to a certain tolerance), and much more. It's ridiculous the lengths they went to......and this bank was HSBC, who didn't need a government bail out. God only knows what the other banks were doing!

[Anna B]

I can and I will give you a concrete example:

 

We have acquaintances who always struggle with money. They are reliant on public transport for a not so well paid teaching job (in the southern half of the land but not London).

 

Recently they put on Facebook an image of their new telly! Yay! a 55" curved 4K telly. Yay!

 

Except that I know that they have no money, I looked up the model and it cost them 2000£ if they had paid in cash, I know they bought it via Brighthouse, I know that is going to cost them... what 100£ a month? "Easy pay-off plan? 70%APR"

 

The last half year most messages on their Facebook were about 'can't afford dinner tonight, who can help me with this bill, selling xbox so I can eat...'

 

Pathetic, complete lack of insight and understanding of how money works.

 

Isn't it a bit worrying when a professional teacher can't even affford to buy a telly....?

[spilldig]

But what if a professional bank official tells you that you can afford to borrow money and even shows you on paper how it's possible? A person who you should be able to trust?! Because that's what's been happening. Bankers with sales targets that are unrealistic is a recipe for disaster! The banks got greedy, no way anyone can deny it. They knew that they were untouchable and any debts would be written off. How can anyone blame the public?!?

 

That's mistake number one. Never deal with a bank or anything that caters for shareholders to borrow money. Borrow for a mortgage with a building society without shareholders, apart from that don't borrow any money from anybody. You save and then buy, if you can. If you can't, you go without, but when it comes to money for necessities like Mecky was talking about, I wonder what money is wasted. I remember the first time I was made redundant. Nasty, but I adapted.I didn't go and pay vastly over inflated prices from shops in town for soft drinks, or alcohol as it sometimes is today. When I went to town I took a litre bottle of tap water in summer or a flask of tea or coffee in winter. I ate at home with groceries I bought, not fast food, which saved a lot. Also when I was first made redundant I had the bad habit of smoking so I used the redundancy as a good excuse to pack up smoking.

Edited December 7, 2014 by spilldig

[tasha1]

Isn't it a bit worrying when a professional teacher can't even affford to buy a telly....?

 

The post you quoted had me more concerned that a teacher has such poor money management skills.

[Bonzo77]

That's mistake number one. Never deal with a bank or anything that caters for shareholders to borrow money. Borrow for a mortgage with a building society without shareholders, apart from that don't borrow any money from anybody. You save and then buy, if you can. If you can't, you go without, but when it comes to money for necessities like Mecky was talking about, I wonder what money is wasted. I remember the first time I was made redundant. Nasty, but I adapted.I didn't go and pay vastly over inflated prices from shops in town for soft drinks, or alcohol as it sometimes is today. When I went to town I took a litre bottle of tap water in summer or a flask of tea or coffee in winter. I ate at home with groceries I bought, not fast food, which saved a lot. Also when I was first made redundant I had the bad habit of smoking so I used the redundancy as a good excuse to pack up smoking.

 

I was made redundant from HSBC, even though I was a top performer. Everyone is just a number to a bank.

[Anna B]

The post you quoted had me more concerned that a teacher has such poor money management skills.

 

Yes, that too.

[tzijlstra]

You can give me all the examples you like, i've worked in a bank and seen it happen in front of my eyes.

 

Yes, as does this example? Not sure what your point is.

 

We do however utterly disagree who's responsibility these numbskull decisions are: In the end it is the consumer putting a scribble down.

 

You can blame the bank all you want, but if people took just a bit of responsibility this wouldn't happen.

 

By the way: I do agree the opportunities should be made considerably fewer and smaller. Apparently I can go to our mortgage provider tomorrow and get a 20K loan on the spot.

 

Absurd.

 

---------- Post added 07-12-2014 at 14:46 ----------

 

Isn't it a bit worrying when a professional teacher can't even affford to buy a telly....?

 

I didn't say they were a professional teacher, merely that they have a teaching job.

 

What is worrying is that someone who is always fighting money-problems can reward themselves with a 2000 pound TV and kid themselves into believing that it is worth paying 3200 pounds for that TV.

[Mecky]

Then the last thing you should do is borrow money to attain the standard of living you fancy.

 

First thing to do is to start living within your means.

 

What if you means barely cover the cost of living?