Are YOU responsible for your spending & debt?

babyharry5

ZTD wrote: »

But they're not.

If you want advice, you're told to talk to you bank. Yet the bank has no duty of care to ensure that advice is true. Your hairdresser has more liability in that regard.

A restaurant sells food that isn't as described, he gets fined and threatened with prison. A bank sells PPI that can never be used as described, and it's "mis-selling" (Fraud being a naughty word), and although the amounts make the restaurant case look like a rounding error - prison is never mentioned.

You might be liable for your loan, but the blame for it is a much murkier area.

You can go to the financial ombudsman

ZTD

babyharry5 wrote: »

You can go to the financial ombudsman

I can't remember a ruling showing a consolidation loan wasn't in the customer's best interests (for example) - got a link?

IWantToBeFree_2

Back_From_Hell wrote: »

OK lets put this into a real life scenario.

I had a client that had to declare himself bankrupt after falling ill and not being able to meet his commitments, but this was after five years of being harassed by his creditors, in a way im sure you’re all familiar.

His partner was financially tied to him yet from the time he went bankrupt to the time of his discharge her creditors increased her credit limits by 15K.

She wasn’t even working, but they never asked

Now the interesting bit is she had virtually no increase in the years before.

Knowing there financial situation it would have been so easy to use at least some of that potential credit in times of need, for example school uniforms for there kids as they where picked on for not wearing the latest designer label etc.

The bottom line is that family unit could not afford that credit, yet it was offered anyway. Yes it would have been wrong to use it, but it is also wrong to see there children suffer. No win situation for any parent.

The question I want an answer too is why the limits suddenly increased after her husband’s bankruptcy when they where static before? Not that I need one, the companies in question saw a soft target and went for it.

That in my eyes would make them to blame.

The banks may have increased the limits, but they do not force the person to go out and max their card out upto the new limit.

I don't buy into all this 'banks are irresponsible for upping limits' because all it takes is a bit of common sense to step back and think 'I'm not spending this, I can't afford it'.

My limits are regulary increased, but my balances are decreasing rather than increasing, and I imagine there are vast amounts of people in the same situation.

Trying to blame an insititution for debt because they have increased a limit is clutching at straws....

babyharry5

ZTD wrote: »

I can't remember a ruling showing a consolidation loan wasn't in the customer's best interests (for example) - got a link?

hi ztd
you mentioned ppi mis selling not consolidation loan??

ZTD

babyharry5 wrote: »

hi ztd
you mentioned ppi mis selling not consolidation loan??

I mentioned advice (along with hairdressers) to show banks are not liable for their advice unlike other businesses.

I mentioned PPI (along with the resturant) to show that banks when they are out-and-out fraudulent are not punished in the same way as other businesses are.

When you said go the the ombudsman I though you were referring to the advice part. My apologies.

But, if you want to go with PPI. Who has been jailed for the PPI scandal? Or indeed, for any mis-selling scandal - pensions, insurance etc?

This is, after all, a long-term and persistant pattern of offending.

Back_From_Hell

IWantToBeFree wrote: »

The banks may have increased the limits, but they do not force the person to go out and max their card out upto the new limit.

IWantToBeFree wrote: »

I don't buy into all this 'banks are irresponsible for upping limits' because all it takes is a bit of common sense to step back and think 'I'm not spending this, I can't afford it'.

My limits are regulary increased, but my balances are decreasing rather than increasing, and I imagine there are vast amounts of people in the same situation.

Trying to blame an insititution for debt because they have increased a limit is clutching at straws....

I think you misread the meaning in that post, the person in question didn’t use that credit, but she did contact me in tears because she was finding it hard to resist as things needed replacing.

The sick part is she contacted the companies every time they increased the limits, as I advised her to do, telling them they didn’t want the increase, which they removed only to reinstate it later by double the amount.

I do totally agree by spending it she would be the one at fault, but can’t agree that the companies involved would be blameless either after seeing how they acted in this case.

I just can’t agree that it is as simple as ‘You spent it so it’s your fault’ after seeing what these companies did to the above clients.

In my view they where targeted by the said companies, even though the companies in question knew full well it couldn’t be re paid so how can that leave them blameless?

I don’t expect anyone to agree with my opinion, as it is just that, my opinion. But it is based on my interpretation of some very worrying facts to say the least.

kiora

After reading this thread with interest there seems tobe a common theme coming through all the threads, you misuse credit then blame someone else for your eventual inability to pay it off, I am NOT having a go at any one, my late OH earnt a good wage but could not save he had to ahve all the latest gadgets and never worried about bills, when he died he had 4 credit cards all in joint names, going from a joint wage to a pitiful £12k I have just had to remortgage to pay off all the debt, we were both responsible for our debts, nobody knows what is around the corner but I think that if people run up debts, ank charges and late charges on their CC's then it is not the lenders fault but down to money mismanagement, maybe schools and colleges could run courses on how to manage money.

Ames

I had a lesson in money at school. We were told how to write a cheque and told how great shares are. Nothing of practical use in budgeting etc at all.

bank_of_slate

Money management should be included in the national curriculum!
teaching kids the REAL cost of living and how to make decisions between replacing one item or another, waiting and saving something you need
being able to differentiate between 'want it' and 'need it'

I am 100% responsible for the fact that I was greedy, impatient and materialistic, wanting this that and the other, impulse spending £200 when I had originally gone out to the shops intending to spend nothing.
chucking stuff in the trolley without looking at prices, grabbing 10 or 12 items of clothing and buying them 'NOW' and of course using the credit card so the figure just didn't register! just for the sake of having some new stuff rather than getting 1 or 2 carefully chosen items.

I used to be an 'if only-iser'
That is, I would see something and think to myself, 'if only I had that, my life would be so much better' so I'd buy it and would then see something else that made me think 'if only.....'
the cycle went on until I realised I was paddling myself up a one way !!!!!! filled creek.
Then I found this site. AAaaaaaaaaah!

...Linda xx

Ames

But will money management in schools really achieve much? I mean, if kids at school are being told to budget and live within their means and only spend what they have, but then go home to watch their parents buying on credit cards and taking out loans and having a (seemingly) great life, which is going to have the biggest impact?