Consumers turn to Plastic !!

neverdespairgirl

fc123 wrote: »

Yup, I think so.......more interested in which fake tan spoils clothing the least....at the best price...plent of lively debate on that issue amongst her and her mateys.

The academic gene seems to have gone astray with her but she picked up the music gene (which is handy for learning languages without much effort...comes easily) so A's all the way in French and Spanish despite the studying/homework being slotted in around lengthy debates on fake tan on MSN.
Unfortunately, the creative/art gene is running through her too....so looks like adult life will be a little tougher financially for her .......but the fake tanning may entrap a wealthy mate one day? *Kidding*

The opposite of me, then (-:

Foreign languages were always a nightmare for me, because I am dyslexic. I could cope just about with the spoken version, but written German etc was 'orrible. I only managed a B in GCSEs for German and Latin, and abandoned languages at 16 with great relief. Learning Hebrew as an adult, I've decided the written version can remain a mystery to me, which is fantastic, given the different alphabet and reading it back to front!

OTOH, I had no interest in fake tan, and decided young that there was nothing wrong with very pale skin and freckles, a belief I've stuck to!

moanymoany

I wonder how many people will batter the plastic to have a last good Christmas before they go under?

As for reducing interest rates - I don't think it will have a huge effect on plastic. Dh tells me the new Argos card has very high interest rates. I know there are still 0% cards, but I doubt they are open to everyone.

WTF?_2

moanymoany wrote: »

I wonder how many people will batter the plastic to have a last good Christmas before they go under?

As for reducing interest rates - I don't think it will have a huge effect on plastic. Dh tells me the new Argos card has very high interest rates. I know there are still 0% cards, but I doubt they are open to everyone.

If you were facing nigh-on impossible to repay levels of personal debt but still had some credit available, the temptation to go out and spend one last time before petitioning for bankruptcy would be strong.........

I think bankruptcies are going to go through the roof this time around. I don't think there's ever been a recession where (following the boom years) people were in so much debt at the start of it. Normally people end up getting into debt during the recession, not before.

Nikkster

Re Argos card:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/7695030.stm
"

The Easy Shop Card is offered by home credit firm Provident Financial in a tie-up with catalogue shopping group Argos.
People are charged £35 to borrow £100 on the card if they repay it at a rate of £5 a week over 27 weeks, giving an APR of 222.7%.
The APR falls to 82.9% if the money is repaid over 100 weeks at a weekly rate of £1.70. People are able to borrow up to £300 through the card, but the money can only be spent at Argos. The loan is repaid on a weekly basis to Provident Financial agents who call at people's homes."

Generali

!!!!!!? wrote: »

If you were facing nigh-on impossible to repay levels of personal debt but still had some credit available, the temptation to go out and spend one last time before petitioning for bankruptcy would be strong.........

I think bankruptcies are going to go through the roof this time around. I don't think there's ever been a recession where (following the boom years) people were in so much debt at the start of it. Normally people end up getting into debt during the recession, not before.

If anything is going to make this banking crisis drag on-and-on it'll be this.

Bankrupcies and bad debts rise as the economy falters, banks can't lend to sound businesses so they have to scale back (or even close) which leads to more bad debts and so on.

It's kinda what happened in the 1990s but levels of debt were lower and interest rates had a very long way to fall as they had remained high due to high inflation and being members of the ERM.

It's very hard to see what can be done to break this cycle until the debt is destroyed (either by paying it down to a level that can be sustained or through bankrupcy). That is going to take time unless the Government takes on all the bad debt and it's going to get tougher-and-tougher politically to keep bailing the banks out.

WTF?_2

Generali wrote: »

If anything is going to make this banking crisis drag on-and-on it'll be this.

Bankrupcies and bad debts rise as the economy falters, banks can't lend to sound businesses so they have to scale back (or even close) which leads to more bad debts and so on.

It's kinda what happened in the 1990s but levels of debt were lower and interest rates had a very long way to fall as they had remained high due to high inflation and being members of the ERM.

It's very hard to see what can be done to break this cycle until the debt is destroyed (either by paying it down to a level that can be sustained or through bankrupcy). That is going to take time unless the Government takes on all the bad debt and it's going to get tougher-and-tougher politically to keep bailing the banks out.

Normally I would say that bankruptcies, both personal and corporate, are what destroy the debt (ie. the excess credit) helping to normalise the system and the sooner they happen, the sooner the system can recover. So they are for the greater good.

However this time around the debt burden is so high that bankruptcies threaten to destroy the fabric of the system. The alternative is to do what the Japanese did and more or less bail everyone out, stretching the slump out over a very long time as public money (borrowed from your future income) is sucked into bailouts making recovery slower.

Or of course, just print up as much money as you need to balance the books and end up with Weimar Republic economics.

jamescredmond

Nikkster wrote: »

Re Argos card:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/7695030.stm
"

The Easy Shop Card is offered by home credit firm Provident Financial in a tie-up with catalogue shopping group Argos.
People are charged £35 to borrow £100 on the card if they repay it at a rate of £5 a week over 27 weeks, giving an APR of 222.7%.
The APR falls to 82.9% if the money is repaid over 100 weeks at a weekly rate of £1.70. People are able to borrow up to £300 through the card, but the money can only be spent at Argos. The loan is repaid on a weekly basis to Provident Financial agents who call at people's homes."

featured on R4 (you and yours -I think).

consumer 'experts' wheeled in advised not to touch this product with a barge, thus stating the bleedin' obvious.

it'll be interesting to see how many desparadoes ignore the warnings.

Austin_Allegro

I agree that the high level of personal indebtedness in the UK (the highest in the world I believe) is what will make this recession different from previous ones.

What would be the economic impact of mass bankruptcies? Presumably lots of businesses going bust because they don't get paid?