Who is responsible for our debt?

nelly_2

Who is responsible for our debt?

Answer is in the question.

Molanole

My debt was my fault, well and truly. I racked up debts as a student, then bought a car when I left, the rest was through living beyond my means, pure and simple.

I do wonder if lenders shouldn't be a little more responsible about who they lend to as I was being given £15K credit card limits no questions while I was still on graduate banking terms. Yes, I'm a graduate, but I work in education. I'm never going to be earning the sort of money where a £15K credit limit is manageable. It took all of my will power to turn it down and ask them to reduce it to something more sensible.

I know that banks are there to make money out of us, which is why they take calculated risks with who they lend to but I'd like to see more being made of their responsibilities to us as customers with agreements being explained in plain english so that we can make better advised judgements about what we are letting ourselves in for.

I'd also like to see some kind of financial literacy being taught in schools (although I think this might be one of the latest education hot topics). With proper information and education, we should be encouraged to make responsible decisions and realise that yes, we do all have to take responsibility for our financial situation.

Ali-OK

Me, myself and I are to blame!

Yes, there's all the peer pressure, advertising lark, Government taking more off of us in every way possible, leading to less in our pockets to buy with, so the temptation to borrow is there and its so easy. When money is "cheap" the economy wants us to borrow and spend.

Interesting article in the national papers yesterday about the steep increase in people going to bankruptcy, IVAs and the Governor of Bank of England (who considers himself boring) has put his head above the parapet and said that with energy price rises, etc, inflation is rising, people are struggling and too many are too close to the point of not being able to pay and therefore going these routes. This is leading to possible a base rate increase, which will push people further under who won't be able to afford mortgage repayments and off we go into deeper spirals of debt. CCCS and Debtline have only been able to help 332,000 out of over 1 million NEW cases in first 3 months this year due to being overwhelmed with calls for help.

This will be the time that credit card companies, etc, will tighten up to who and what they lend for fear that their customers will go under and they'll lose some money. Too late for many, but at the end of the day, the individual is responsible for paying it back, irrespective of who may be to blame for agreeing to lend it in the first place.

milliejon

dudleyboy wrote:

That said, it's far too easy nowadays to get into, and out of, debt.

Tell me how please!!!

lynzpower

Im ultimately repsonsible, in the way that, it lies with me

HOWEVER
I believe that my college needs to accept a part in it, for pretty much convincing my parents that university is something worthwhile and it doenst matter if I didnt have the money for it. I leave some for the educational newtowrk the bums on seats brigade at uni who insisted that t6he course I was doing was going to bring me riches & power purely as "you are part of the creme de la creme, a tiny proportion of less than 50 in the whole country who have an educational privelidge to come here on this course" Is the course paying for itself? NO. in october I will be 10 years in debt, and it started 3 weeks into University life. The way debt & loans are normalised, wider society, the government, educational institutions all perpetuate this idea that this debt is good ( student loans "its the cheapest loan youll ever have!!" how many times have i heard that? Cheap, well, all relative. Still 10k which ever way you look at it that needs paying back. )

Responsibility has always been a difficult concept for me. Ie Im ultimately responsible for asking for a graduate loan when unemployed, but the DSS partly their fault as me signing on didnt bring in money even though I claimed atnd 3 weeks in I was deperate and no food in, noone to bail me out, no job to be found. PArtly the banks fault, who gave me a 10k graduate loan, while unemployed with PPI that wouldnt pay out when I was unemployed :rolleyes:

incidentally, the "i deserve it " culture has only been around for a few years, generated by companies, but it works, weve all fallen for it at some time " "bacause your worth it" . In my grandparents working life it was never around at all, you saved up for everything, end of.

Anastacia

Morning All

We seem to have moved into a bit of a blame culture lately so its really interesting that we addressing this ourselves.

I notice we have had a lot of threads lately high-jacked by people lecturing us on how its all our own fault rather, than offering the sought advice.

As we all acknowledge that we are ultimately responsible for our own debt, although circustamces are different for everyone ofcourse, then perhaps they could not feel the need to take over every thread with their superior, sactimonious (spelling - sorry, its early)& irritating 'advice' and just let us get back to our usual method of support & advice on a more practical level. If this is too much to ask then maybe they could have a 'lecturing you when you are already down' thread of their own to use.

Ofcourse i havnt got much debt & what i have got is nothing to do with me - its the fault of my husband, his brothers, sisters, nephews & neices, the kids, the banks, the government, all shops & commercial organisation, my parents, the cars, society, ill-managed expectations & ofcourse my cats.

Okay, it was ME!

Anastacia:D

fizzel81

simple myself and dh are responsable, we chose to get loans/credit cards etc we chose to keep buying (not that we have much to show for it)

spaghetti_monster

I do agree that in the end it's down to the individual - we are all ultimately responsible for our own decisions.

I think it's interesting to debate society's role in this. However big and grown up we are, we still want to be accepted/part of society/part of the group and don't wish to be outcast/rejected (however you would put it). And society is extremely materialistic - like others have said there is a massive peer-pressure that encourages needless spending. Also there is widespread acceptance of being in debt as a normal part of life.

I think that one reason this site is so excellent, popular and addictive (for me at least!!!!!!) is that finally you can be part of a group that thinks the other way round - it's powerful to see that there are such a large number of people who want to fight against mindless consumerism, have really realised how/why they fell into debt and are doing their best to get out of it.

Broken_hearted

I blame the goverment/state and ourselves. We had to live on £68 a week for a family with young kids and pay our mortgage. So on the credit cards it went.
As for our part before that we had holidays and meals out on the credit cards.As for the banks I blame them for raising the interest when people hit problems and having stupid £35 charges if you go a couple of £s over.

oldMcDonald

My debt was my fault. Simple as that. I asked for the card, I used the card, happily signed for the transaction in the shop, and have s*d all to show for it.

It seems to be so easy to run up huge debts, the banks will hand out money to everyone and anyone, offers for loans are everywhere - on TV, in papers, leaflets in magazines, letters saying you are pre-approved....the list goes on and on. At the end of the day, if you dont apply, you dont run up huge 'CREDIT' debts.

When my parents were younger, you either did cash, HP, or were in debt. My generation have 'credit' offered to them. Credit sounds much more user friendly than debt, doesn't it?

However, some debts are not so straight forward....sometimes people get into debt through unusual situations eg illness and injury. I think these debts should be viewed differently.

It seems to be quite easy to go bankrupt these days - on paper anyway, I imagine for most it is also emotionally horrific. I think that may have been what the previous poster ment about it being easy to get out of debt.

Seems to me that credit-type debt is down to the individual to take responsibility for in almost all cases.