What are the biggest consumer finance issues for the election?

pure_dead_dopey

I'm newly on a DMP so the last couple of months have been a very steep learning curve for me and my OH. I had no idea how badly the banks/DCA's are allowed to treat people who are in debt. Some of the stories on here are truly wicked. Why are the banks allowed to run amuck like this, their standards of customer care are dreadful and they appear not to work to any set rules, I suspect most of the collections are on commission and they don't care how they get it. So can you ask them why they have failed to regulate this, after all we the debtors are no better or worse than the banks themselves?
thanks

bargainbetty

i1189 wrote: »

Why am I made to feel like a second class citizen financially just because I choose not to have children?

Why not do away with working tax credit, child tax credit and all the other random tax credits and just increase personal allowances? This would cut out many layers of admin and bureaucracy, and therefore save money, as well as being fair to everyone.

I actually agree with these two - I already pay a lot in tax, and will be further penalised by not being married or having children, since I won't qualify for any breaks.

People scream about the benefits system wasting £400m per year in fraud. How about we invade Jersey first, and get back some of the £100billion that gets stashed there by tax avoiders from the UK each year - including HMRC.

Could we consider the introduction of a maximum wage in public services? No member of a publicly-funded organisation can earn more than six times the salary of the lowest paid worker. Watch nurses, firefighters, teachers and other key workers getting a better deal very soon.

Can we introduce the Tobin Tax? This is a project that recommends banks are forced to pay a tax on each international bank-to-bank transaction of 0.001% per transaction. All monies raised are to be put towards clearing the national deficits caused by the banks, then put towards humanitarian projects. This would raise billions globally every year.

Why should any bank bailed out by the government/taxpayer be allowed to give bonuses until the money is repaid?

Sorry, I watched Mark Thomas's Manifesto last week, and am ready to change the world.

DarkConvict

Bring back the old style apprentice system of learning on the job and doing day release at college to get a trade, making it easier to check out genuine tradespeople who take pride in knowing their job.

+1, it was a fantastic idea to train so many professions

Kay_Peel

Why are we subsidising teaching fees and loans to 62,000 students from the European Union, when very few students from the UK get places at European Universities? How do we ensure that they repay their loans without putting in place an expensive and bureaucratic monster of a system?

grandma

I would like to ask the conservative party if there is any intention of putting V.A.T on FOOD?

DON79

I am not affected by this issue but i think that Child Support is sometimes very unfair.

For example, when the father pays for his children & both parties are now remarried. The father has had a new child with new partner. His now ex wife is remarried and the children from the first relationship live with her & her new husband.

I have heard of cases where the father with the new child cannot provide things for his new family whereas he is stuck paying a ridiculous amount of money to his ex-wife who has no need of the money for the children's upkeep.

I think if either party in a CSA case remarries that the CSA should take into account the household income in total of both new families and and judge if any amount should be paid for the children's maintenance still.

I am not saying at all that fathers or mothers should not pay for their children's expenses/upkeep but it is just sometimes neither reasonable or fair the way that the CSA assess things and don't take into account the full circumstances surrounding remarriage etc.

Someone correct me if I am wrong certainly and this is how the system does work?? this is just my personal observance/opinion.

pooh_bear17

Sybersal wrote: »

Mortgages - thousands of people over the past few years got morgages which were more than 3 times their salary from discussions with friends and family it was common place, to be 4 or 5 times. Since the 'financial downturn' hit this has been firmed up and reverted to 3 times. The problem is that many of these people who were on trackers or fixed term that have now ended and on variable rates - are all ok for now and paying affordable amounts, but when the interest rates start to rise and these people can't remortgage there will be a new wave of people who can't meet their mortgage repayments - what is going to happen and how will then Government deal with them?



Totally agree with this one - most people I know are in this situation. our deposit has been 'eaten' by the credit crunch and the banks would only let us remortgage at 13.9% despite both being teachers and having good credit ratings. As so many banks are owned by or have been helped by the government they should be forced to lend to people like us (who are not a 'risk' but have been hit by buying at the wrong time) at reasonable rates.


Also, want to add my two-pence worth on petrol prices - not fair, another price that people who are in work have to pay that those who don't work do not!
And energy companies are too quick to pass on rises if the wholesale prices go up but slow to put them back down, almost seems like 'price fixing' as they don't put them down unless the competitors do, why can't the government have more input on their actions?

DEVONLIFE_2

All banks should offer basic accounts to customers irrelivant of there financial circumstances and irrelevant to if they bank with them. Also all banks should be banned against offsetting.

MSE_Martin

Thank you so much for all these - am going to try and write the poll now! There's a lot to take in...

ceridwen

nearlyrich wrote: »

A fair rate for savers, many older people are living in fear of having no money left after saving all their lives because low interest rates have eroded their capital. Maybe taking the tax off all savings under £50k would be a great start.

Another vote for being able to get a decent rate of interest on savings - ie inflation + a bit more.

At the moment - its simply not worth saving - as one doesn't even get enough interest to match inflation (ie the very minimum level of interest one HAS to get on savings in order not to lose any of them - or, to be more accurate, have someone else someplace else steal a bit of ones savings to phrase it more accurately:(:mad:).

I've come to the conclusion that the Government simply doesnt WANT people to have any savings - because "Growth is God" and one must carry right on spending to stimulate the economy and blow putting any money by as savings in order to have a bit of personal security.