A new wave of 'help' requests

Storm

I absolutely HATE all the adverts for consolidation loans, IVAs etc. Yesterday I was off work sick & my flatmate who works from home found it utterly amusing that I was changing the channel everytime one of those adverts came on. What most gets me is the £25K for just over £200 a month ones - look at the small print hidden in the corner of the screen - that's over 15 years and you end up paying (I think) about £20K in interest! :mad:

Whilst I agree that we all have to ultimately take responsibility for out debts, I do have an issue with adverts that prey on the already debt-laden. The small print has appeared to have got a bit better in recent years (I wonder if there was some new guidelines or something) because it is quite easy to spot the 'total amount payable' on there example.

Anyway, as a newbie DFW myself I'm very grateful for the advice I've been given by various people - I know what I've got to do to cut down on my spending (damn you, nicotine & beer!) and I am going to try (and hey, couldn't eat anything yesterday at all, so must have saved some money there surely?) I'm not in such a bad position financially to ask the bank to freeze or lower the interest on my CC & OD, it's my own fault - and I'm considering working out how much with the interest payments those 'bargains' have really cost me!

pania

thats the problem, with one of the loan companies i think to borrow 25,000 you end up repaying about £47,000 thats just daylight robbery and absolutely ridiculous!!
Good for you guys fighting like loads of us to pay it off. don't beat yourself up over the beer storm, we all need a night out to relax every once in a while, but as for nicotine, Come on theres other reasons to get rid of that one!!

I think on one of those spendaholic progs, a lady wanted a leather jacket at £60, on her credit card which she only made minimum monthly payments on. they worked out in the long run that £60 jacket would cost her over £400!!! Now thats eye opening!!
I hate the loan adverts which paint it all in such a rosy picture. It should all be made so much clearer.

Dolly_Smith

pania wrote:

I think on one of those spendaholic progs, a lady wanted a leather jacket at £60, on her credit card which she only made minimum monthly payments on

This is part of the problem - want to have something so buy it! There's tons of things I want but can't afford.

How essential is a leather jacket?

Edinburghlass_2

Sorry but I'll say it again, this thread, or some of the posts thereon, are judging new users before they even post. Who are we to say which new poster is genuine or even worse which poster is not genuine?

Everyone is welcome on MSE no matter the board they post on and everyone should receive the same level of help no matter the background to their debt.

I don't imagine its an easy thing to admit to debt and here they are having to expose their short comings in public so to speak, so cut a bit of slack.

As always, as Nearlyrich has already said, if someone is disrupting a thread hit the report button and then ignore

pania

I totally agree with this. the help i recieved was invaluabl and should be open to everyone. I think some people were just saying that occasionally some people are more receptive to hearing the advice than others. Before i posted i saw a thread where a lady was absolutely slated by one poster. No one deserves that, we are all in the same situation and should be seen as such.
Unfortunately some of the advice posted can be quite honest and direct. People react differently to this.
Think we were talking about loan companies now?

Toomuchdebt

The thing is the people who don't really need the interest rates cut or payments arranged but just want to because it'll be easier aren't going to care what people say about them,whereas people like me who are barely managing to survive on money coming in will take these comments as negative ones and will feel even worse about themselves for getting into debt than before

pania

which comments toomuchdebt? It took me ages to pluck up the courage to post being in a genuine debt situation myself. I really hope i've not inadvertantly put anything that can be construed as unsupportive, that was never my intention. AM sorry. xx

kathfisch

pania wrote:

I really hope i've not inadvertantly put anything that can be construed as unsupportive, that was never my intention.

That's what I was thinking

I hope that none of my comments have come across as anything other than supportive. I never saw this as a dig at new posters - more a discussion about the culture around paying debt back, the tv adverts etc.

Part of helping people is sometimes saying things that aren't easy for them to hear, but always in a considerate and constructive way.

The supportive culture of this board is what makes it so fab and I don't think that's been lost... despite the small number of negative posters lately.

Toomuchdebt

pania wrote:

which comments toomuchdebt? It took me ages to pluck up the courage to post being in a genuine debt situation myself. I really hope i've not inadvertantly put anything that can be construed as unsupportive, that was never my intention. AM sorry. xx

Just the part about people wanting interest rates cut without good reason-in the OP's post-not yours pania.Just made me feel totally worthless for daring to post about how I hated MBNA for not reducing payments/freezing interest as the OP made me feel like I had no right at all to complain now that I was having trouble paying it back.

Murtle

debt is a sensitive issue, but if you feel bad about it, then you are more likely not to be the kind of person the OP is talking about. From my understanding of the thread the people being referred to are more likely to be those who don't feel bad, don't care and will run it all up again if they can. Don't feel bad about asking things, that is what people on the forums will help with.

x x

ps MBNA are dreadful - good luck with them, I have thankfully removed myself from their clutches

x x