Debt suicide. The banks' fault or the deceased? Blog Discussion

ampersand

Just another THANKYOUMartin and huge congratulations on an excellent programme.
I, too, wish it had been a 1-hour slot.
Is there a follow-up forthcoming?

ampersand

southernscouser wrote:

I'm still in the closet so to speak!

Hello southernscouser -
That's all really.
All power to you, you're doing well so far.
But if the mask of the brave and the coper starts slipping, there'll always be help and support right here.
Kindest regards.

Anwen_2

earwig wrote:

we didnt know at the time that we couldnt afford it

if a leading high street bank offers you all that credit you tend to think they must think we can afford it so you go along with it

But that's basically the point being made - you have to take responsibility for your own finances and work out for yourself if you can afford it, and how much it's going to end up costing you! It doesn't take that much, work out the monthly repayments against your income and the other things you have to pay out, plus ask for the total amount which you will pay back on a straightforward loan, or use something like the snowball calculator at whatsthecost.com to figure out how much a credit card will cost you to pay off at minimum payments!

System

but surely it isn't up to the ban to decide whether or not anyone can afford something. You have to have an awareness of you're own finances, do you not. You have to have an appreciation of what you earn and what you're current financial committments are before you take on another load/cc or whatever.

I agree to a point, but what about the cost of a house? How many of us could pay £150-200,000 straight out for a house? I know if we did the cost of houses would have doubled before i could afford one and i would probably be in my 80s.

Anwen_2

Judi wrote:

I agree to a point, but what about the cost of a house? How many of us could pay £150-200,000 straight out for a house? I know if we did the cost of houses would have doubled before i could afford one and i would probably be in my 80s.

Sure, but if the bank offered you a £300,000 mortgage, would you take it on the basis that if they offer it you, you must be able to afford it, or would you sit down and work out the repayments vs your income and other outgoings?

System

Yes but Anwen, i doubt if i could afford a mortgage at all if suddenly my husband was unable to work at all. I am not saying dont be cautious, but sometimes you just have to stick your neck out to get what you want (says me stuck in the same house i was born in and will probably die in because i am too cautious to sell up and buy something nicer).:mad:

mah_jong

Judi wrote:

Yes but Anwen, i doubt if i could afford a mortgage at all if suddenly my husband was unable to work at all. I am not saying dont be cautious, but sometimes you just have to stick your neck out to get what you want (says me stuck in the same house i was born in and will probably die in because i am too cautious to sell up and buy something nicer).:mad:

Dont you buy insurance for your mortgage to cover things like illness/redundancy? That too was taken in consideration before I took my mortage (my only debt).

Rachman_2

Hang on a minute - what's this bloke done with £140K ? It can't all be rolled interest. What has he got to show for it - he can't have spent it all on the gas bill.

I know credit's like an elephant, great to use in the fields but it can crush you - but in all seriousness, and not trying to denigrate from the tragedy that this guy felt all he could do was off himself, but he and his wife (I simply don't believe she had no idea what he was getting into - where else was the money coming from if he's earning £1000 a month net) knew exactly what they were doing - i.e. spending far in excess of what they earned.

By all means there will always be errors and the banks do make life difficult for some people unnecessarily and do make money out of less financially capable people, but if you are spending more than you earn, it's not rocket science - stop spending it before it runs away with you.

I have a sneaking suspicion that there's been some spin on the story, either before [or after] Martin got near it. Some material details have either been omitted or removed from the story.

No-one runs up £140K of debt without a proper plan unless they are ridiculously foolhardy or devil may care.

Still, I feel sorry for those he's left behind.


And Earwig, you still don't seem to have learned the lesson - it's your responsibility, not anyone else's. Sorry if that seems harsh.

Carola_3

My best wishes to the family in there time of loss.

I really get annoyed at banks when this happens, I have a credit card with the RBS which I am trying to pay off, I pay the minimum, but it is not going down, I have asked them to reduce the interest like Barclaycard have done, but they wont budge! what do you do when this happens?

I just worry I will become like the man Martin was talking about, and come to the end of my tether.

Why don't the RBS give us customers a break, if we keep getting treated like this they will loose us completely and wonder why they don't have a lot of customers

mah_jong

carola, if you only pay the minimun it will take absolutly YEARS & YEARS, I checked out the Whats the cost for calculator, for a friend and was shocked.....

""Paying just the minimum is a mugs game - Even an extra £5 a month helps''' from the web site

http://www.whatsthecost.com/creditcard.aspx


understand what your debt is costing you.