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Selfish Britain

1456810

Comments

  • ash28
    ash28 Posts: 1,789 Forumite
    Mortgage-free Glee! Debt-free and Proud!
    Thirty years ago was 1980 going into 81 though,innit?:)

    It hold it was easier IN SOME WAYS for my parents to buy in 1979 than it was for DH and I to buy now. My m-i-l bought,alone, in the 60s, I guess she bought outright if she couldn't get a mortgage but she had no money behind her before her on hard work created her own ''wealth'' so must have saved and worked on a single wage to buy her place in Zone 2 outright.

    Or had a male relative or even a male colleague stand as guarantor for her mortgage - this was common practice with building societies in the 1960s and it carried on into the 1970s.

    It only really changed in 1975 with the Sex Discrimination Act which made it illegal to discriminate, not only in the work place but in financial matters too.

    It was 1980 before a married woman could apply for credit in her own name.
  • olly300
    olly300 Posts: 14,738 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    A._Badger wrote: »
    Ah, but a one bedroom flat 'isn't good enough' (for some strange reason).

    Not that anyone doing a halfway decent job in London is paid the average wage, anyway.

    Well a one bedroom flat is difficult if you plan on having children in the next 3 years.

    It's cheaper to carry on renting then buying a one bedroom flat and having to move.
    I'm not cynical I'm realistic :p

    (If a link I give opens pop ups I won't know I don't use windows)
  • ash28
    ash28 Posts: 1,789 Forumite
    Mortgage-free Glee! Debt-free and Proud!
    edited 6 December 2010 at 9:53PM
    morag1202 wrote: »
    My (unmarried) mother got a £2,700 mortgage on a £3k house from the Woolwich Building Society in August 1968. She was a teacher earning £1078 pa and did not need a guarantor.

    She knew two or three other single women who also bought with a mortgage in the 60's.

    I think the Catholic Building Society did too - I understand most of them didn't lend to single women without a guarantor.

    Just a point of interest - when OH and I had separate bank accounts with the same bank in the 1970s he was issued cheque books with 30 cheques and I was issued cheque books with 15. When I queried it I was told it was standard practice for that bank. I changed banks in the end.
  • Our car costs nothing monthly, the insurance is ITRO £50 a month I think, tax etc of course extra. Our phones cost us £15 pcm for both on the one contract.

    "Our car costs nothing monthly" - Don't you drive it? How do you get petrol for nothing? What about wear and tear, doesn't your tyre's wear down and need replaced at some point? What's the average of that over a year. What about exaust replacement, wipers etc. What about servicing? You covered tax, but what does that equate to on average monthly (£10 - £15 pcm I presume).

    Owning a car is an expensive (sometimes essential) luxury and it is a life choice whether you have one or not.

    Not having a car releases quite a large monthly budget in my opinion that can be ustilised elsewhere
    :wall:
    What we've got here is....... failure to communicate.
    Some men you just can't reach.
    :wall:
  • olly300 wrote: »
    Well a one bedroom flat is difficult if you plan on having children in the next 3 years.

    It's cheaper to carry on renting then buying a one bedroom flat and having to move.

    In my opinion, a one bedroom flat is only of use for renting.
    Those buying want to be able to cater for future expansion (a child) or those who do not plan having children (maybe retired) but want a spare room.

    For UK property, I rented a one bed flat, then bought a 2 bed flat and then bought and moved to a 4 bed house.
    :wall:
    What we've got here is....... failure to communicate.
    Some men you just can't reach.
    :wall:
  • morag1202 wrote: »
    My (unmarried) mother got a £2,700 mortgage on a £3k house from the Woolwich Building Society in August 1968. She was a teacher earning £1078 pa and did not need a guarantor.

    She knew two or three other single women who also bought with a mortgage in the 60's.

    It would be interesting to know more on this situation.
    Did she have a lot of savings?

    Just under 35 years ago (so circa 76), my F-I L was married had saved for years with the same building society and had a sizeable deposit (I think 20%) and essentially had to threaten to withdraw his money from the society before he received approval for a mortgage.

    This is a notable difference both in the number of years after and he had double the deposit of your unmarried mother.

    There are always exceptions to the rule and your mother certainly appears to fit into that category.

    No offence, but I wonder if there are other factors which affected your mothers acceptance for a mortgage in 1968
    :wall:
    What we've got here is....... failure to communicate.
    Some men you just can't reach.
    :wall:
  • lostinrates
    lostinrates Posts: 55,283 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    "Our car costs nothing monthly" - Don't you drive it? How do you get petrol for nothing? What about wear and tear, doesn't your tyre's wear down and need replaced at some point? What's the average of that over a year. What about exaust replacement, wipers etc. What about servicing? You covered tax, but what does that equate to on average monthly (£10 - £15 pcm I presume).

    Owning a car is an expensive (sometimes essential) luxury and it is a life choice whether you have one or not.

    Not having a car releases quite a large monthly budget in my opinion that can be ustilised elsewhere


    OK, I agree with this....:o.
  • ukcarper
    ukcarper Posts: 17,337 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    It would be interesting to know more on this situation.
    Did she have a lot of savings?

    Just under 35 years ago (so circa 76), my F-I L was married had saved for years with the same building society and had a sizeable deposit (I think 20%) and essentially had to threaten to withdraw his money from the society before he received approval for a mortgage.

    This is a notable difference both in the number of years after and he had double the deposit of your unmarried mother.

    There are always exceptions to the rule and your mother certainly appears to fit into that category.

    No offence, but I wonder if there are other factors which affected your mothers acceptance for a mortgage in 1968

    I got my first mortgage in 1972 and the building society I had been saving with would not lend me enough money, so I sat down and phoned all the local building societies to see if and what they would lend me. I eventually manage to get a large enough loan from BS that I hadn’t saved with, I did have to open an account and see the manager before the offer was confirmed.

    Just to stick up for younger people I had a car then and would not have been able to do my job without one, perhaps people want better cars now but I’m sure that a car is essential for a lot of people.
  • ash28
    ash28 Posts: 1,789 Forumite
    Mortgage-free Glee! Debt-free and Proud!
    It would be interesting to know more on this situation.
    Did she have a lot of savings?

    Just under 35 years ago (so circa 76), my F-I L was married had saved for years with the same building society and had a sizeable deposit (I think 20%) and essentially had to threaten to withdraw his money from the society before he received approval for a mortgage.

    This is a notable difference both in the number of years after and he had double the deposit of your unmarried mother.

    There are always exceptions to the rule and your mother certainly appears to fit into that category.

    No offence, but I wonder if there are other factors which affected your mothers acceptance for a mortgage in 1968

    One of the problems women had was that they were not expected to be continuously employed - it was still perfectly legal to sack a woman who got pregnant until 1975. There was no statutory maternity leave until around then too. Generally if you had a baby you didn't have a job to go back to.

    I know a lot of women who "had" to get married, my own mother was one of them. This started to change in late 1960s when the pill became widely available and of course the abortion act of 1967 changed things too.
  • A._Badger
    A._Badger Posts: 5,882 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    ukcarper wrote: »
    I got my first mortgage in 1972 and the building society I had been saving with would not lend me enough money, so I sat down and phoned all the local building societies to see if and what they would lend me. I eventually manage to get a large enough loan from BS that I hadn’t saved with, I did have to open an account and see the manager before the offer was confirmed.

    Just to stick up for younger people I had a car then and would not have been able to do my job without one, perhaps people want better cars now but I’m sure that a car is essential for a lot of people.

    I have similar memories of being 'auditioned' by a BS manager. What a change there has been!

    As for cars, I, too, had a car around then - but it was an ancient one, as were the cars of everyone I knew who wasn't over 30.

    But, cars aren't really the issue. Pubbing, clubbing, takeaways, restaurants, taxis, foreign holidays - anyone who was an adult around 1970 will recall that, other than for the wealthy. these were rarities.

    As for comments that one bedroom flats are 'too small' I'm having to fight the urge to type: 'in which case - tough!'.

    Oh, look, I typed it anyway.
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