Everyone I know is sinking under a decade of DEBT..

lionelator

Generali wrote: »

I've lived in France. If you write a cheque and there aren't funds available you'll get a stroppy letter from the bank reminding you that it's against the law to do so etc. If you do it a few times then the bank will close your account on you and you may have difficulty opening a new one.

You're only likely to get into real trouble if you write a cheque that bounces and then refuse to pay. A good way to get into trouble would be with the following sort of scenario.

You write a cheque to buy something from a shop. The cheque bounces but the product isn't what you want so you decide to return the product. The shop doesn't want the product back, they want your cash. You say "Non!", they call les vieux Guillame and the police tell you to pay the shop. You decide to push it and in the end you get arrested. At that point it will be made very clear to you that either you pay and sort out your consumer law issue separately or you will be facing the local magistrate and he'll sort it out. If you still refuse to pay then the police will put you through the courts.

I've never heard of that happening but I would imagine you'd end up with a chunky fine (few hundred Euro perhaps) and be ordered to pay the shop. If you could persuade the magistrate that the product was faulty, he may make the shop take the product back but you'd probably still get fined.

Thanks. That makes sense, is in line with what I would have expected, and again, is quite different to the picture painted elsewhere in this thread.

mostlycheerful

"I could be wrong"

Yes, you are. Your superficial attempt at discussing RBS is risible in this context as a major international bank is on a wholly different footing to a property developer bouncing a cheque that he knows he's responsible for in a country that doesn't tolerate such behaviour.

mostlycheerful

thanks tartanterra, thanks for speaking up, ta

markharding557

mostlycheerful wrote:

Yes, millions of people often just blithely totally frauding it and then walking away from their debts when they become unsustainable. With complete impunity. Just walk away. Or if you've got some assets to preserve then sign a couple of bits of paper and go bankrupt for six months.

Some of the blame must be reserved for those fine institutions who lent it to them,you know the ones who were bailed out when they went bust

Xiderpunk

Agreed, I know a whole lot of people who have unbelievable debts (personally I wouldn't sleep at night). An example is a nurse who owes 50,000 on credit cards! We have to consider the credit card companies totally and criminally irresponsible lending a nurse on a low wage (28K per annum) this much money.

Fact is our society has offered credit as the great leveller. In the last decade the working class has known a life normally enjoyed by the middle class. Budget airlines, cheap holidays, nice kitchens etc.. all made possible by easy credit. Conversely, many of my middle class friends do not have debt. Well the party is over now, the middle classes will continue as always but for the working class, the divide will once again open up.

bendix

Xiderpunk wrote: »

We have to consider the credit card companies totally and criminally irresponsible lending a nurse on a low wage (28K per annum) this much money.


.

Agreed. It's totally criminal of the credit card companies to lend their own money to an adult person with legal and moral responsibilities to repay it (complete with credit agreements in English, published interest rates etc).

I better look out the next time I lend my mate a tenner to pay for his round, in case some grass snitches on me to the police.

I feel sorry for the nurse. She is truly a victim of a horrendous crime.

Perhaps she can get some compensation.

Babymerlin

feel now i should run out and get a credit card and loan.....i have neither and nothing on tick....feels like im shooting myself in the foot being a taxpayer, i should be intitled to it!:rotfl:

LilacPixie

Is 28k a low wage?? I roughly earn that and i don't consider it low. Maybe i just have cheap tastes or something

I just have my mortgage now, well that and a few hundred quid on my credit card, not spent much this month as i'm banned from driving so no diesel to buy

Babymerlin

blimey wish i was on 28k!!!!! take 10K off that and you have my wage.....and ive got no debts....what am i doing!!!!

IveSeenTheLight

I'm in debt, but my assett values far outweigh the debt, so am I in debt or not?
I guess technically I am as I still owe on my mortgages, but then again, if I'm submerged in the debt, I'm rapidly rising back to the surface at a faster rate than previously agreed with my lenders.