Do you

Brassicks

Blame yourselves or the banks,credit cards,etc etc,for getting you in a mess....I am so lothe with my bank at the mo,,,Yes im a sane thinking adult,not mad,not greedy,not weak minded,but when money is thrown at you,over the years,is it natural to say yes.

Reading through the posts here,i think the UK is in a debt mountain that will sink...The only winners in this will be the banks and credit cards,and they wont care how many people they harm along the way.....I genuanly think that there should be tighter laws regarding the giving of credit........what you all think.

System

Only me I'm afraid!

I_was_a_fool

I take the blame for my own debt.

BUT something is very wrong with the way loans and credit cards etc are sold to people these days.

The focus seems to be on making a sale, not making sure people can afford to repay it. And people who are already in a great deal of debt seem to be targetted to take out more.

A number of things have occured to me lately:

Finance companies should check peoples income & outgoings and only lend if they have a reasonable sum left to live on after all the repayments.

Credit limits/overdrafts should only be increased on demand & checks carried out again at that point.

Payment Protection policies should not be permitted to be sold by the finance companies or their brokers. Then brokers will not push an unsuitable loan in order to get their fee + policy commission.

Advertising should be more regulated, so that the possible consequences of taking out the loan are more in the forefront (not one teeny tiny row of text, hardly seen for all the happy faces)

The small print should be made the big print!

Debt is treated like a commodity these days & it should not be. Of course, with such massive profits to be made, I dont see it happening as both the banks and the government have a vested interest in keeping the status quo.

Phoenix79_2

Its completely my fault. No one else to blame. I had some good times though!

tee_pee_2

i blame me for my past spending, no one made me do it. I know the banks made it easy, but I have to take the rap for my spending.

Brassic

I blame myself whole heartedly - but agree there should be tighter regulations - especially with youngsters just starting out with new career etc - that's when I got sucked in originally.

bonnie_2

Why do people always want to blame somebody else, my debt was my fault, a gun wasn't held to my head.
Mind you now i'm paid up i won't do it again.
How would you manage if credit wasn't available. Which is my way of thinking now, providing i have food and the bills are paid, what else do you need.

Hobsch

I blame myself. I spent it. However I do think the way banks conduct themselves needs to be looked at. I know they are a business and I know they have to make a profit but they need certain checks/changes.

Examples with my debt - When I was maxed on £3K with an Egg card I was struggling with other debts. They offered me a loan to cover this card, then left the card with the same limit. Now I still spent it but being in debt it seemed a good idea at the time using it, and telling myself I would be ok next month etc.
My Barclaycard was maxed out and my overdraft was over its limit. Went into Barclays and asked for a larer overdraft to tide me over and stop charges. No no, cant do that for you because of your debts, but knowing your in debt we will charge you excessively. But you can have a loan and then have the same limit on your card to use again etc.

I am not blaming them but neither checked what other debts I had and let me get deeper.

My faults but banks need looking at too.

Brassicks

Hobsch wrote:

I blame myself. I spent it. However I do think the way banks conduct themselves needs to be looked at. I know they are a business and I know they have to make a profit but they need certain checks/changes.

Examples with my debt - When I was maxed on £3K with an Egg card I was struggling with other debts. They offered me a loan to cover this card, then left the card with the same limit. Now I still spent it but being in debt it seemed a good idea at the time using it, and telling myself I would be ok next month etc.
My Barclaycard was maxed out and my overdraft was over its limit. Went into Barclays and asked for a larer overdraft to tide me over and stop charges. No no, cant do that for you because of your debts, but knowing your in debt we will charge you excessively. But you can have a loan and then have the same limit on your card to use again etc.

I am not blaming them but neither checked what other debts I had and let me get deeper.

My faults but banks need looking at too.

This is how my bank operated with me...I was phoned by them for two weeks every day until i said yes...So no i dont bame myself,i blame them......from someone who has gone from swearing they would never have a cc to someone who is 48 grand in unsecured debt,over a 20 yr period,there must be something wrong with t he system here in the UK.

JoJo_Sparkly

Phoenix79 wrote:

Its completely my fault. No one else to blame. I had some good times though!

I'm with you on this one - I've had a fantastic time, been carefree, careess and had a ball and now I need to face the consequences - Got no one else to blame but myself! I think we live in a "Must Have in now" culture and I worshipped at the altar of retail therapy with total enthusiasm. and to be honest had it not been for the arrival of my beautiful baby girl I'd still be out there spending as I kidded myself that the credit was being handled as payments were always made.
The sudden pull on my salary to meet childcare costs etc has been a huge wake up call and really dragged me into the adult world -kicking and screaming But I am a grown up, I did this and I WILL Sort it out.

I understand where you're all coming from - Credit is too easy to come from in this country - maybe action should happen at the first signs of problems- a late payment or m limit of how many cards individuals can have. At the height of my spending ways I had 16! credit cards -

Jojo

immoral_angeluk

Although it is far too easy to get into debt and too hard to get out, I only have myself to blame for lacking self control and only seeing the 'minimum payment' instead of what I actually owed.