Why are people in this country so stupid?

debt23

Hi all,

Look, hang on a mo, I am simply pointing out an error in the opening post.

Im not saying ukbondraider is racist or even meant it in a racist way - I can see that it was said in context against his overall posting.

But I think he was misguided, and thats about it.

In the same vain, I might have said that he was wrong on such and such a point about UK mortgages - if you follow me (im not saying he was, just trying to illustrate my point etc)

Perhaps I should have put a smiley at the end of my opening line so as to not come across too harsh - but sorry, its a subject that I am very passionate about!

His other points well deserve deep contemplation - thats a bit beyone me at this time of the morning!

All the best

debt23

filigree_2

ukbondraider wrote:

why people in the UK are so dumb?

IQ in the top 1%, don't know about you

We all know that house prices are at their peak

People have been saying that for years now and to date they've been wrong. Maybe it's true now but I'm glad I didn't act on that advice in the past.

so why as a nation have we not adopted the mentality of fixing our mortgages when we buy our houses?

The interest rate when we bought this place was 10%. We'd look pretty damn stupid if we'd fixed it at that point. Indeed, in 1989 the interest rate approached 16% and only an idiot would sign up for that as a fixed rate.

why does everyone buy a bigger house than they can afford only to equip/decorate it with rubbish?

Who is this "everyone" of whom you speak? I've got a two bed flat which is eminently affordable. Whether or not my decor is "rubbish" is largely a matter of taste :rolleyes:

Why do people always spend carelessly?

I'll admit to occasionally, but not always.

Why does everyone buy brand new cars and with finance?

Do they really? I don't own a car at all. Husband's second-hand car was bought with cash from savings. Someone must be buying second hand cars judging by the enormous numbers of dealers making a living out of the trade.

Why does everyone take out loans?

I couldn't possibly say, since I've never had a loan.

Everyone in this country isn't stupid. You're a genius, I'm a genius. All we have to do now is team up and educate the other 58,999,998 idiots*.

*That was sarcasm in case all those stupid people didn't get it

raq

My dad is the same. Paid £3k for his ex council property 32 years ago and sold it. What ever they needed in the house and when we where growing up was NEVER borrowed money. Never had a car, went to work on a bike and then had a work van. To this day got no bank account pays everything at the post office and paid his mortgage within 20 years. His monthly repayments was £40.00 a month.. Yes £40.00. They are now in a lovely home and within 3 years have doubled their money. My granddad was also the same. He bought my first car for me 18 years ago because he didn't want me to borrow the money. I had a full time job plus the part time one and paid him back within the year. Although he was very kind and he knocked off £1k, lot of money back then. God bless him..xx

Part of me is like my dad, only bought a car for the normal a to b journeys, no expensive holidays, don't spoil the kids in a huge way and only buy what we really need. We did get into a financial mess a couple of years ago but now have really learnt our lessons and are paying it back. ( partly due to wftc overpayment when second baby was born ). Thankfully we sold a property a couple of years ago and got a fantastic sale back and put it down a property that in the future will sell extremely well.

There are sssooo many people with the big cars outside the school gates, who sometimes can't even drive and go home to bills to the tune of £60k and haven't got a care in the world. I couldn't sleep at night.

As they say, " if you can't afford it, don't buy it. "

TJ27

Alan_M wrote:

Who offers fixed mortgages for 20 + years?

A mate of mine in work bought a house about two years ago and fixed the mortgage for 25 years, the entire term. So they are definitely available. I don't know what rate he got though. I'll ask him the next time I see him.

lynzpower

Theres plenty of my new colleaues who drive expensive cars and park them outside modest houses. they are company cars. you cant tell from looking at a car whether its a company car or not? Surely?

My parents have expensive cars. but theyve paid off thier mortgage pretty much now, and they bought them with lump sum cash when investments matured.

People can do whatever they want with thier money Idf love to know howyou can tell how someone has aquired a nice car adn presume it on finance

Personally, even if there WAS a mortgage you could fix for 25 year, I certainly wouldnt want to fix for that long, as chances are Id want to sell within 25 years and wouldnt want to front off hefty penalties to do so. Plus playing cos off each other and getting the best deal is a central tenet of being a moneysaving expert. Why would I choose ONE company for the biggest financial committment Id ever make for the next 25 years :eek: it seems dumb to even consider it from my POV.

prudryden

TJ27 wrote:

A mate of mine in work bought a house about two years ago and fixed the mortgage for 25 years, the entire term. So they are definitely available. I don't know what rate he got though. I'll ask him the next time I see him.

Long fixed rates are the norm in some countries. Generally, the longer you fix the rate for, the better rate you can obtain.

Possibly, the reason it is not available here, is because the lender prefers not to. It gives them a guaranteed profit over the base rate, should it change. If one lender would start, others would have to compete and offer them as well. That is why they may have a gentleman's agreement not to offer them.

From personal experience, I know that the major high street banks have a monthly meeting to discuss what each one is planning to do in the future.

divadee

we have got a 15 year fixed rate. it will take us up to 2019 and then we will have 3 years left on the mortgage. Our rate is 5.49% which at the time was a little bit higher than the shorter fixed terms but now its looking a great rate!!

We wanted to guarantee what our payments would be. I didnt want to worry every time there was a rate rise and think omg how are we going to pay it.

It can work for some people, especially cautious people!!!

peterg1965

I would happily fix my mortgage at 6% or so for the life of my mortgage, but why do people not do it? Because there are far too many strings attached by the lenders. Early redemption costs/penalties, overpayment costs etc . Precisely why I did not fix.

UK bond raider you make a couple of interesting points but who are you to say someone is stupid if they do the things you point out?? Its called living in a free and democratic society. If you are going to sling s**t throw it in the Governments' direction, they have fuelled the credit boom through lack of regulation of the financial services industry.

barnaby-bear

TJ27 wrote:

A mate of mine in work bought a house about two years ago and fixed the mortgage for 25 years, the entire term. So they are definitely available. I don't know what rate he got though. I'll ask him the next time I see him.

We looked into long term fixed, a lot of the small print makes these effectively non-transferable though given this is our first home and we are early career it is very likely we'd want to upgrade and move at which point such a mortgage would be redeemable with penalties, also removes the option to sell and rent for a while if changing areas and/or want to rent for a while between houses. So long term fixed great if the house is your final house but if it's your first flat and make relocate in mid-term not great.

I don't know about stupid people know house prices high but there's a going rate for products and things and you choose to buy at the market rate or not. There is no other way we can access a permanent HOME where we are allowed pets, kids and to decorate and have tenure longer than 6 months (both work ineligible for social housing) and ASTs and LLs terrible experiences.

Holidays are a waste of money, why pay £1000k to stay full board in a luxury carribbean result when you can camp for £40 in Norfolk? End of the week exactly same to show for it but people pay for the expensive holidays because want a certain quality of life. For us buying more than renting equivalent but not the same deal for us not worrying about 2 months notice on AST, moving evrey 6 months etc a premium prepared to pay.

MJMum

YBS do a 10 or 15 year fixed rate which is portable. But as I think other posters have said, even being portable still puts some constraints on you ie you can't pay off your mortgage in full, no STRing, might not be able to rent the property itself, etc. We did consider it though, along with all the other deals available at the time. So to answer your question, people don't do it because it's not the best option for them.