Cautious consumers pay off debt

ManAtHome

Total personal debt outstanding:
Jan 2010 - £1,463,000,000,000 (1.463 Trillion quid)
Jan 2011 - £1,452,000,000,000
Jan 2012 - £1,456,000,000,000

Banks wrote off nearly £7,000,000,000 2011/12, nearly £10,000,000,000 2010/11 - are the beeb taking (some of) that as 'repayments' (even that wouldn't explain the 'paying down' last year when debt went up...) or are they continuing their fine journalistic history of cut&paste the press release then orft for (a very long) lunch...?

source http://creditaction.org.uk/

Thrugelmir

woodbine wrote: »

but in relation to base rate of 0.5% most comsumer debt isnt at low rates

Like mortgages these no connection or relevance to base rate.

Thrugelmir

globalds wrote: »

It is working very well for the mortgage overpaying community.

The more we overpay ..the longer interest rates stay low ..

Will you be happy if the value of your investments fall though?

Thrugelmir

wotsthat wrote: »

So in spite of the doom and gloom and statements that the consumer is at the edge of a financial precipice they're managing to pay down debt.

No reason why consumers shouldn't be able to do both.

Or do you believe otherwise?

globalds

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Will you be happy if the value of your investments fall though?

But I live in my main investment ..Which has to be placed in the perspective that ...were I not living in that particular investment ,I would be paying someone else to live in theirs.

So if the value falls from peak( which it undoubtedly has ) ..I am still up on my purchase price ...But in practical day to day finances...My investment is a very cheap place to pay to live in.

Thrugelmir

globalds wrote: »

But I live in my main investment ..Which has to be placed in the perspective that ...were I not living in that particular investment ,I would be paying someone else to live in theirs.

Depends if your investment is optimal. Unlikely your house is an investment as personal preference makes choice of home different to a property you would sub let for profit.

globalds

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Depends if your investment is optimal. Unlikely your house is an investment as personal preference makes choice of home different to a property you would sub let for profit.

But an investment regardless of it's shortcomings is still an investment.

To be honest with you I always looked at the present place I live in with a view to it's ability to be rented out.
It is within walking distance of the town and I think could be easily rented out.
My intention is to go back to Asia once the kids get through Uni ..This time I would not sell the house.

RenovationMan

homelessskilledworker wrote: »

Personal debt in the UK is still as high as it ever was.

homelessskilledworker wrote: »

The reason overdrafts and credit cards are being paid off though is because banks have become ruthless and are pressing the old debt junkies.

Surely it's either one or the other?

homelessskilledworker

RenovationMan wrote: »

Surely it's either one or the other?

I am just trying to go some way to meeting wotstits moronic argument that debt is being paid off. The combined personal UK debt has been hovering around the £1,5 trillion for a while now, even if banks are being scrooges with their lending now(and I think they are, rightly or wrongly)/

Wotstit might be paying down his debt(he claims a lot of dross though) along with his Aunt Maisy and patch the dog, but in general our personal debt mountain is frightening, a few quid off here and there is not going to make much difference.

Maybe wotstit should advice all those with huge debt's to look behind the back of the sofa tonight, maybe that also will reduce their debt burden:)

pqrdef

Seems like this is one of those flexible stories. The headline could have been either "Cautious consumers pay off debt" or "Struggling families sink deeper into debt mire".

Because most things are up or down depending what you choose as the point of comparison.