44 Year Old Credit Card Balance

jfdi

rhoda wrote: »

Under 1980 - yes that's 1980!! :eek: - it says:

Women can apply for a loan or credit in their own names (ref - EOQ)

You know - I can remember going to Rumbelows in 1982 to rent a TV, and the Salesman asked for my OH's details! I refused & he had to get his Manager to authorise me getting the agreement in my own right!

Thanks for reminding me of that - I forgot how far we'd come!

Ben8282

bengal-stripe wrote: »

That was easy: 44 years x 12 months x £200 per month = £105,600.

Well, exactly. And the possibility of the interest on a credit card being exactly the same to the nearest 1p (or even the nearest 1d at the beginning) every month for 44 years is ZERO.

Ben8282

Re: Women and credit

Whilst I can agree that, in 1968, very few working women would have been earning enough to get a mortgage in their own right, I don't accept that there was any legal impediment to their doing so. A social one perhaps ... women tended to live at home until they were married, not live alone or, even worse, 'in sin'.

As to the suggestion that women couldn't apply for a loan or credit in their own names prior to 1980, whatever the reference document says, this is WRONG. We even had a woman Prime Minister by then!

I can give the following 3 examples in support of my statement:
- When 'Access' cards were first issued in 72, they were sent to women as well as men. My mum received one. I remember.
- My Grandmother, a widow with an appropriate level of retirement income, obtained an Amex chargecard in her own right in 1977. She also applied for a Barclaycard in her own name (£200 credit limit) around the same time. I know the dates because I remember when my Grandfather died and her doing these things shortly after.
- My Mother had a store account in her own name, opened before she was married in the late 50's. It was with a department store, Grants of Croydon. She even had a sort of card ... a folded over cardboard thing.

I also think. but not completely sure, that my Mum got a loan to buy a new car sometime around 1973. She must have got a loan because I can't see where else the lump sum would have come from.

In addition, during the 1970's, women had cheque books, cheque gurantee cards etc.

Dabooka

The amount of debt racked up by wives on secret credit cards, it'd probably have been best if they still couldn't get credit today.

DISCLAIMER

I'm only joking! My wife is the sensible money savvy one who got me on the fiscal straight and narrow! :rotfl::rotfl:

lisyloo

As to the suggestion that women couldn't apply for a loan or credit in their own names prior to 1980, whatever the reference document says, this is WRONG.

Err........where did anyone claim women couldn't APPLY?????

I said (and you can check the unedited post) that they didn't "get" credit. I meant general acceptance of credit cards, loans, mortgages etc. I'm sure there were exceptions and I'm sure they could probably get food on a "tab" at the local shop.

Ben - 5 of your anecdotes are from the 1970's. The other one was a store card. Not exactly compelling evidence for your claims.
Do you have any actual evidence of widespread credit approval in the 60's for women in their own names???
The links we've found appear to show otherwise.

I agree it is quite shocking.

mintymoneysaver

I can vividly remember my recently widowed mum ( my dad died when only in his 30s) going to George Henry Lee in Liverpool ( now John Lewis) to buy a television and hoped to get it on interest free credit. She did have a lump sum from my dad's death and a good pension but she thought she'd just keep the interest to herself. This has got to be as late as 1981/2 and I was sitting in a separate room and listening to the conversation, getting really upset, as my poor mum tried to explain that she didn't have a husband or a wage ( my sister was only 6) but that she was perfectly capable of paying their loan back. The man was really nasty to her, basically saying that as a woman on her own there was no way she would get credit. I can still remember how much I felt like punching him!

lisyloo

I still have problems now and get really annoyed about it.
Lots of times letters get sent to "Mr & Mrs" or the contract gets put in my husbands name.
The holiday industry seem to have sorted this out now with the concept of "LEAD passenger", but even in very recent years, Iv'e had a lot of post sent to my husband for contracts I made myself.
Latest one was 2008 (I remember the year as it was 10th wedding anniversary).
I booked a holiday. Paperwork got sent to my husband.
He has NO contract for the holiday.

As a motorcyclist I frequently get treated as a bimbo in bike shops.
As I've had my licence 25 years and I'm an advanced instructor I have decided that instead of getting cross I'll have a bit of fun with it.
So if the salesman asks me "Would madam like to try the pillion seat", I say "Well actually I find it a little hard to steer from there" :-)
It's usually better to laugh/smile than get cross or punch someone.

However as a woman with my own salary and I can confirm that sexism is alive and well. Definitely in motorcycle shops. But go into a car shop or most places and if you are with a male it will often be assumed that he is the one "in charge" and the one with the money.
The irony is that it's normally women that are pulling the strings these days even if they aren't the one with the money.

We had the same when buying our house in 2003.
We were both on the mortgage/title deeds and developer would only send paperwork to my husband.

Luckily it doesn't now seem to work that way on credit applications.
There appears to be no gender bias.

carslet

lisyloo wrote: »

It might suprise some of you to know this but women didn't get credit in their own name in 1968.

ahh the good old days,

aldredd

mintymoneysaver wrote: »

my poor mum tried to explain that she didn't have a husband or a wage ( my sister was

But getting credit NOW without an income will rarely happen.

rhoda

Ben8282 wrote: »

Re: Women and credit



As to the suggestion that women couldn't apply for a loan or credit in their own names prior to 1980, whatever the reference document says, this is WRONG. We even had a woman Prime Minister by then!


.

I too was surprised that women could not get credit in their own names before 1980. However, whether the article is wrong is difficult to say without seeing where the EOC got their evidence from and the MMU article is poorly referenced in this respect. Your examples are interesting nonetheless. Did your mother get her Access card in her own name or through her husband?

Regarding the store card with Grants local shops may well have had agreements with customers that were not covered under any credit act.

What does seem to be clear is that women during the 60s and 70s were restricted in getting access to credit. The exact position of the legal status of women and access to credit during this time can probably be found in The Consumer Credit Act 1974 (orginal) and the various Equal Opportunities Acts since that date, but I can't be bothered to trawl through them.