Nine million in 'serious' debt across the UK

mystic_trev

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Different matter to debt built on buying BMW's, kitchens, bathrooms, holidays and an endless amount of imported product from China.

Indeed. When I was growing up in the 60's, Mum and Dad had little money and a mortgage to pay. We lived in a semi with no carpets and second hand furniture. HP in those days had nothing to do with House prices, but a lot to do with Hire Purchase, or the 'never never' as it was referred to. Although we had little money, my father was proud man who would never ever buy anything he couldn't afford and therefore never used any Credit agreements. He lived within his means (never borrowing) and although times have changed, I learnt to appreciate the values he passed on.

DervProf

photogeek wrote: »

And the current government is hoping that debt fuelled consumption will grow the economy sufficiently to get re-elected... They even let students take on even more debt than ever before.

Same as the last government(s) then.

antrobus

DervProf wrote: »

Same as the last government(s) then.

Not really.:)

The last government spent 13 years pumping up consumer debt from £500 bn to £1419 bn, an increase of over 8% pa. The current mob have so far struggled over the past 3 and a bit years to get that total up to £1428 bn, a rate of growth of less than 0.5%

Must try harder would be the judgement.

Loughton_Monkey

mystic_trev wrote: »

Indeed. When I was growing up in the 60's, Mum and Dad had little money and a mortgage to pay. We lived in a semi with no carpets and second hand furniture. HP in those days had nothing to do with House prices, but a lot to do with Hire Purchase, or the 'never never' as it was referred to. Although we had little money, my father was proud man who would never ever buy anything he couldn't afford and therefore never used any Credit agreements. He lived within his means (never borrowing) and although times have changed, I learnt to appreciate the values he passed on.

Ah!

Brought back all the reminiscences.......

I think the equivalent (in the 50's/60's) of Wonga round our way was Mr Frost. Owned a very nice menswear shop just off East Road in Cambridge.

Every other Monday evening, he'd be round our council house about 7 p.m. He'd sit down with a cup of tea. Talk about this and that. Mother would throw him a fiver [or whatever] which he'd enter in a little pocket sized exercise book, which we kept. It kept a running total. He kept his own master book.

Occasionally, it would be mentioned that dad needed a new shirt and so on the next visit, 4 or 5 samples of the right size were brought round......

I am pretty sure no interest was charged. It was simply that his prices were far from the 'best in town' and his working methods allowed people like my parents to swap a "certain" £5 a fortnight into our unpredictable need for new clothes.

So technically, I suppose, 'living on credit', but 'not as you'd know it, Jim'. Like you, I had an extremely austere upbringing, but my parents lived within their means. An abiding memory is when my father was sent an "Access" Card [basically a Lloyds Bank Mastercard] without having applied. Plastic Credit Cards were brand new and just invented. In those days, they just sent one to all their clients.

I remember him as very angry. I saw him take some scissors out and cut it into loads of pieces. Then he threw the bits into the Raeburn stove, and slammed the door.

mystic_trev

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

. An abiding memory is when my father was sent an "Access" Card [basically a Lloyds Bank Mastercard] without having applied. Plastic Credit Cards were brand new and just invented. In those days, they just sent one to all their clients.

A friend of mine had a Barclaycard in the early 70's and ran up a large amount of debt. He went to see his Bank manager to try and sort out the situation, but all he did was sign him up for an Access card, which (of course) he used, and ended up with twice the problem! No miss selling in those days!

macaque_2

From the article:


"To qualify as such, people had to feel that their debt amounted to a "heavy burden", or else they had to have missed out on repayments in three of the last six months."


People who are paying down the money they owe are unlikely to see debt as a "heavy burden". The problem is that debt levels have only dropped slightly since the borrowing binge leading up to 2007, despite interest rates being held at a 300 year low. People know that this cannot last indefinitely. It is a mess and most know it.


"When interest rates rise – and the recovery means that the Bank of England could announce a hike by the end of next year – thousands more will be dragged into debt. About 600,000 households now spend over 50 per cent of their disposable income on debt repayments. Under a "doomsday scenario" of high interest rates and low growth, the Resolution Foundation warns that this could double by 2017. That's unlikely, but even under an optimistic scenario of low interest rates and a continuation of recent growth, another 100,000 households will face so-called "debt peril" by 2017. Help to Buy, by making it easier to get on the housing ladder while inflating prices, could make that even worse."


http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timwigmore/100247468/it-doesnt-matter-what-we-do-with-wonga-personal-debt-is-about-to-rocket/