what's going on?

SystemFan

Hey everyone, wondered if more people are noticing a shift in the attitude of financial organisations right now, more than ever before.
Not going to write a wall of text here, but to cut a long story short...

Married, 2 kids, both home, 1 on gap yr, other ft student mortgage>11yrs left, working professionals 25 yrs plus in a safe industry, bought a new car this time last yr. 1/3 of it upfront,rest on low APR because of deals, zero road tax, 5 yr decent warranty etc and wanted fixed costs.

All this year things have been getting worse culminating with sitting here today. We 18 days to payday, literally no access to money, no credit.
listed some stuff for sale to get ahead a bit, as a few bills not met this month.

This isnt a tale of woe, dont need anyones sympathy, always stood on my own 2 feet, but in my working life there's been times i've been very comfortable and also periods i've been in 3 times as much debt as currently in.

i can't even get a wonga loan, lol and although i'm keeping lines of comms open with creditors, instead of them creating any sort of cashflow for us we have noticed that they are actually calling in overdrafts or reducing credit limits on cc's, which will cost them, as lower balances=less interest for them, but obv don't help us.

I find this all quite concerning tbh, and although not overly worried, changes I am being forced to make right now, will change the way I handle money in the future forever.

Someone has either flicked a doomswitch on my family, or are there more of you feeling this. please say it's not just us...lol

crazy_cat_lady

I think that the situation that you are describing is the same I had that finally gave me my lbm. I couldn't simply borrow more now and pay it back later because nobody would lend anything to me any more. It was a tough wake up call but I certainly have learned a lesson from it.

bexster1975

Hello

Sorry to read that things are quite bleak right now.

I think it's a very common theme. Just read some of the debt free wannabe stories here. It probably doesn't feel like it now, but you have already implied this may be the start of a seismic shift in attitude.

Which bills can't you pay? Have you spoken to them about it?
Do you have enough food to last until payday? Do children pay anything towards upkeep? Sorry, lots of questions.

Have you done a statement of affairs ( SOA)? ( oops, sorry, another question!)

There are loads of people on here who will come along and offer advice and support. I'm pretty certain you are not the only one!

Bexster

bexster1975

P.S be grateful you can't get a wonga loan!

andyfromotley

Credit supply goes up and down with the times.

Whilst there is generally more of a nod towards affordability, (particularly with mortgages) i can't say i have picked up from the forum a general squeeze across the boards. PDL's are obviously in a completely different place from where they were 2-3 years ago thanks to some much needed regulation.

Maybe its just your personal circumstances? Who knows?

One thing is for sure when interest rates eventually rise back to a more historic norm these boards will be jammed with people unable to meet their obligations and unable to keep the debt treadmill running.

AliceBanned

It's a complex question really, so many factors affecting standards of living overall, attitudes to debt and lifestyle choices.


It is easy for things to slip gradually over a long period of time, and then suddenly you find yourself unable to pay bills - I know that's what I did and now I have to re-think my spending and lifestyle completely.


But at the same time the standard of living does seem to be going down for a lot of people, with costs rising for food etc.


I wonder whether you have a local credit union - I found them the most helpful when I found other lenders refused me credit. They also helped me look at the longer term whilst getting me through a difficult patch. I am still at the stage of scrimping each month before payday and have started to budget as I hate this happening, it is so stressful. It is helpful to categorise where your money needs to go so that you prioritise essentials first and then get to a point where you won't have that point where you run out of money before payday.

sourcrates

I think it has a lot to do with affordability, and creditors not wanting to risk too much money.
There has been a recent culture of reclaiming from payday loans, in particular, but I think most lenders have tightened up there lending criteria across the board.


To be honest, I think its a good thing, its better, in my view, to default on credit payments, if you cant afford them, rather than get into a spiral of payday loan borrowing, which can be a road to misery for most people.


Its better to restructure your payments, to pay less to creditors, than to borrow your way out of trouble.


I think you need to reassess your priorities here, first and foremost, mortgage or rent, then council tax, then food, and other household expenses, last of all, any unsecured credit payments, always make sure you budget enough for food and living expenses, then you wont be in this situation next month.

Fmess

I'm sorry to hear that your situation has got difficult. Just to give my personal experience as a contrast, in the last 6 months, 3 of my 4 credit cards have doubled my limits (up until now this hasn't happened once in the past 8 years of having credit cards).

kindofagilr

Fmess wrote: »

I'm sorry to hear that your situation has got difficult. Just to give my personal experience as a contrast, in the last 6 months, 3 of my 4 credit cards have doubled my limits (up until now this hasn't happened once in the past 8 years of having credit cards).

Same here, I am finding it the opposite which makes me confused, as you can see from my siggie, we owe £42,000+ (£10,000 of that is to in laws so the credit checks see £32,000) we had 10 credit cards, and earn combined £35,000, and yet last month OH was accepted for 2 new card (0% ones with combined limit of £8800) and Mine and OH's B'card limits were doubled from £2500 to £5000, we were very grateful for all this, cos now we have 9 cards and only 4 of them on rubbish APR's as opposed to 10 on rubbish APR's, I an baffled as to what changed to suddenly give us more money.

I'm sorry to hear you are having a difficult time, could you do a SOA? xx

Playing_with_Fire_2

I've had the same experience as the OP. I've carried high balances on a number of 0% credit cards for the past two years, and had no trouble getting new cards or overdrafts.

In the past eight weeks I've had four separate lenders reduce limits or pull overdrafts. Other cards are increasing the interest rates.

I think it has something to do with the reduction in card charges, meaning that reward/0% cards have to find other pays to make money and avoid loosing money through defaults.

skyshadow

A consideration is if the bank considers your profitable or not.

While someone who has excellent credit may seem an ideal choice if the bank can't make any money from you as you will never go overdrawn or make late payments then they will likely not be so willing to offer their "free" products to you such as current accounts with overdrafts etc.