Headline rate 'scam' - M&S Loans

BenjaminClarke

meer53 wrote: »

My son had a brilliant time at Uni, he too lived in 4 different places. He also worked from being 16. Did you miss the bit about me being a single parent ? How did you come to the conclusion that i helped him financially ? I struggled to help myself there was no way i could help him out. He paid his own way, if he wanted to do anything, he had to fund it himself. Which he did. Snowboarding, festivals, holidays abroad with his mates, he did it all. He still does. He has no unsecured debt, he has a full time job, house and brand new car. He doesn't need to check his "credit score" as he was never irresponsible when he was younger. Shame you weren't the same eh ?

You do only live once. That doesn't mean that you can absolve yourself from any sense of responsibility.

I apologise for making such assumptions but you made a lot about me too. Your son sounds amazing to be fair. To be able to do all of that with no money is impressive. I know my partners mum, also a single parent, told her not to get even one credit card. She did though and simply didn't tell her mum. That's what kids do, isn't it?

I don't mean to judge though. It sounds like you did a great job in raising your sons alone and I only assumed you helped him financially because I don't see how it is possible to go through University without financial help from someone or somewhere. Nobody I know managed it. They either had parents help or they borrowed from the banks. Or both! My housemates rent was paid for by their parents and they still had 2-3 student bank accounts with overdrafts of £2500.00 each.

Look I am not going to comment on this thread anymore. I wish you and your sons the very best in life and I didn't set out to upset anybody so if I did I apologise.

meer53

BenjaminClarke wrote: »

Yes is the answer but please remember this was over 10 years ago now and I finished paying off the final debt, the one I had forgotten about, four years ago.

People are more privileged than others. I had never had money before so when it was thrown at me I took it. Why should that affect me 10 years later? It shouldn't and nowadays I hear that you can only have one student bank account and credit card so obviously someone with authority agrees that it was actually the banks that were more irresponsible for throwing money at students than the students themselves. Kids will be kids at the end of the day.

Anyway, we have digressed massively, which I take responsibility for. I just believe that the lenders have a duty of care to potential customers and therefore should show a little more consideration. I also understand that money makes the world goes around. As I said before, the fact you can pay £10,000 to have lunch with David Cameron says it all.

Here we go, "irresponsible lending" that old chestnut ! Only people who have borrowed irresponsibly call it irresponsible lending. As far as i'm aware, "kids" don't go to Uni or take out credit cards. You don't have to be privileged to understand the basic concept of not spending someone else's money if you can't repay them. What a weird outlook on life you have.

Why do you think lenders should babysit their customers ? They're in business to make money, not to hold peoples hands who can't control themselves.

If people want to pay £10000 to have lunch with David Cameron, then those people can obviously afford it. What business is it of yours ? It may be £10k well spent, have you ever heard of networking ?

BenjaminClarke

Pixie5740 wrote: »

I can think of many things I'd rather spend £10k on than having lunch with a man who put his willy in a pig (allegedly). If you think anything can be bought in the UK and that it's corrupt you should try doing business in other parts of the world.

Big business control the country but that's the same in most countries so I don't think there would be much point. Google are the typical example. Companies like that can manipulate governments. UK is actually better than a lot of other countries but in an ideal world money wouldn't come into politics at all. This isn't an ideal world though so we have to live with it. That doesn't mean I can't moan about it though.

BenjaminClarke

meer53 wrote: »

Here we go, "irresponsible lending" that old chestnut ! Only people who have borrowed irresponsibly call it irresponsible lending. As far as i'm aware, "kids" don't go to Uni or take out credit cards. You don't have to be privileged to understand the basic concept of not spending someone else's money if you can't repay them. What a weird outlook on life you have.

Why do you think lenders should babysit their customers ? They're in business to make money, not to hold peoples hands who can't control themselves.

If people want to pay £10000 to have lunch with David Cameron, then those people can obviously afford it. What business is it of yours ? It may be £10k well spent, have you ever heard of networking ?

Oh no, the banks have never been irresponsible have they?

BenjaminClarke

GingerFurball wrote: »

This thread's !!!!ing hilarious, I should visit this board more often.

Good to see the old "well you obviously work for a bank" reply when people get called out for being absolute mentalists is alive and well.

First time I have ever been called a mentalist. I don't see what is mental about wanting lenders to be more honest with their customers though? I guess you really do work for a bank!

meer53

BenjaminClarke wrote: »

Oh no, the banks have never been irresponsible have they?

Banks have always loaned money. They never forced people to borrow.

Faith177

BenjaminClarke wrote: »

OK you obviously work for a bank or something. Let me explain my position because you do not understand. It's you and Gaz that mentioned credit scores, not me. Lenders check your credit file via Experian. FACT! If you have multiple searches for credit on your file it looks worse than if you don't. FACT. So therefore because Tesco misled me with their interest rates I now will suffer the consequences. I am not naive and find it laughable that companies such as Experian are so powerful! You might say they are not but who do you call if you want to check your credit file? Ghost Busters? Stop misleading people! It is important to keep your credit file in order to ensure you are eligible for credit at fair rates. When I first applied for credit a few years ago I was rejected by Nationwide and was told go on Experian and speak to them about how to improve my credit. I did that and a few years later I could get credit. So how you say these websites don't matter if quite baffling. Unfortunately these companies do matter in this money-driven world.

Now on to the loan in hand. If you really want to get personal I'll tell you everything. I earn £20,000 a year; my partner earns £12,000 a year. We do not own a house because we don't want to right now as we are happy where we live, which we pay just £450.00 a month for. We have £21,000 in high interest ISA's and we have £5000 debts over a few credit cards. This is normal. Holiday here and there yes but living out of our means? When we live in a rented house for £450.00 a month? Our council tax is £80.00 a month… You do make me laugh. Our credit card charges us 18% interest and we need to give notice to get to our savings so the simple option was to get a loan. I wasn't going to rush into anything and I had no idea what the interest rates would be. When I went online I was delighted to see 3.4%! I thought that was a fair rate and well worth our while. Turns out that 3.4% isn't real, despite what you believe, it doesn't exist. It's a number plucked from thin air. We were told you can have the money but it'll be 15.8%. You also seem to think I care a lot about this. I don't. I found it interesting that Tesco could do such a thing but thought obviously they didn't want the money, whatever! Doesn't matter. What does matter to me though is the fact it took two weeks for them to inform us and that the search will sit on our files for six months now! I came on here to warn people to be careful when applying for a loan and always to go to your bank first, which I still believe is good advice. I suppose you think all of that is fine though? I bet you are one of these people who save up until the day you die and then wonder why you were never happy in your life time. Seriously, loosen up and live life because you only get one chance! I don’t understand how you and Gaz have so many “thank yous” as you haven’t been helpful to anybody on this post. You have just brought up credit scores that don’t mean anything and not read other people’s posts properly. That is all.

Why not just use the money in the ISA to pay the debt off then you don't have to worry about interest you'd be debt free. What you save in credit card or loan payments you could use to build the ISA up again. Yes you have to give notice but in the long run you'd save a stack on interest

BenjaminClarke

We could and it is an option we are certainly considering, thanks. My gripe though is over how long tesco took to process our application and the fact I feel misled by what I consider false interest rate advertisement. That's just me though. It seems most people just shrug their shoulders and say that's the way it is. Ignorance is bliss at the end of the day.

mrsp1987

It's all well and good feeling as though you have been misled but they haven't done anything wrong. Maybe not very moral or ethical but nothing wrong. These headline interest rates only have to be given to 51% of applicants, I believe. This is in the small print - I remember seeing something about this when I applied for a loan with Sainsbury's Bank.

Like Faith says if you have 21K in an ISA use that to pay off your debt. Have you read Martin's advice on this site? Its nearly always more worthwhile using your savings to pay off your debt as any interest you earn is far outstripped by any interest you are charged. There's really no need to take out another financial product at all, especially as you don't intend to use it for a deposit on a property any time soon.

BenjaminClarke

That's well put. They aren't doing anything illegal, it's just morally wrong. They could easily give you a ball park interest rate. Even if they said my interest could be between 3.4 and 15.8 per cent when I applied then I'd have assumed it'd be the higher amount. As I've said before I wasn't expecting the lowest rate but when I was quoted 15.8 two weeks after applying I just felt it was a complete waste of time. Anyway I have taken all comments on board and we'll make our decision soon. I know it sounds strange but I find it hard to give up money I already have. I'd feel at a loss giving up hard earned savings that are making money for us. Somehow I find it more attractive to have a manageable monthly payment instead. Not sure if you can relate to that at all. I'll probably just bite the bullet though and pay the debt from our savings. Thank you for your input and sorry to regency for high jacking his thread!