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What does a glamour model have in common with a man who works in a coleslaw factory?
mortgage_broker_advisor
Posts: 26 Forumite
What does a glamour model have in common with a man who works in a coleslaw factory? The answer is, the same thing that links a racehorse owner to a member of the ambulance service - a destructive addiction to debt.
These credit junkies are not fictional characters. They are real people, case studies in my documentary - Repossession, Repossession, Repossession - broadcast tonight on ITV1 at 10.35pm.
Our interviewees are a cross-section of modern Britain, where millions of people have been lulled into a false sense of prosperity by the soporific sound of easy money, credit on tap.
Gordon Brown keeps telling us that, under his stewardship, this country has enjoyed its longest-ever period of economic growth. Were a business to make a similar boast, you might expect it to have cash in the bank.
Yet, according to a survey by KPMG, 22pc of Britons are struggling to repay their debts and 35pc fear that this year it will become even more difficult to make ends meet. The Brown boom has, perversely, produced a massive explosion in the numbers going bust.
Since the start of the new millennium, British households have been spending more than they earn. The gap has been bridged by an unprecedented borrowing binge. We want, but can't wait, won't wait. Tomorrow is too late.
Our interviewees are a cross-section of modern Britain, where millions of people have been lulled into a false sense of prosperity by the soporific sound of easy money, credit on tap.
Gordon Brown keeps telling us that, under his stewardship, this country has enjoyed its longest-ever period of economic growth. Were a business to make a similar boast, you might expect it to have cash in the bank.
Yet, according to a survey by KPMG, 22pc of Britons are struggling to repay their debts and 35pc fear that this year it will become even more difficult to make ends meet. The Brown boom has, perversely, produced a massive explosion in the numbers going bust.
Since the start of the new millennium, British households have been spending more than they earn. The gap has been bridged by an unprecedented borrowing binge. We want, but can't wait, won't wait. Tomorrow is too late.
Dolly Parton said: "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap." Shelley Short has discovered that looking expensive costs even more. Living the celebrity lifestyle comes with a price tag that is beyond her means.
Shelley works as a model and dancer. By the standards of many, she's well-paid.
But her debts are more than £40,000, and she's not facing up to financial reality. A self-confessed spendaholic, she can't pass a boutique without a quick fix of retail therapy - on tick.
Shelley is neither a "loan abuse" victim nor untypical. She represents a culture that, says social-trends expert Jim Murphy, "abominates delayed pleasure of any kind". For those with her mindset, luxuries are necessities.
At the other end of the scale, I met a couple in Walsall who had set their sights on the sunny uplands of home ownership, only to discover that they were collapsing into the permanent winter of bankruptcy and repossession.
Mark and Diane Bouncer are people of modest financial resources and not very worldly wise. They have a joint income of about £22,000: his job is in a factory, she works part-time as a carer. It's not that they are self-delusionary, they just cannot cope. Eight years ago, they bought a house on a mortgage of £27,000. That was just about manageable. Then they started getting offers from finance companies, which had identified that there was a decent chunk of equity in the Bouncers' home, ie, collateral for extra loans.
Shelley works as a model and dancer. By the standards of many, she's well-paid.
But her debts are more than £40,000, and she's not facing up to financial reality. A self-confessed spendaholic, she can't pass a boutique without a quick fix of retail therapy - on tick.
Shelley is neither a "loan abuse" victim nor untypical. She represents a culture that, says social-trends expert Jim Murphy, "abominates delayed pleasure of any kind". For those with her mindset, luxuries are necessities.
At the other end of the scale, I met a couple in Walsall who had set their sights on the sunny uplands of home ownership, only to discover that they were collapsing into the permanent winter of bankruptcy and repossession.
Mark and Diane Bouncer are people of modest financial resources and not very worldly wise. They have a joint income of about £22,000: his job is in a factory, she works part-time as a carer. It's not that they are self-delusionary, they just cannot cope. Eight years ago, they bought a house on a mortgage of £27,000. That was just about manageable. Then they started getting offers from finance companies, which had identified that there was a decent chunk of equity in the Bouncers' home, ie, collateral for extra loans.
Spendaholic: Shelley ShortMark and Diane began, in effect, to eat their house. With each additional loan, another slice was gone. They used their bricks and mortar to meet the cost of the daily grind. Very soon, the Bouncers had no hope of paying back what they owed. They carried on borrowing to service existing obligations.Lured on to the rocks by the siren call of unsentimental lenders, and unable to husband their meagre resources, the Bouncers ended up going bust for £143,000. Their home, inevitably, was grabbed by the bailiffs.
They are pathetic, not in the modern pejorative sense, but pitiful, dispirited, melancholic people. On the whole, I'm tired of listening to hard-luck stories from irresponsible borrowers, who spend it like Beckham and then want to blame the banks for their misery, but the Bouncers are something else. Even as they prepared for eviction, they were still getting offers of additional credit. They are human roadkill, crushed by the juggernaut of a runaway debt industry.
And they are not alone. About 130,000 people are expected to become insolvent this year, a 20pc increase on 2007. Grant Thornton says: "Take no heart from this quarter's drop in personal insolvencies, they are merely the tip of the iceberg. From here on in it's going to be a rough ride."
Repossessions will also increase sharply, up to perhaps 50,000 from 30,000 last year. A survey by Moore Blatch, a law firm that specialises in this area, points to the likelihood of serious problems among first-time buyers with 100pc mortgages. Further evidence of stress comes from auctioneers who report a record number of repossessed homes coming under the hammer.
Even the Financial Services Authority, the regulator that's so dozy it failed to spot the cracks in Northern Rock, has woken up to the debt threat. Last week, it warned: "We are concerned that many consumers are ill-prepared for a deterioration in economic conditions and may have placed too much reliance on their ability to depend on cheap credit and housing wealth."
How did we get here and who is to blame? There is no doubt that when interest rates fell to very low levels in 2003-2004, the banks spotted an opportunity to jet-hose their customers in cheap money.
In pumping out credit to maximise profits, they knew that a growing minority of unfortunates would be ruined. But, hey ho, that's business.
Now, as an increasing number of borrowers throw in the towel - credit-card bad debts rose from £1.1bn in 2002 to £2.8bn in 2006 - panicky lenders are turning down applicants, reducing credit limits, restricting cash withdrawals and, in the case of Egg, dumping 160,000 existing customers.
But culpability is not the banks' monopoly. The Government led by example, changing the rules so that bankruptcy was made easier and less onerous. Worse still, thousands of naive students have been channelled into third-rate universities, clocking up £20,000 of debt in the pursuit of worthless degrees.
And finally, there is the unpalatable truth that too many live-for-the-moment merchants simply shut their eyes and went for broke. They abandoned personal accountability for the economics of the madhouse.
You can watch Repossession, Repossession, Repossession in full tonight, Wednesday 6th February, at 10.30pm on ITV1.
And they are not alone. About 130,000 people are expected to become insolvent this year, a 20pc increase on 2007. Grant Thornton says: "Take no heart from this quarter's drop in personal insolvencies, they are merely the tip of the iceberg. From here on in it's going to be a rough ride."
Repossessions will also increase sharply, up to perhaps 50,000 from 30,000 last year. A survey by Moore Blatch, a law firm that specialises in this area, points to the likelihood of serious problems among first-time buyers with 100pc mortgages. Further evidence of stress comes from auctioneers who report a record number of repossessed homes coming under the hammer.
Even the Financial Services Authority, the regulator that's so dozy it failed to spot the cracks in Northern Rock, has woken up to the debt threat. Last week, it warned: "We are concerned that many consumers are ill-prepared for a deterioration in economic conditions and may have placed too much reliance on their ability to depend on cheap credit and housing wealth."
How did we get here and who is to blame? There is no doubt that when interest rates fell to very low levels in 2003-2004, the banks spotted an opportunity to jet-hose their customers in cheap money.
In pumping out credit to maximise profits, they knew that a growing minority of unfortunates would be ruined. But, hey ho, that's business.
Now, as an increasing number of borrowers throw in the towel - credit-card bad debts rose from £1.1bn in 2002 to £2.8bn in 2006 - panicky lenders are turning down applicants, reducing credit limits, restricting cash withdrawals and, in the case of Egg, dumping 160,000 existing customers.
But culpability is not the banks' monopoly. The Government led by example, changing the rules so that bankruptcy was made easier and less onerous. Worse still, thousands of naive students have been channelled into third-rate universities, clocking up £20,000 of debt in the pursuit of worthless degrees.
And finally, there is the unpalatable truth that too many live-for-the-moment merchants simply shut their eyes and went for broke. They abandoned personal accountability for the economics of the madhouse.
You can watch Repossession, Repossession, Repossession in full tonight, Wednesday 6th February, at 10.30pm on ITV1.
I am a Mortgage Adviser
You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a Mortgage Adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice.
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Comments
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What on earth has a photo of a scantily clad woman got to do with debt? Reminds me why I don't bother with ITV...0
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What on earth has a photo of a scantily clad woman got to do with debt? Reminds me why I don't bother with ITV...
I would imagine she is the glamour model and dancer in the case story above. You would probably have worked that out if you had read it.The truth may be out there, but the lies are inside your head. Terry Pratchett
http.thisisnotalink.cöm0 -
Hey it could be worse - it could be Sir Trev in the bikini with the model reading the news!0
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Hey it could be worse - it could be Sir Trev in the bikini with the model reading the news!
Are you trying to say that pretty women don't have brains? Oooops. :eek:RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.0 -
adouglasmhor wrote: »I would imagine she is the glamour model and dancer in the case story above. You would probably have worked that out if you had read it.
It is. The image was labeled too. I think that one point the article made was that even the higher earners have got themselves into debt, with all this easy credit we have had for the past few years.RENTING? Have you checked to see that your landlord has permission from their mortgage lender to rent the property? If not, you could be thrown out with very little notice.
Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.0 -
I downloaded the program and watched it last night, and while some of it boiled my blood, I did have to agree with the comments made by the lad from the NUS at York, when you are offered credit cards at a freshers fair, at an age when most people have no real concept of the misery credit can eventually cause, it does start the whole cycle off. ALL my debts save around £2000 were built up whilst at university, and I considered myself to have done quite well to have come out as well as I did, my flatmate left university with 11 credit cards, and owing £32,000. She'd draw cash out from one to pay the minimum payment on another, then go and spend £200 on a few new tops in town to cheer herself up! Given the increases in fees since I left, I'd imagine a lot of students leave worse off now than even a few years ago. It's very easy to think 'I already owe 20 grand, what does another £200 matter?' and just shove it on the plastic.
That said, with the exclusion of my student loan, I do not believe it is the lenders fault I am in debt. I chose to pay on credit instead of working an extra 10 hours a week (yes i did work as a student, about 7k pa), but I don't think having barclaycard or capital one or whoever with a stand at a freshers fair offering a free popcorn maker or mp3 player helps much. If you can avoid the credit cycle early, you can set yourself up for a much better start in your adult life when it comes to saving for a car or house as opposed to having to borrow. My partner missed out on uni as his dad died when he was doing his A-levels and he dropped out to work to support himself and his mum who has MS, and he's recently been looking into doing uni as an adult learner. Did i recommend a nice traditional red brick? Did I heck! He researched all the options and is now with the Open University, who partly paid his fees as we earn under the 30k threashold, and he still works alongside it. With any luck he won't have to spend the next 5 years robbing peter to pay paul to enable him to have a better career and for us to plan for a house and a family in the future.Debt January 1st 2018 £96,999.81Met NIM 23/06/2008
Debt September 20th 2022 £2991.68- 96.92% paid off0 -
Shelley only appearerd to get publicity see her website!0
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I hardly think Shelley is part of a 'cross-section of society'. I read somewhere on this board that she had appeared in another programme as a candidate to be someone's PA (sorry to be vague). So clearly she is a professional 'appearer on TV'. I assume that she has an agent who will put her forward for various reality programmes. So, not really just plucked from the common lot, is she?0
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