HOUSE PRICES ARE CRASHING

If I maxed out my credit cards, I would owe a bit more than my annual gross salary, and the minimum repayments would take up 53% of my net take home pay.

As it happens, I get regular letters from them complaining that I never use the cards.

"Jonathan Bryce" wrote

Really? I haven't seen that before. Are the letters simply whinges, or do they ask you to do anything?

I tried to explain it in the square brackets.

OK, this means that, when they got around (say) 10,000 worth of stuff, they paid only 3,000.

If instead, as the people decades ago did, they had paid the full 10,000 at the start (and then have no CC debts) - then they'd have much less leftover to be helping to pay the 34% of salary which we are talking about!

I get "We notice we didn't send you a credit card statement this month because you haven't spent anything, but here are the exciting offers you would have received if you had!" from HSBC.

I throw these offers away. The only time I used one I got burnt, because the price they quoted was per item, rather than per order. The offer didn't say which. Fortunately I nearly all my money back.

cd

But decades ago people would not have bought £10k worth of stuff if all they had to spend was £3k. :-)

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

Exactly!

People nowadays should stop buying the extra 10,000 worth of stuff (which they don't really need) and then complaining that they can't afford something else!!

At the beginning of September Lloyds TSB sent me a letter saying they would not issue me with new cards when the current two expired unless I wrote personally to someone or other and explained why I would need them to issue me new cards. The cards hadn't been used for a couple of years when the letter arrived.

So I used the card for a couple of minute phone call whilst on a ferry in Canada to call my son in the UK. Last week two new cards arrived, two days ago the pins arrived. Hey ho.

The prospect of the funding and raising of a family with such a debt burden and in a miniscule property presents quite a challenge. I would be interested to analyze some detailed statistics on the birthrate amongst the house buying sector over the past few years.

Natwest are doing the same thing.

No. The fact that lots of houses were repossessed is surely evidence that they couldn't afford it.