Friday 26 July 2013

Debt problems.

I am so glad that ABC Justin has started a crusade on Wonga! The people who borrow days before payday are clearly desperate for cash and are looking for some sort of a miracle. I am less glad that the church finds that it had provided money to invest in this company in the past.

Borrowing, going into debt has always been one of my phobias. My mother spent the whole of my childhood in debt. I was often sent to the door to lie that there was no one else in but me. Sometimes it was frightening....the men wanted their money back. In the end she ended up by owing a huge amount in interest, which is what happens now if the lender doesn't get the money back in time! They used to be described as loan sharks which is why the advertisining on the TV is so misleading.

Two dear little old ladies couldn't possibly send the boys round! It is bordering on fraudulent surely?

As a grown up apart from having a mortgage I have never been in debt. If I use a credit card I pay it off before the due date to avoid the interest....it is a sort of horror with me. I never want the boys at the door ever again.

So when emails arrive from companies offering to sort out my "debt problem" I am amazed! Once I forgot to pay off a card whilst I was out of the country. The horror of this and the letters I got made me cancel the card immediately, so how do these poor people manage if they can't pay off the amount on the due day? They borrow just a little more or watch the interest rise to appalling heights.

Credit unions, run along sensible, humanitarian lines might be the answer.....but not Wonga!

4 comments:

UKViewer said...

Your story of deb in your youth sounds very like mine. Our mother left when we were young. After a period in care, we returned home to our father, who was either in work or out of work often. This led to rent arrears, eviction, second hand clothes and a hundred other issues with debt collectors knocking day and night.

I vowed never to allow that to happen as an adult and thankfully have never been in that position.

Credit Unions are an excellent idea. Perhaps Dioceses should take the lead and open one each - this will allow individual churches to act as agents for them and to process applications. A job that volunteers could do to reduce overheads.

Revjeanrolt said...

Interesting that we have both managed to avoid the problem having lived with its consequences when young.

Ray Barnes said...

Unlike either you Jean, or Ernie, my parents were never in debt, but, so great was their fear of owing money and being unable to repay, we lived on the very edge of abject poverty for the whole of my childhood.
My mother had the ability to make half-a-crown, for those of you who remember pre-decimal currency, do the work of ten shillings, stretching every farthing to its utmost.
Never able to buy anything we wanted, and often not the things we needed either, we all grew up, my three brothers and I, knowing how to go without, if we hadn't the wherewithal to buy.
That, I believe is at the root of many if not most of today's financial problems.
I know of course, that there are those in our society who truly have no money and no means of acquiring any and for those I have the greatest possible sympathy.
If borrowing is the only way then safe secure borrowing is a must.
More power to the elbows of the Justin Welbys of this world.

Revjeanrolt said...

Some people are feckless I know Ray but they need our protection too.....I do know of people who earn quite well but who spend it all on a weekend binge...I lived on bread and jam from Monday to Friday for instance but the feckless deserve a decent way of borrowing too!