Sunday, May 18, 2008
No-One Is Safe
Transact: Middle class debt stretching agencies to limit
"As the cost of credit rises, and fixed rate mortgage deals end, middle class people who took out loans when money was cheap are turning to advice agencies who used to see mainly benefit claimants and social housing tenants.
Transact member Community Money Advice (CMA), which supports money advice services across the UK and Ireland, says one of its centres in Haywards Heath has had to close its doors to new cases because of the dramatic increase in demand."
The combination of increased taxes, increased costs and runaway credit have made life unaffordable even for the relatively wealthy.
Posted by renting2 @ 07:49 AM (862 views) Add Comment
9 Comments
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1. japanese uncle said...
Again the true force of the combination of the 1.4 trillion unprecedented personal debt and the severest credit crunch is a phenomenon.
2. japanese uncle said...
“Many of the people we are seeing borrowed money over the past couple of years simply because they could. I had a young semi-professional in last week who owns her home and had borrowed £25,000. When I asked her what she had borrowed the money for she couldn’t tell me. We never saw this kind of thing until recently,”
Homo economicus being replaced by homo sleepwalkus.
3. confused76 said...
"Many of the people Transact sees have taken advantage of easy access to credit or extended mortgages to pay for home improvements or just general spending.
But in recent months lenders have become much tougher and less willing to be flexible over repayments. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7406752.stm
4. uncle tom said...
1,400,000,000,000 pounds owed by UK citizens (the word trillion makes it look cheap!)
Roughly half those citizens have no interest bearing debt (children, most pensioners and a minority in between)
Half the remainder have relatively little debt (remains of an old mortgage, bit of finance on a car etc..)
Boil it down a bit further and you come to the conclusion that more than half of the debt burden is probably being borne by just 10% of the population.
Maybe six million people owing more than five times their post-tax annual income.
And now the good times are over, they can't borrow any more..
Will they knuckle down and pay it off - or will their be a sudden fad for becoming voluntarily bankrupt?
5. d'oh said...
UT - Debtors' prison...seriously (almost)
6. Rental John said...
Are they only in the middle class bracket because they have up'ed their status built on debt - big house, big car, golf club membership, private school n health care? Erm....I wonder?
7. justwatching said...
d'oh, better idea.....
creditor's prison
8. d'oh said...
justwatching - touche - still no one had to take the money pushers up on their offer.
9. Ash4781 said...
It's the end of the middle class