We need to teach all children in schools about money management. Parents should also teach and re-enforce this with their children. However, one of the problems is that so many people live beyond their means in a culture of wanting everything now. I think we have to change this culture.
I agree with more education around money and finances. My parents were guilty of 'money doesn't concern children' and didn't get anything in schools. However no amount of teaching will solve the problem of more going out than coming in. I had a few debts, and by far the most aggressive, least helpful were the council. They set an amount for a payment plan that was beyond my means, completely, and refused anything less when I tried to make a smaller payment over the phone. Unbeknownst to me, the fact I was paying what little I could, when I could via the automated payment line, stood me in good stead. But they were £x by X date or bailiffs! Ad infitum. They still sent it to the bailiffs and the bailiffs wanted more per month, and kept adding fees. Even when they saw my belongings and said themselves that the price it would fetch wouldn't even cover the van to collect it, they still continued. I had a water debt and telephone debt. Both of those worked with me and I paid a very small amount until I got back on my feet and then more as time went on and cleared it. Among other people my mother was hugely scathing about the bailiffs and refused to believe me when I said I hadn't buried my head in the sand and had tried and was paying. Then it happened to her, over a debt she didn't even owe the council. They sent the bailiffs after her because she was contesting it, she sharp changed her tune. Of course I can only speak of my experience with confidence, but the website I spoke of has many, many similar stories. I got into debt just living, many people do.
Credit is too easy to obtain. Credit cards are offered willy nilly and IME, in earlier years, as soon as you approach the credit limit, you are offered an increased limit. That shouldn't happen.
Totally agree with that, although I had one, again they were very good when I fell behind, but I had a small limit and and I got it paid off fairly quickly. Never had another.
The idea that you are more credit worthy if you have loads of credit and are paying off minimum amounts each month, than someone who pays their way through life with no debt is ridiculous.The people with all the debt have less money and should be considered less credit worthy as their money is required to service that debt.
Yes! Absolutely should be that way. But people with less money are more desperate..... Look at the rates for payday loans and the like, more likely to be used by someone already in debt and paying a massive amount of interest.
I never denied my debts, I knew I owed and planned to pay, but I was between a rock and a hard place. Income cut in half by a sudden illness - 6 months sick lead to spiralling debts, mental health issues and a suicide attempt. I believe the bailiffs company that dealt with me is no longer dealing with the CT debt from my council because they had so many complaints. My debt was returned to the council after other agencies got involved and they agreed to a feasible payment plan, it got paid off. If they'd just realised that you can't get blood out of a stone from the start it'd have been paid sooner and I needn't have gone through all that and had an additional 3 months sick to the original time.
I also think the likes of 'Can't pay, we'll take it away' are awful. Entertainment made of what's likely to be the worst day in someone's life is horrible.