Why is it always someone elses fault when people can't exercise self-restraint?

[JB]

WIDOW CALLS FOR ACTION

The widow of a man who killed himself after getting more than £65,000 into debt has called for a limit on the amount people could borrow.

Father of two Stephen Lewis ran up the debt on 19 different credit cards despite earning only £22,000 a year.


His widow Susan is still being pursued for some of the debt by the Royal Bank of Scotland group.

She said she wanted to see a limit put on the number of credit cards someone was allowed to have and the amount of debt they could run up, as her husband was still within his credit limit when he died.

She also called for banks to carry out proper credit checks before advancing people money.

She said: "I think if something good could come out of Stephen's death then we will have achieved something worthwhile."

Mrs Lewis is meeting Sir Stephen Lamport, who is group director of public and government affairs of the Royal Bank of Scotland group.

Accompanied by her local MP John Mann, she arrived at its headquarters in London to see why the bank, which recently announced record profits, was still pursuing her for her husband's debt of around £700.

Mr Lewis, 37, of Worksop, Nottinghamshire, hanged himself after being bombarded with default notices and solicitors' letters demanding payment.

[Wak]

That's the problem with society today - always looking for someone to blame! If she wants to blame someone perhaps she should blame her husband or herself for noticing what he was doing.

[Cath]

why is she complaining at them still pursuing over £700 ? u used it - u pay it back - doesn't matter what the banks has made profit wise or not

if you don't have it don't spend it

[Lewis]

I think I see her point, it's just not worded very well in the article.

I think what she meant to say was that stupid people need to be protected from themselves, and by doing that you will also be protecting non-stupid ( or "normal" ) people

[JB]

Originally posted by Feisty Red Head
if you don't have it don't spend it

Exactly

[RohanC]

With consumer debt about to break the £1 billion barrier, i think curbs on credit would be a great benifit to society.

As stated above, we need to protect stupid people from themselves, but also protect the everday citizen from these stupid people.

Rem that we all pay for defaulter debts one way or another. Least not forget that the bank of englads justification for rasing interest rates is because of the enormous risk people are taking by borrowing more money than they can actually pay back!

[Aitch]

I've just seen the headline to this in Tesco - "Credit Kills Family Man". No it didn't. Stupidity and dumbfcukery killed him. At least he can no longer spread any more of his stupidity to the gene pool. It isn't rocket surgery or brain science - as Feisty said - don't spend it if you ain't got it. I've got tens of thousands available to me on cards but I haven't got tens of thousands readily available to pay them off if I used them.

I wonder if his wife showed a shred of embarrasment, effectively admitting in the national press that she married a fcukwit.

[Gary]

I'm young, I don't earn a lot.... I have LOADS of credit availabe, and I have a bit of debt, but I know when to draw the line... I do think they shouldn't really let you have silly amounts of credit without checking, however, it's his own fault he got it...

My 0.2p anyways

[PulsatingStar]

Having underwritten credit card applications then I can say that they do check.

Thing is, if you build up a card collection over a few years, or are an ok risk at the time of application then you will get another card most likely.

Its also a common tactic for fraudsters. If they get one fraudulent card, instead of defaulting it straight away they will pay it and run it nicely. This will enable them to get more credit on the basis of the good record for the first one. Once they have loads of credit, they can spend it all really quickly and do a runner.

Lee

[Lennie]

I quite agree with the "if you dont have it dont spend it" When i was 17 i wanted to get loaned up to buy a car. My parents advised against it so i didnt do it. Now im 23 own my 200sx with no loans, i dont even pay my insurance off monthly. I dont earn a fortune, but do do lots of over time (10 hours a week). I was a apprentice until ony two years ago so that says about how much money i earn.

Im glad the only time i listened to them it was that time because most people io know that got loans could never save any money and still dont own any nice stuff, there to busy paying their loans off.

[Deacon]

i only have a debit card


i dont buy what i cant afford.....simple as that.

[Rob-S13]

Originally posted by Lewis
I think I see her point, it's just not worded very well in the article.

I think what she meant to say was that stupid people need to be protected from themselves, and by doing that you will also be protecting non-stupid ( or "normal" ) people

i'm a stupid person,

1 year a uni, banks handing out cash, messed me up!

1 trip in to town

opened 3 accounts

£3000 in my pocket!!

after a year debts of well over £10000

have to quit and get a job!

i know its my own falt but its to easy!

no money skint, back offers £1500 over draft,

no its ok i'll stay in for a year been skint.....

or,

**** it lets party all year.

[manic_mechanic]

Originally posted by *DeathStar*
i only have a debit card


i dont buy what i cant afford.....simple as that.

I'm right with you on that - my only credit is my mortgage!
Might have an old car - but I sleep soundly and everything I earn goes to me and Gordon Brown instead of HBC!

[Matty T]

Originally posted by Aitch
It isn't rocket surgery or brain science

Am trying to decide whether that was done on purpose or not!?

[Nick_S]

Totally agree with the above. The highest i ran up on my CC was £2000 and it was a real arse paying it back at £400 - £500 a month.

Thats what told me never to go over a £1000 unless i have the money in the bank/savings to cover it. You gotta exercise some bloody common sense and luckily i learnt my lesson with a relatively small amount.

then i got the 200...........

Nick.

[The Gill]

Totally agree with the lady - banks are offering too much to too many people. Unfortunately there are too many thick people in this country who don't understand APR's, etc etc and the banks are taking advantage. Mis-selling is rife in the financial industry and it gets on my t1ts as they seem to get away with it all too often.

Read Jobs & Money in the Saturday Guardian - literally every week they expose bank scams from 'names' you think you can trust. Last week was about loan protection insurance - B******s made £260 million last year in profit from just these 'insurance' policies alone and the way they are sold makes Del Boy seem like a saint.

In another story a widow was being pursued for £27K from M**A for her husbands debts because the cards were in joint names - she had no clue her dead husband was in debt and had never seen or used a CC in her life. Only because of The Guardian stepping in and letting M**A know that they had to produce evidence of the original joint application (which of course they didn't have) that they eventually wrote the debt off after months of bullying.

[Rude Dog]

Some times though it can't be helped. My wife and I, quite a few years ago were both in highly paid jobs earing a very good wage between us. Then she got pregnant, and went on maternity leave and I went and done my back in and couldn't move for months. My boss at the time reneged on my contract and I only got SSP of about £63 per week or summat and when my wife went back to work there was no job for her. So whilst both off we had to live on credit cards and overdrafts and pay the mortgage with them as well until the insurance kicked in 3 months later. That was the start of our downfall really as our savings had been nabbed by her family so our safety net had gone too.
5 years on we are still in the red by a collossal amount and are seriously considering making my wife bankrupt to get rid of some of it as she no longer works.
So sometimes you just can't help it. Thats life

[JB]

Originally posted by Rude Dog
Some times though it can't be helped. My wife and I, quite a few years ago were both in highly paid jobs earing a very good wage between us. Then she got pregnant, and went on maternity leave and I went and done my back in and couldn't move for months. My boss at the time reneged on my contract and I only got SSP of about £63 per week or summat and when my wife went back to work there was no job for her. So whilst both off we had to live on credit cards and overdrafts and pay the mortgage with them as well until the insurance kicked in 3 months later. That was the start of our downfall really as our savings had been nabbed by her family so our safety net had gone too.
5 years on we are still in the red by a collossal amount and are seriously considering making my wife bankrupt to get rid of some of it as she no longer works.
So sometimes you just can't help it. Thats life

That wasn't the point of the thread though. Of course there are times when you have to take out loans (and I'm in debt up to my neck so I know, what with Business loans and mortgage). People should be free to take out loans if they want/need/have to. But must also face up to the fact that sooner or later they wil have to be repaid.

It's the idea that that woman has that it's the banks fault that her husband was in debt and therefore, the banks should waive the loans.

It's not debt that pisses me off it's people like that woman who can't face up to their own decisions and the consequences that follow and who blame others and expect others to bail them out.

[tim rome]

problem with that chap is that he worried too much about it, its so easy just to declare yourself bankrupt and pay hardly anything anything back, struggle for 6 years until its wiped off all credit reference agencies and bingo, start borrowing all over again, if i was in that sort of debt, the last thing i would consider is suicide.
its only money and its only possesions

[Jon]

While a weak personality is certainly the main factor here, I reckon the banks are bastards for encouraging the poor to take credit. Take a day off work sick and watch TV. Every advert is for dodgy credit (or ambulance chasers).

I've been through the post student £10k debt phase.

Now all is under control (still several £k though).

Old credit cards that have paid to zero or replaced with 0% interest ones keep sending me nice letters saying they're increasing my credit limit to £3k, then £4k and last week £9k.

Willpower is all very well, but we have Bren ffs !