conmen
Many banks and other FI's send out credit card applications randomly. People fill them in and send them back. The bank does cursory checks on the information and then sends the card out in a lot of cases with ridiculous limits.

Now, i dont entirely blame the banks for this. If you got in debt because you knowingly overspent on credit cards then ITS YOUR FAULT. Its not the fault of the bank who "made it too easy to get into debt".

However, what I do blame the banks for is that they will do this for people who should never have cards in the first place. A relative of mine is ill, always has been, always will be. He is incapable of making rational decisions. He has a fairly dull life but is a likeable guy. He'll believe everything you tell him. He doesnt have much money - benefits really - but he likes the shiny new things that everyone else seems to have these days. So he filled in one of these applications, and he got his platinum card (from "Boyds" bank actually, well it sounds like that) with a £7000 limit on the first attempt.

The first shop he went to sold furniture (SFD its called), he bought the first sofa he saw and the salesman, recognising an easy mark took him to the cleaners. £4K gone in 5 minutes. He bought a nice shiny mobile phone (from PhonesRus ;) ) on a rather convenient £75 per month all-in tariff. The salesman had taken him apart in minutes. £7K went in one week.

The bills came in and he ignored them for months, almost a year. The bailiffs were round trying to repossess from a man who never even lets relatives and friends in his flat, he was distraught and attempted self harm, he had no idea what they wanted.

Eventually us nice people got involved and told the bank to fuck right off. They got nasty. We had the last laugh - we agreed we would absolutely love to see them in court. We wanted to see whether Mr Judge would take the side of the big bad bank or the petrified schizophrenic man who had never earnt a penny in his life and never would do. We couldnt wait to see their reaction to the credit card application form originally filled out. Especially the bit where it said "Income" and was filled in with "I AM ON BENEFITS" and other delights.

(Almost) sadly, they backed down, the wrote off the debt entirely.

I suppose its worth knowing that credit cards are a con, and the employees of Boyds, PhonesRus and SFD are cunts really and are quite happy to con people for a 'legitimate' living.
( I have run out of coke is a little sweaty, Fri 19 Oct 2007, 14:43, Reply)