Hasn't affected me more like...
To set the scene, I owe no debts outside of friends 'n family. I rent and pay remarkadly low rent all things considered, my job is stable and funded for the next 3 years so pending gross stupidity or moving onto a better position I'm sorted.

And the best thing is I have a brain and a budgetting capacity so that I do not spend more than I can realistically afford.

The major way this R.E.C.E.S.S.I.O.N. effects me is to laugh (with my fellow B3tans) at those without this ability to budget and look at my friends who are also in the same situation of wondering how does this R.E.C.E.S.S.I.O.N. affect them due to having budgetting skills.

Anywho, the best part about 2009 is that I'm taking part in the Copenhagen 2009 Out! Games and while there do some serious sight seeing, am going to Amsterdam with some other friends for a mash up holiday and finally visiting some friends in China. All without incurring any debt as I'm saving up money in advance. Hell, I don't even have a credit card.

Do you think the government instead of bailing out banks they should be giving budgetting advice classes?

"No Timmeh, on your wage of £13,500 a year you canNOT afford a plasma screen Tv in a £500,000 house with a swimming pool"

"WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! I WANT IT I WANT IT!!!"

Heh

(Slight rant here)

Has anyone thought that the way in which banks offer Credit also slightly f**ked up? For example, as mentioned don't have any loans/credit cards etc. yet my credit rating is considered poor.

My friend however owes a ton of cash and is in debt up to his manicured eyebrows yet is considered an "excellent customer".

There is so much evidence to show that you are a bad spender and that you "need" credit but how comes there is no evidence to show the opposite? To show that you are responsible with your money?
(Helo, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 12:38, 9 replies)

Your credit rating is't based on responsibilty.
It's based on how much money the lenders think they can reliably make from you.
(ThomsonsPier consumes, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 12:42, closed)

Ah
So does that mean if I can never pay off my loan/credit card they're more likely to give it to me due to the fact they'll make more money out of the interest repayments than the sum of the total loan/credit card?
(Helo, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 12:45, closed)

Yes.
Banks are businesses and the primary aim of businesses is to make money.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 12:56, closed)

cynical but true..
the fact is that I was earning a large chunk of cash, paying for what I could afford, yet had zero credit rating. I was lower than Kerry Catona's IQ in credit terms.

The second I got some credit (I bought a camcorder on interest free credit), I was offered credit cards, loans and free go on the bank manager's daughter, as I was seen as a safe bet.

What their ideal scenario is that I earn a buttload of money and borrow as much as they let me, then I fail to make a single payment and they can then ream me for higher interest, penalty payments AND the total amount borrowed, thus making a huge profit on the balance they lent.

If you extrapolate this, you end up with a system where if one lends ("Are you a thick fucking pikey living on benefits, then why not take out a loan with TwatCo at a reasonable 39% interest to buy your Elizabeth Duke and Burberry?", etc.), they all lend. Years ago (pre-Experian, etc), if you wanted to borrow money, you went to your bank, they looked at your income, the way you had managed your finances and, because your bank maanger knew you, they would make a call on what (if anything) they would lend. This was deemed "unfair" by Brown and his friends, as it meant their electorate (the great unwashed turkey-twizzler-guzzling horde of thickos that fell for their lies) couldn't have all the shiny things that the middle class people had (depsite the fact that they'd worked hard to get them). This was the beginning of the "I've got a right.." period of UK history.

Now, we aren't allowed to say "no, fuck off, you can't have a Maserati, you live in a council house and your only income is the dole - you can't afford it", because "I HAVE A RIGHT TO HAVE IT" is thrown straight back at you. Turn down the scumbag and face a lawsuit. So, they lent to people who normal folk wouldn't trust with a bag of jelly babies and then marvelled at the fact that these pikeys then failed to pay for the TVs, Sofas, Cars and god knwos what else - why should they? They can't have a council house repossessed, if they go bankrupt they still end up on benefits, but with the debt erased, so there is no motivation to pay...

Idiocy, pure idiocy - all done because the low-grade underclass can't be told they can't have something they can't afford because that, somehow, infringes on their "rights".
(Chad, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 12:58, closed)

Ahem
Deregulation of bank lending wasn't Brown's doing.

It was Thatcher's government giving the market the right to "regulate itself".

We're just reaping the benefits.
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 13:05, closed)

except...
that brown thought privatising the Bank of England and then making it responsible for the interest rates was a good idea. Well, it was politically, after all he can jsut say "it wasn't our government it was the Bank of England". Besides, you can't go back to Thatcher - that was nearly 30 years ago. Brown and Blair always blamed "the previous administration", but the fact is that, after 12 years in power, they ARE the previous administration. They inherited a healthy economy, opened up banking legislation to the point of irresponsibility and patted each other on the back whilst the markets soaredl ike fireworks...then looked confused when it went bang.

The last Labour government we had did something very similar. In fact they broke the car industry (god bless those strikes, go-slows and union-led hijacking of management strategies), wrecked the economy to the point we only had electricity four days a week and then fell apart in a frenzy of finger-pointing. Yes, Thatcher made some unpopular decisions, but given the choice was either that or having the UK go totally tits-up, I think we got out ok. We got hit hard in 87, but recovered fast, we got hid hard in 93 but recovered fast, yet after 10 YEARS of supposed year-on-year growth, Brown cannot make a single move to rectify the economy. Why? Because his "boom" was false, based on imaginary money and public borrowing to instill false confidence in the economy. Which is why, now we have hit the inevitable "bust" (even Brown, who admitted to saving the world, can't prevent economic cycles, regardless of what he says), we're totally and utterly fucked.

My prediction? An election in 2009/2010 resulting in a Conservative government. Cameron and his team have to make tough decisions to clear up Labour's mess, meaning that whilst we stay afloat, the pikeys that were borrowing when they couldn't afford it will get moody because they aren't able to buy PS3s and TVs they want. So, that when the next election comes around, the ungrateful fuckers go running back to Labour who will promise the moon and do their best to bankrupt us again...

Sound familiar?
(Chad, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 13:17, closed)

Your credit rating
is largely based on your track record of paying back credit successfully. It doesn't matter all that much how much you owe; indeed a person who owes a lot but religiously makes the payments every month without fail is a pretty safe bet to lend money to, as you know you'll get it back. That's what credit ratings assess.

Yours is poor because you can't point at any evidence you'll pay back the money if you borrow it. There is a logic there.
( Olembe Refuses to write in this space, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 14:03, closed)

T'is weird
I understand what you're saying however find it surreal as aforementioned (imaginery) pikey scum can get a "good" credit rating merely for not paying back their loan repayments and myself who has never had problems with credit **because I never got them in the first places choosing to budget on what I can or cannot afford** has a next to nil credit rating.

Alas, such is life is it not?
(Helo, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 16:29, closed)

The answer
get one small loan sometime. One where you have the money to cover it, for something you would buy anyway. ~£200ish perhaps. Then pay it back.
(Not him., Sun 25 Jan 2009, 11:27, closed)