I couldn't get into debt if I tried.
A little off-topic, but it fits in well with some of the stories that have been posted so far. I'm referring in particular to those stories about banks who fall over themselves to offer credit cards, loans, and other debt-producing facilities to young people, almost pressuring them into signing up for these things. My experience is exactly the opposite.

Five years ago, I had two current accounts. One with Halifax, and one with HSBC. I was 18 at the time, and both banks had provided me with the latest piece of useless junk for banks to fob off young people with: the Solo card. Accepted precisely nowhere. Halifax had even provided me with a cheque book, which was next to useless because they didn't give me a cheque guarantee card to go with it.

Then one day, Halifax sent me a letter offering me a Switch card. I thought, "Excellent! I'll now be able to buy things online without pestering the parents any more." So I filled in the form and sent it back.

Weeks later, I'd heard nothing. I chased it up, and I got a letter a few days afterwards telling me my application for a Switch card had been rejected. One wonders why they even sent me the letter in the first place, but never mind.

So, I tried HSBC. Now, I should point out that there is a fundamental difference between Halifax and HSBC. Halifax are simply incompetent. I'm sure that in some way, they mean well, it's just that they can't run a financial institution. HSBC, on the other hand, are evil geniuses. They go out of their way to make life as difficult as possible for anyone misguided enough to have an account with them.

I wandered into my local HSBC branch, and uttered words to the effect of "Excuse me, I have this Solo card, which is all well and good, but it's not accepted anywhere. I've heard about your Switch current account, can I have one of those?" They sat me down on one of their gaudy-coloured sofas and had someone come out to speak to me. I explained to her that I had their crappy fob-off "current account" and I would very much like a real one. You know, one I can actually use.

"Oh, you've got a Solo card current account?"
"Yes."
"Oh," she said, in that "talking-to-a-toddler" voice. "I think that account's a bit too grown-up for you. I'll give you this leaflet about our 'account for 16-to-17-year-olds'."

See what I mean? Halifax said "no, we're not upgrading your account to the one we sent you a letter offering you", but HSBC went one better and said "no, we're not upgrading your account and we think it should be downgraded to an account whose very name should imply that it's not intended for 18 year olds, but hey, we're HSBC, and we like being as perversely annoying as possible."

So that's why I haven't gone into a branch of either bank for the last five years. I still have the accounts, they still have some footling amount of money in them, and they still waste resources sending me statements every month.

Incidentally, a couple of months later, I noticed that Nationwide let you apply for a Visa credit card online, so I thought I might as well give it a go. The application was accepted and the card arrived within a week. Of course, since I only wanted a debit card, I've always used the Visa card in the most boring way possible, by paying it off in full by direct debit every month, not spending money I don't have, etc. This is to be recommended, partly because it means you never get into any debt, but mostly because doing that really annoys the banks because you're using their credit card facility for free and they're not making any money off of you.

And yes, I know Solo cards are accepted in more places now, which is presumably why a couple of years ago Halifax thought "oh noes, we're now offering a service which is actually useful!" and swapped my Solo card (hardly ever used) for that completely unrecognised artifact, the Visa Electron card.

Insert smutty joke about length here.
(greem, Sun 26 Nov 2006, 15:26, Reply)