Now matter how bad it gets steer clear of loan arrangers
DO you recall the financial crash of 2008 when taxpayers had to rescue the banks?
It followed a prolonged borrowing policy of unsecured loans and easy money.
It started with a number of small US banks collapsing but these were privately owned, regional banks which would ‘never’ effect the large multi-national institutions that were the bedrock of our society. Wrong.
When the venerable Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers defaulted in September the domino effect swept the globe. After years of offering cheap credit and loans to all and sundry the banks had a mountain of bad debt.
You may remember those years when banks bombarded us with invitations to have credit cards and loans.
We were inundated with offers we never solicited. Entire developments and business plans were based on this unsecured debt
until the whole thing imploded.
The landscape was peppered with unfinished housing estates, shopping malls and city centre developments.
Taxpayers paid for this to prevent major banks collapsing. You would have thought that experience would have taught the financial players never to repeat those practices.
So, here we are 14 years later with rampant inflation and families dreading winter bills and today I received from one of those fiscal
giants an unsolicited invitation to take out a £15K loan. I’m not going to do that but a lot of desperate families will.
Trust me, these institutions are not doing this to save you from a winter of hardship. They are doing it because millions of people will be desperate and unable to resist their offer of some form of loan.
I’m flagging this up because I don’t want to see thousands of families saddled with debt they cannot repay. People lost their houses after the 2008 disaster. Don’t lose yours.
The Government will be forced to step in with some form of rescue package or face rebellion on our streets.
The company offering me the £15K loan was not some unheard of institution but a major credit card company right here in the UK.
They told me exactly what my interest would be (3.8%) and my monthly payments £274.46 for 60 months.
How easy it would be to just take the £15K loan but we have all been here before. Don’t do it. On top of all the big lenders hoping to take advantage of our plight there will be plenty of crooks and fraudsters making similar offers. Leave well alone.
Before you get into debt talk to your mortgage company and your own bank.
The Citizens Advice Service are very helpful and Cheshire East Council are usually very understanding when you talk to them.