Why do they bother?
 

It doesn't take a genius to know that at this time of year the marketing for financial services goes into overdrive.

Hordes of junk mail waiting on your doormat with offers like "consolidate all your Christmas debt into one easy loan". I've been down that route when I was young and foolish (well even more foolish then) so this type of thing doesn't appeal. This morning I had three of these "offers", the cheapest being Alliance and Leicester at 5.9% APR. Then I opened one from Barclaycard. Apart from the fact that it had conditions like penalty clauses for early payment the interest rate was 18.9% APR.

What amuses me is that it's signed by the personal loans manager, or some such role, which leads me to imagine that Barclaycard have got a whole department of people working on stuff that's so ludicrously uncompetitive that no-one in their right minds is going to buy it. But even more bemusing is that you just know that the 'one born every minute' rule will kick in and enough people will buy it to make Barclaycard a heap of money and keep all these people who seem devoid of any notion of market research in a job.

I get that from my own bank.
Mr Scott please find enclosed the chance to take out a loan within 10 seconds at this great rate of 17.5%. :o
and such statements like we really care about your financial interests. O yea so that's why you want to rip me of then yea.
but as you say some Muppet will take it out.
I suppose im a Muppet for still being with them. But then I am only a very small fish in a very big sea

Even the chief exec of Barclays doesn't have a Barclaycard as he thinks they're too expensive. If that's not a personal endorsement of their products, then I don't know what is!

Unfortunately some people just don't understand interest figures as all they see if the 5 grand of debt being turned into 50 quid per month - and they can afford that, right? Doesn't matter that it's for the next 15 years and they'll end up paying back nearly twice the amount!

Then again the banks are there to make money. Would you lend 5 grand to someone with a well documented history of not paying back loans?

Dont forget the Million pound a week fraud that they dont really bother with, and still make a profit!

It'll also be easier for them to manage the fools who do sign up - as there'll be only a small amount of people that they'll make lots of money from - makes good business sense really.??

Some people have to bother, they can't get credit at the very best rates because of their credit rating/circumstances.

It is often said that the people that can least afford credit get charged the most.

Only the lucky few can respond to the bank managers question of " are you interested in a loan Sir/madam" with a " how much do you think you'll need!!

Its pretty much the same with the dodgy 0% deals for 6 months. The poor B's who can't pay up at the end of the time period get clobbered with 29% APR althought I think there have been some moves to make this kind of deal more obvious.


Ray.

is it necessary for you to go racing this year then ?

sorry weeksy but people always have a choice.
you don't have to spend loads of dosh on cards and such like.
I have not worked out how to do it myself yet though :(

If you want to go racing bad enough you find the finance, that includes loans.

Over the years there have been an array of creative schemes that racers have set up to fund their habit as it were.

If anyone wants to take financial risks to go racing thats up to them, all part of the sub concious shall I or sharn't I thought process. 1,000,001 other factors as well, impact on family, friends etc.

The trick is knowing when the financial situation is getting too heavy. Not easy for any habit as it were!!

I have funded motorsport on my credit card n the past and then packed up for a while to pay it all off.

Debts for motorsport are just the same as any other leisure activity. How many get a loan for that can't live without Bike that only gets used on sunny days???

Live today pay tommorrow!!

Ray

[Edited on 6-1-2005 by Ray]

As always, Ray, well said. One of my cardinal rules for racing is if I don't have the cash I ain't racing! Keeps me out of financial woes at least. As for woes with the wife, well, I haven't figured out those rules yet!:lol:

am i the only person in england that doesnt have a credit card?

its not a case of no will power but if i cant afford it i'll save until i can. i'm sure that makes whatever your buying more valued.
its just the old fashoned way i was brought up i s'pose.


btw, i was told by my uncle, who arranges morgages etc, to get a credit card, use it all month,then pay off the outstanding at the end of the month. this way, mine & mrs gasmans wages ofset the morgage interest for the month, which he recons could knock a few years off the length of the morgage:eureka:

does anyone else do this??

Nope.... Not got one either. I have got myself into difficulty twice with credit cards and will not fall into that trap EVER again !:(:(

Still get loads of invites from HSBC to get a card with an instantly agreed credit limit...last one was £9,500 !!!!!:o:o:o
.... and they wonder why so many people are up whatsit creek without the proverbial paddle !:mad:

Was it Antonye who said hes on his seventh 0% ??
I am on my 4th in a row. Use it for the 0% period cut it up transfer or pay it off, and get another one and so on!!

hubby just got himself a Bcard on 0% for 6 months...great he thinks.
Pays the first instalment to cover his major purchase and pays online...Easy for him because he hates "talking to people"!!! However goes to pay this month and they have stopped the online payments. Two days to go before he incurs interest for non payment. So he now has to go to the bank to pay!
Today BBC Reprts that the government are looking into credit card companies making it difficult to pay so that customers incur higher costs! Needless to say that when his purchase is payed off in 4 months time he wont be getting another!

I totaly agree mate,

it seems that years ago people saved up for what they wanted. When they did have the money saved I suppose they would know if they really wanted the product when they came to part with the cash.

Thing is I have got a credit card and use it a lot really. I try to pay off big chunks if it gets used to much though!!;)

DC:burn:

So many I've lost count!

It ends next month though - Halifax 0% for 9 months - and I've just seen that Barclaycard are doing an offer of 0% for ten months now...

10 months!!!!!???:mad:

It does worry me that there seem to be so many companies involved in finance with no morals about how they extract profits from customers :barfy:

I've hopped from quite a few 0% cards to another and now ALWAYS make sure that a standing order/DD is setup straight away to cover minimum payment each month, so that no additional intrest is incurred.

Frank

Seems that the most common way of getting a decent deal on something is to sign up some sort of credit deal.

What happened to cash being king? Used to be if you had cash to pay for something a bargain could be had....

They make money from the credit deal - usually it works out that cheaper item + credit deal = greater profit.

if you waited for cash, very few peolpe under 45 would own a motorbike, let alone a ducati, unless it was their main transport or it was cheap. Even then, I dont know anyone who bought at least their first proper (not banger) car without finance of some kind, and know a fair few who have a bob or 2 who never pay cash.

like some others, I too have had probs in the past, but who wants to be a millionaire at 65 when you have wasted your life saving up for it to be too old ti benefit!

Live for today and plan a bit for tomorrow

money
 

I dont think anyone can say they havent made money mistakes when they where young,I did with my first credit card it feels like your not spending real money.
now they keep upping the limit as i pay off each month.
the latest is 4 or 5 printed cheques ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 with just sign and draw the money soooo easy.
dont you just love banks.
ian:mad: