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[Sir Tigger KC]

And my mortgage has been paid off years ago 

I paid off a mortgage earlier in the month and cancelled the direct debit.  Two days later I get a letter.

Your bank has informed us that you have cancelled your direct debit.

Big red letters like this.    So? I thought. Then I wondered whether the solicitor had made off with the cash!     

So I phoned in. 

Oh it's just computer generated the lady said. 

I thought I might get a computer generated letter thanking me for paying off the mortgage said I.

It takes a few days to close down the account.... she replied

In the event it was nearly two weeks later that I finally got the letter informing me that the mortgage account had been closed, and the bastards didn't even thank me for the thousands £££ of interest I paid them!   

[Kevin Wood]

And my mortgage has been paid off years ago 

I paid off a mortgage earlier in the month and cancelled the direct debit.  Two days later I get a letter.

Your bank has informed us that you have cancelled your direct debit.

Big red letters like this.    So? I thought. Then I wondered whether the solicitor had made off with the cash!     

So I phoned in. 

Oh it's just computer generated the lady said. 

I thought I might get a computer generated letter thanking me for paying off the mortgage said I.

It takes a few days to close down the account.... she replied

In the event it was nearly two weeks later that I finally got the letter informing me that the mortgage account had been closed, and the bastards didn't even thank me for the thousands £££ of interest I paid them!   

Funny, isn't it? I had a purge of old direct debits a while ago.
Found a couple of policies I no longer needed that I was still paying for by DD. In some cases I'd had no policy details through the post for years so just dumped them.

It's funny how these people who've been merrily sucking your blood for years and never communicating with you suddenly get all uppity when you disconnect them from the vein.

I had a mobile phone company set the debt collectors on me because they tried to take a monthly payment a month after I'd cancelled. That didn't go too well for them.

Charities always get told to foxtrott oscar if they want a direct debit set up too.

[Rangie]

You're simply an account number to any financial institution, they couldn't give a monkeys, if you don't pay they simply take it away, and if you've cleared your debt there's always some poor unfortunate eager to take your place.

[TheBoy]

I've been creditcardless all week, and it didn't feel right.  In my case, it was because Amazon were being knobjockeys, meaning I had to get the card stopped the day before I went away.

I too pay off monthly.  If I found myself in the examples DG raised earlier, I would look to other options before getting into debt with CC's, as I'm not that stupid. I accept that many people are, though.  Those same people have effectively paid for my "free banking" all my life.

That's my point... What happens if you and the Really Lucky Woman both get made redundant or have a LTS event? Those sensible, well managed cards then become liabilities. From a position of comfort/security it's easy to be laissez faire about them... But many of the people up to their eyes in debt, especially credit card debt, were once where you are now.

Why would it be a liability?  We only buy stuff on CC's that we can afford to pay off when the bill arrives.  Much like we don't use the "free" overdrafts you get with current accounts.  Like so many others, we don't use credit cards for the purpose of credit, but for the benefits of using them (protection on certain purchases, rewards and so on).

If we need to make purchases that we could not realistically pay off when the bill arrives, such as a new car, there are far more cost effective ways of doing that than using a credit card, or being enticed by those 0% balance transfers and so on.


Having sharp knives in the house is a liability, they can be dangerous, both intentionally or accidentally. But its a tool we can use in relative safety if common sense is applied.

[TheBoy]

Charities always get told to foxtrott oscar if they want a direct debit set up too.

I fell out with MacMillan over that.  I wanted to give them a £20 note, they didn't want it, and tried to get me to sign up for a DD.  So they got SFA from me, and continue to do so now.


However, I subsequently learned from somebody working at a similar charity, the tin rattlers are allowed to take a huge percentage (it was a ridiculous figure, something like 90%) of the collected money as expenses/wages.  So I'm wary giving to them now.


The local fire brigade often hold a collection in town, as part of their charity to help injured firefighters, collected by the actual firemen and women.  I normally chuck them £50 for obvious reasons, but only as one-off donations, not monthly payments.

[Doctor Gollum]

I've been creditcardless all week, and it didn't feel right.  In my case, it was because Amazon were being knobjockeys, meaning I had to get the card stopped the day before I went away.

I too pay off monthly.  If I found myself in the examples DG raised earlier, I would look to other options before getting into debt with CC's, as I'm not that stupid. I accept that many people are, though.  Those same people have effectively paid for my "free banking" all my life.

That's my point... What happens if you and the Really Lucky Woman both get made redundant or have a LTS event? Those sensible, well managed cards then become liabilities. From a position of comfort/security it's easy to be laissez faire about them... But many of the people up to their eyes in debt, especially credit card debt, were once where you are now.

Why would it be a liability?  We only buy stuff on CC's that we can afford to pay off when the bill arrives. Much like we don't use the "free" overdrafts you get with current accounts.  Like so many others, we don't use credit cards for the purpose of credit, but for the benefits of using them (protection on certain purchases, rewards and so on).

If we need to make purchases that we could not realistically pay off when the bill arrives, such as a new car, there are far more cost effective ways of doing that than using a credit card, or being enticed by those 0% balance transfers and so on.


Having sharp knives in the house is a liability, they can be dangerous, both intentionally or accidentally. But its a tool we can use in relative safety if common sense is applied.

This... is the crux of the illususion. What happens if something occurs in the meantime? Suddenly that intention to pay the balance becomes a minimum payment. Do that for three or more months and suddenly you're accruing interest at 29%.

If your household income drops 20%, could you still pay it off?

Obviously the use of 'you' etc is the Royal You, but even with the best will in the world, most people can survive a single modest hit, but two or three in a row...

A broken ankle might not cause an issue, but if your other half breaks a collar bone or wrist in the shower a week later, things start to get dicey.

[Andy B]

Al .... you're definitely a glass half empty kinda bloke 

[Mr Skrunts]

Charities always get told to foxtrott oscar if they want a direct debit set up too.

I fell out with MacMillan over that.  I wanted to give them a £20 note, they didn't want it, and tried to get me to sign up for a DD.  So they got SFA from me, and continue to do so now.


However, I subsequently learned from somebody working at a similar charity, the tin rattlers are allowed to take a huge percentage (it was a ridiculous figure, something like 90%) of the collected money as expenses/wages.  So I'm wary giving to them now.


The local fire brigade often hold a collection in town, as part of their charity to help injured firefighters, collected by the actual firemen and women.  I normally chuck them £50 for obvious reasons, but only as one-off donations, not monthly payments.

We were drinking outside a pub one day when a couple in a smart car turned up, went into the pub and retured with the Blind collection box.  They tipped it out and hid 75% of it in the glove box and bagged the rest, sealed it, wrote a reciept for the pub and returned the box.

Dodgy sods should have counted the cash in front of the landlord.   

[Doctor Gollum]

Al .... you're definitely a glass half empty kinda bloke 

Not generally, but having been in debt to various degrees until last year, I know first hand what it is like to work 12 hour night shifts 28 days straight in order to keep from drowning.

Obviously the majority of older members here have had their shit together for years, if not decades, and like I have said before, you're very much a minority even amongst your peers. And you're not the target audience for consumer credit.

[ronnyd]

Charities always get told to foxtrott oscar if they want a direct debit set up too.

I fell out with MacMillan over that.  I wanted to give them a £20 note, they didn't want it, and tried to get me to sign up for a DD.  So they got SFA from me, and continue to do so now.


However, I subsequently learned from somebody working at a similar charity, the tin rattlers are allowed to take a huge percentage (it was a ridiculous figure, something like 90%) of the collected money as expenses/wages.  So I'm wary giving to them now.


The local fire brigade often hold a collection in town, as part of their charity to help injured firefighters, collected by the actual firemen and women.  I normally chuck them £50 for obvious reasons, but only as one-off donations, not monthly payments.

We were drinking outside a pub one day when a couple in a smart car turned up, went into the pub and retured with the Blind collection box.  They tipped it out and hid 75% of it in the glove box and bagged the rest, sealed it, wrote a reciept for the pub and returned the box.

Dodgy sods should have counted the cash in front of the landlord.   

It always seems strange to me that most of the charity collection bags that land on my door mat are for 'charities' that i've never heard of. A lot of people make quite a good living by starting up these so called organisations. Also the eyewatering amounts that the CEOs of some of the main charities are paid gets me going as well. 

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Al .... you're definitely a glass half empty kinda bloke 

Not generally, but having been in debt to various degrees until last year, I know first hand what it is like to work 12 hour night shifts 28 days straight in order to keep from drowning.

Obviously the majority of older members here have had their shit together for years, if not decades, and like I have said before, you're very much a minority even amongst your peers. And you're not the target audience for consumer credit.

Some on here dont have the life experience (or bad luck) to understand what your talking about.
20 years ago I was doing just fine. Good income, biggish house, healthy family, albeit at the cost of working very long hours in an extremely pressurised environment.
Over a pretty short period of time it all collapsed around my ears and I woke every morning feeling physically sick and my head trying to explode with one major problem after another pressing down on me.
After around 3 years the fog cleared a bit and my family were all still alive (just) and the pressure wasnt so great, but the one thing that had been lost among it all was the financial security. Ended up in social housing, slowly paying off debt by transferring onto 0% cards and slowly got back on an even keel.
Too late in life to become a homeowner again though. The thought that my mortage would have been paid off  by now instead of rent forever on this rabbit hutch, and working until Im 70 when I could have retired at 60 can bring me to tears.
On the other hand there was a very good chance my wife and son could have died and neither of them did, so that kind of puts it in perspective.
Its only money.
Im happy for you lucky people who have never had to experience this kind of thing, but please dont make huge assumptions about everyone else who hasnt been as fortunate. 

[Rangie]

I was 25 when I realised I didn't like not having any money left over at the end of the month it was all going on loans & a huge overdraft, had a windfall from my grandmother & started investing in property & swore then I would never borrow again or pay another penny in interest , sometimes it was difficult but I stuck with it & it worked for me.

[LC0112G]

I was 25 when I realised I didn't like not having any money left over at the end of the month it was all going on loans & a huge overdraft, had a windfall from my grandmother & started investing in property & swore then I would never borrow again or pay another penny in interest , sometimes it was difficult but I stuck with it & it worked for me.

Thing is, if you could borrow money from a secure institution (like a bank) at say 1% interest rate, and invest that money in another secure institution (like another bank) who paid you 2% interest - would you do it?

There are govt sanctioned schemes which allow almost everyone between 55-75 to pay in £3000 every year, the govt top it up to £3600, and you can then withdraw the entire £3600, and pay the original £3000 back to the lender. It takes a month or two for everything to work out so there will be some interest to pay, but it'll be nowhere near the £600 that the govt 'give' you.

[Doctor Gollum]

I was 25 when I realised I didn't like not having any money left over at the end of the month it was all going on loans & a huge overdraft, had a windfall from my grandmother & started investing in property & swore then I would never borrow again or pay another penny in interest , sometimes it was difficult but I stuck with it & it worked for me.

Where would you be without that windfall?

[Andy B]

.....
Im happy for you lucky people who have never had to experience this kind of thing, but please dont make huge assumptions about everyone else who hasnt been as fortunate. 

I don't think that anyone was making assumptions about anyone else, just saying to Al that it's possible to have & use a credit card within your financial means.