A (retired) banker's view of why some people can't pay their mortgages

Interesting. Because banks would put you out on the street as they don't have 'feeling's. Haven't you argued that for those who lost out in the bust.

I'm aware Joan was very ill. But I still think he got a deal because of who he was.

They could have got possession and also a lot more by going after his state pension. And I can guarntee you if it was Ms. Bronte it's exactly what they would do.
 
T McGibney said:
I had a credit card at that age, back in the 80s.
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Me too, around the age of 18 or 19, via my father. I used it once, paid him back and that was the end of it. But none of my peers had credit cards, now there's nobody with at least one ! There's nothing wrong with them if you manage them properly, as in use it for what you can afford it for and repay it every month. I just love people who tell me they got a great bargain in the sales and then pay 25%+ interest on the credit card debt for it.
 
Bronte said:
Me too, around the age of 18 or 19, via my father. I used it once, paid him back and that was the end of it. But none of my peers had credit cards, now there's nobody with at least one ! There's nothing wrong with them if you manage them properly, as in use it for what you can afford it for and repay it every month. I just love people who tell me they got a great bargain in the sales and then pay 25%+ interest on the credit card debt for it.
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Back in the day, if you drove a car you pretty much needed a credit card for fear of running out of petrol somewhere where there was no ATM. Debit cards have resolved that particular problem in the meantime.
 
You're not making sense to me about the ATM. I always used cash. And would put like a fiver in my mother's car. And she never had a credit card ever. Though the bank forced her to get a bank card eventually and she loved looking at the balance in her account on the ATM. Here it's nearly impossible to purchase petrol with cash. Which is good as there is no shop to get you buy too much suggary stuff. It's all the debit card and has been for decades. And most bills are by bank transfer, or debit card, that's dentists, the plumber, medical bills, etc. I think they're still using cheques in America.

Was it easy for you to get a credit card if you don't mind my asking? I'm allowed set the limit on my visa card. I can also set how much I repay.
 
Bronte said:
You're not making sense to me about the ATM.
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Sorry I'm lost. A fiver's petrol mightn't get you too far even back then and outside the cities and county towns, there was barely an ATM machine in 3/4s of the country 30 years ago. So if you were driving, you'd need either a permanent cash float or a credit card. I recall having to put £38 of petrol in the car in a single week travelling to/from training courses and it was literally a disaster.

Bronte said:
Was it easy for you to get a credit card if you don't mind my asking? .
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Yes, applied and got it without quibble. I was earning around £3,000 per annum at the time. That's not a typo btw, but the starting training pay for a trainee chartered accountant.
 
Bronte, many of us in the branches knew it wouldn't end well, it couldn't! But we weren't the ones making the rules. I remember one couple who weren't earning jointly what I was earning but bar talk of course made them want to buy a BTL like everyone else was doing. I didn't have one and I could have afforded it more than they could but they fit the lending criteria so wasn't up to me to say no.

I went for a pizza few years ao in a new local restaurant, the proprietor came over to me to say he knew me, I didn't remember him, and that he had spoke to me about a BTL loan many years earlier and I had advised him against it. He had decided to take my advice at the time and said now himself and his wife were so glad they weren't in trouble like so many of their friends who had jumped on the bandwagon. He didn't give me a free pizza though!

I remember a visit to Head Office and I was speaking to an older senior lender and he was very concerned about the ways things were going, showed me some beauties of cases that were being approved, he said he had voiced his concern to his superiors and was basically told you know where the door is if you don't like it.
 
Bronte said:
Were there a lot of cancelled cheques?
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All negotiated cheques were called "cancelled cheques".
The Old school branch bankers would discuss lending issues. The New school of bankers hadn't a clue. I am talking senior management here. Also those people they promoted in to senior positions who also hadn't a clue.

The rest of us with vast experience as Montbrieta talks about were frozen out.

There was one case of a couple who borrowed to get a new kitchen. Never paid a penny back. I had to chase them. They told me that the kitchen company promised them a sum of money if they let their kitchen be used as a "show" kitchen. The company never sent anyone out to view their kitchen. They never got a fee. They used this as an excuse for not paying back their loan. I was asked to chase these people. I never gave the loan in the first instance. I never found if if the idiot who gave them the loan based their repayments on the basis that they "might" get viewings. I hope not.

Yes there were people in the media who were treated better than others. I remember one RTE individual who used to force credit on his overdraft. This would then be transferred to a Term Loan basis and his overdraft was regularised. It would start all over again and again. In the end there were three term loans and the overdraft was still over it's limit. It took an old school banker with a pair, to bounce one of his cheques for his kid's school fees to put a stop to it.

We had people put working on the counter with no experience because they were cheap. They were accepting cheques payable to Limited Companies to be lodged in to personal accounts. No sooner had we trained these people in, but they left, and were replaced with a new batch.
 
T McGibney said:
Sorry I'm lost. A fiver's petrol mightn't get you too far even back then and outside the cities and county towns, there was barely an ATM machine in 3/4s of the country 30 years ago.
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The minimum you could put in at the 24 hour garage was 5 IEP. That's why us kids put in 5. Late eighties. And there was a cashier there to take it. We were only going a couple of miles into and out of town. Paid around 4K in deposit in the early ninties. Which was a lot of money. There were pleny of ATM's as it was a city. But I don't remember using them. I used to go into Ulster bank and withdraw with a book or the CU which was also a book and before that the post office, another book.
 
Firefly how to you pay for things like flights? Do you bring cash to restaurants or maybe you use a debit card? I get points on the Amex. Then I get supermarket vouchers and use that for groceries.
 
I don't have a debit card, use credit card or bank transfer when needed online, cash for day to day. Had to buy one bank draft this year for a company who took no other option other than that or personal cheque.
 
LOL about the kitchen. Imagine getting a loan in the first place for a kitchen. My first cooker cost 40 IEP second hand and I bought it from the small ads in the newspaper. It was bright green too. Vinal on the floor and my worktop was some kind of chipboard with white coating, like the inside of a cupboard, the tiling from the previous owners was bright orange and they must have been space cadets because the light fitting in the living room was disco lights. The first thing I did was buy 7 new beds, from a man with a truck from cavan for some reason. The bed bases were covered I think in paper, that can't be right can it. Went straight into the holiday letting business. Which was hard work but profitable. My OH slept in the garage, luckily it had a toilet and sink for the summer and I worked for my mother and stayed with her.
 
Monbretia said:
I don't have a debit card, use credit card or bank transfer when needed online, cash for day to day. Had to buy one bank draft this year for a company who took no other option other than that or personal cheque.
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When you say no debit card, you surely have a bank card. How do you pay for groceries? Tell us another mad banking story Monbretia.
 
IsleOfMan said:
We had people put working on the counter with no experience because they were cheap. They were accepting cheques payable to Limited Companies to be lodged in to personal accounts. No sooner had we trained these people in, but they left, and were replaced with a new batch.
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Thank you for confirming that certain people got favourable treatment. My mother used to go drinking with the bank manager on the odd occassion. One of my siblings hopped in the car outside the AIB another time while my mother was inside and turned on her car and went straight into his car. About 10 years of age.

I had the misfortune to have to go into BofI last year. They don't even have a desk anymore, there's a young one stands out in the middle of people milling around and I need private business and I had to sit at a high chair while she went off to photocopy something and had to leave me there. What was funny was she left the bank stamp right there, there was me thinking that might be handy and what could I use it for !

I was in my bank, the Ulster another time this year, the girl behind the counter was rude, had a t-shirt on and her fingernails were appalling.

It's all so unprofessional now. The BofI didn't even look like a bank. So disrespectful to customers.
 
I have a bog standard ATM card and I pay for groceries with cash :)

A kitchen is a reasonable thing to be borrowing for compared to some. I had a lady who wanted to borrow a thousand pounds for sitting room curtains, this was back a good bit. I asked her what the hell were they made from, spun gold? I would expect that sort of money to do the curtains for a whole house back then with some left over. At that actual time I was not long after building my own house and the curtains were made from sheets by myself, they were damn nice too and I kept them for years.
 
Well my Ulster card is a bank card, but it also has the visa debit on it. Is there a difference. And the new fangled thing you can scan to pay for low amounts. I find that idea novel. Not that I asked for any of this but that's what they sent us.

Today I was amazed my sister said me an electrican bill by email and I was able to pay it directly as it's an electronic invoice. Once paid I could see it was paid, it said credit card so I decided to try with the visa debit and that worked. Much impressed with this.
 
Yes I have the old type ATM card, it does nothing but withdraw cash at a machine, no fancy facilities and I don't want them either, much easier to budget by keeping it simple.
 
Yes, I can recall the difference between 2007 and a few years later. I remember talking to EBS on a Friday afternoon in 2007 and over the phone they were willing to offer me some 400,000 of a loan! The multiple was around 4 to 4.2 if I recall correctly. Fast forward three years and in spite of the recession, I had managed to continue to accrue significant savings and keep my income more or less on track over the time, but the EBS had discovered fiscal repsonsibility in the meantime!! Anyway I well remember being asked had I considered a stress test on the mortgage.. I thought this was hilarious as I would be a very conservative person financially. Anyway, in the end it doesn't matter they did give the mortgage for the amount that I needed - mortgage was paid off last month, some 18 years ahead of schedule! I won't be troubling the banks again, that's for sure!
 
Also as an ex banker I only use cash plus credit card. No ATM card or debit card. CU for the cash, Credit card for the flights and hotels. Although I got caught out abroad recently when asked to pay for my hotel with my credit card on check out, to discover that I had no PIN number. Never needed it before. I assumed that they could over ride it and I could pay based on my signature. I'm sure you can but the person in the hotel said "No".
 
My BIL was in a hotel for Royal Ascot and could not pay the night bar with cash. And he had no credit or debit card. Himself and the uncle were outraged.

I was in France before the supermarkets had the pin machines and they swiped my bank card and needed no pin to my amazement. Also before chip and pin you could as far as I know write down the credit card number and all details and sign it and that would work just as well, particularly if you rang up the CC company and asked was it ok.

Life and travel has taught me 2 different credit cards and bank cards from 2 countries is very handy. Plus cash out before you leave.
 
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