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


They couldn't go after his pension.

Pensions are protected in Bankruptcy.

How do you have 12,000 posts and not know that?
 
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That's amazing Paddy. I know a couple of people like that including relations. They get their children to book flights for them etc.
 
Ahhh the days of the Gold Card that came in the post unsolicited.
They gave me 2 of them. They were great.
But alas they took them back and I have no credit card now nor I won't have one in the foreseeable future ☺
 
That's amazing Paddy. I know a couple of people like that including relations. They get their children to book flights for them etc.

Although I wouldn't consider myself old by any means, and I do like to spend to treat myself... I am of the old school that I wait until I have the money saved until I get it.

My mother always made money stretch. She even managed to stretch the small piece of bacon so that we all got numerous slices (she was good at cutting the slices quite thin). My father worked two jobs to bring money into the house (my mother stayed at home).

Other than a mortgage and the odd car loan, I never spent what I didn't have. I still have a mortgage (on a holiday home), main home paid for and no car loans.

I use PayPal or Visa Debit where I can and on the odd occasion I need access to a credit card, I hand the money over to someone who has one and they pay for me, but on the whole, I don't need one and don't see myself having a need for one in the future.
 
im really not sure why posters are correlating credit cards with frivolous spending, or financial negligence. I have a credit card with a large 5 figure limit and i have never paid a cent of interest as i dont ever hold a balance but i find it very useful for paying for things (and the insurance it offers) rather than faffing around withdrawng large sums of cash (with the danger that presents) or getting bank drafts (given that the banks really dont want people coming to branches any more).

Some people do get into trouble with credit cards but the same people would be financially irresponsible one way or the other.
 
im really not sure why posters are correlating credit cards with frivolous spending, or financial negligence.

I, for one, haven't connected credit card use with frivolous spending. In my circumstances, I just never had the need or couldn't be bothered getting one.

I have taken out loans for large puchases and am not adverse to getting credit for such but I was just brought up to have the mentality to save first if I could before I purchased.

Visa Debit suits me perfectly. Two new tyres of the jeep this morning and Visa Debit covered me perfectly.
 
I've never paid interest on my credit card either in all these years and use it I suppose similarly to the way Paddy does. I still prefer to keep the credit card over getting a debit card (well old habits really!) as I understand a debit card transaction does not have the same protection as a credit card one. Don't know the details but often see this issue cropping up on others pages I am on.
 
Debit card transactions also incur bank charges (unless you have free banking). Credit cards don't.
I use the Credit card for everything. Contactless is great for small purchases. IvI' never paid interest either.
 
Many banks can see your transaction history as most purchases will appear on your statement. If on the one hand you are having your daily lattes or Brown Thomas cosmetic purchases or golf club membership and NOT paying your mortgage they will have no sympathy for you, and rightly so.
 

I don't see a credit card as anything other than a necessity. But we know from AAM and elsewhere that many people being to be financially irresponsible when they get a credit card. And it's a deliberate policy as far as I'm concerned by banks to give cards to people that will never manage it correctly. Whatever percentage of the public that will be responsible, they are subsidised by those that are irresponsible.

As an example, my bank here would not let me pay the full balance monthly, only 5 or 10 % could be by direct debit, so every month I had to remember to pay it back as I have no intenion of paying interest. But the government here decided this kind of carry was to be disallowed and now my bank allows me to repay by direct debit the full amount.
 

This is a very important point. And it's much easier to fight as a customer if you paid with a Credit card. As you said this comes up all the time, on shows like Joe Duffy.
 

This is a very common misconception which is totally incorrect. Exact same protection using a credit OR debit card.

http://www.*****************.com/protection-when-buying-with-debit-or-credit-cards.html
 
This is a very important point. And it's much easier to fight as a customer if you paid with a Credit card. As you said this comes up all the time, on shows like Joe Duffy.
This is a common misconception.

To the best of my knowledge, there's no additional legal protection in Ireland for using a Credit vs Debit card.

There are scheme rules, from Visa & MasterCard, but they apply equally to Debit and Credit cards. This was different back in the day of Laser cards which was a closed system operated by the Irish Banks.

There are different legal protections in the UK (Section 75 of consumer credit act. the bank is jointly liable for undelivered or faulty goods as they are advancing credit) so you will find lots of differences in UK consumer forums.

There are some credit card products available here that automatically include travel insurance, which provides cover for cancelled flights for example.

Edit: crossed posts with @tallpaul
 
Sorry RedOnion!! I would just add that a chargeback on a credit card might be slightly less stressful than with a debit card as with the latter one is looking to get money BACK rather than having the charge cancelled on a credit card (depending on CC bill timing of course).
 
I can't remember the context in which I read about the credit card/debit card difference, definitely re something that had been cancelled lately and people were trying to get their money back, must see if I can find it.