Just a quick one with interest rates at an all time low of .5% HOW COME i'm paying 4.2 WE payed for their mistakes to the tune of billions of pounds from our taxes and still we get shafted by the banks and goverment (im not saying that labour would be any differant) does anyone know???????
So basicly they have us by the short and curlies you get no interest on saving pay through the nose for a morgage get sold insurance you can't use ppi we are getting totally riped off if this happened when my bus was made we would of had a strike STRIKE!!!!!!!!
With ref to the 1st post, only you know why you're paying 4.2%, i presume you're not on a fixed rate? if you are there's your reason - you agreed to pay it, if you aren't and that's just the standard variable of the bank you use then shop around, there are loads of comparison sites, i have 2 mortgages on my house, one of them is 1.5% (an old motgage product no longer sold where they can only charge 1% above base) the other was fixed until a month ago at 4.5% but has now ended and reverted to standard variable at 3.94%, i'll be looking at that one in the next few months but i doubt i'll get much out of it, the reason why they charge the rates depends on so many things including risk and value of the property and also if you paid set up fees or suchlike.
The base rate is set by the bank of england. This has been set low so they don't have to pay interest. the interest that they would have been paying is helping to offset the debt that has been accumulated. To the sum of 100's of billions. It sucks but their is not much we can do about it. Yes the banks caused this problem but we are also to blame by buying into the credit card and loan idea
Yes, the banks screwed up by lending people money based on ever increasing property (commercial and private) prices. We (as a general population) also screwed up by being greedy and borrowing on the basis on ever increasing house prices. The Government also screwed up by running the economy on the basis of ever increasing house prices (remember 'no more boom and bust' and 'prudence' :laugh2. It was obvious that a crash was on the way, but nobody wanted to admit it, so we all marched on into the abyss. The difference between the base rate and mortgage rates is now significantly higher than it was before the crash, which means bigger margins for the banks. In the end, the banks either have to earn their way out of the hole they're in or be given money. They got a bit of both, enough money to prop them up and now they're earning their way out of the hole. PPI claims probably don't help either, it will just extend the period where we have to pay more to fill up the hole. In the end, the politicians got us into this hole by failing to deal with asset price (houses, commercial property) inflation and keeping interest rates low, all because the headline inflation rate was kept low by cheap consumer goods being manufactured in China (we all bought them as well). The boom of the noughties was fools gold, fuelled by borrowing, and now it has to be paid back. In the end, regardless of the rights and wrongs of it, the general public have to pay it back - higher taxes, higher mortgage rates, low savings rates, low returns on our pension pots (not that I have one, so I'm OK there) etc. IMO, we are now facing a period of low growth as we (as a country) have to earn our way out of trouble. It's the hangover after the drunken binge and it's not going away quickly.
and of course all debt is a form of social control , hence student debt , get em while they are young, you got them for life.
Greed is the word, the world is full of it and as my old grandad used to say man will destroy himself and the world through greed.
i like bankers and i'm so pleased we haven't done what iceland did, hold those responsible accountable; charge banks chiefs execs with fraud, arrest and charge PM who allowed it to happen and pay off IMF debt ahead of schedule. And all due to a 'pots and pans revolution'. tsk. silly icelanders with their growing economy. clearly we're much better off ???
