Agree with Tony, I believe that credit facilities are a useful and important part of a free society and tend to disagree with the IVA Experts view that 18 years is too young for credit. My first credit card was taken when I was 18 and I still have it now and it has served as a useful tool many a time.
However, we need to persuade the banks to operate a more responsible lending line. Coming from a banking background I can say that in my opinion this is starting to happen. I believe the wheels are turning, slowly I agree, but they are turning. Mortgages have become regulated and now mortgage providers need to complete income expenditure reports to show affordability. This has also been adopted by some banks when offering loans, which is a good idea. However, despite this there is still an imbalance on responsible lending, people are being offered two, three, four and more times their annual salaries in unsecured lending and too often there is no detailed probing into the affordability of such propositions. Lenders also continue to employ people on a low basic high commission basis which encourages unscrupulous lending.
If we could increase lenders responsibility to probe affordability and also incorporate more practical financial teachings at school I think we could go some way to solving a large portion of debt problems in the UK.
Best Regards
Oliver
Thomas Charles and Co Ltd.
Experts in personal debt solutions.
Read customer feedback at:
www.thomascharles.com/about_us.asp
