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In Defence Of Credit Cards. They Helped Me To Survive

October 17, 2009

In Defence Of Credit Cards. They Helped Me To Survive

Ben Bowley writes: I want to do something crazy and come out in defence of credit cards. I know there are many people out there, including the team at Stirring Trouble that does breaking news, who will hate me for this. But still, I am going to do it. In my life I have gone through several very bad patches when my financial situation was distinctly shitty. I have been twice on the verge of bankruptcy, having been let down by my business partners, and I have also been jobless from time to time and on a couple of occasions I was too ill to do anything at all. And during these hard times I survived on credit cards. I always had several credit cards with substantial amounts on them and I used them when times were especially hard. And yes, in case you’re wondering, I did withdraw cash from... 

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Category: Point Of View 
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It Is Time To Cut Up That Credit Card. It Makes No Sense Having One

April 27, 2009

It Is Time To Cut Up That Credit Card. It Makes No Sense Having One

That is it: I have had enough of this! I announce a war against credit card companies. I call on you, people, to stop using your credit cards. Just stop. Or, even better, cut them up into small pieces and throw them away. Yes, throw them away. You would not be able to reason with these disgusting people because there is no law in Britain against licensed loan sharking. But at least you can ignore them and deny them access to your money. You have probably heard about credit card companies raising their interest rates recently even though the base interest rate is now 0.5 per cent. Some companies are even encouraging their customers to use their cheques that carry the same interest as when they are withdrawing cash. Which could be as high as 29 per cent and even more. And that is not all. The... 

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Category: Consumer Watch 
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Of Pawnbrokers And Interest Repaid

April 10, 2009

Of Pawnbrokers And Interest Repaid

Thomas Mathew writes: Three years ago a friend of mine who lives in north London told me that, in his opinion, Britain was on the verge of slipping into a recession because he had noticed several new pawnbrokers opening in the area. My friend said that it was a sure sign that things were going downhill, adding that the new pawnbrokers were spending serious money on their offices, obviously planning to add some respectability to their operations. ‘Imagine,’ he said. ‘These people actually want to be seen as bankers rather than loan sharks that they are.’ On hearing this I remembered an incident in 1994 when the directors of a pawnbroker T.M. Sutton Limited, which in those days was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Crown Jewellers Asprey Plc., were summoned to appear before the... 

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Category: Consumer Watch 
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