Safe Speed Forums

B & B has gone bust!

The Government is basically going to nationalise them!

AND THEY ARE STILL RUNNING ADS ON THE TV!!!

_________________
"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

I think it is time to invest in china, They are lending the yanks money, making all the yanks goods and using all the oil the yanks wanted....

_________________
Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Serves the yankers right!

_________________
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Gets even worse .. Fortis the insurance giant has just been nationalised in a joint Belgian/Dutch bail out as the "brand is too important to lose".


We insure via Swinton and M & S as brokers for our "toys". These companies use Fortis I do have some of our "toys" insured via Cornhill and our house falls under the brolly of a Swiss insurance firm .. but not because of my wife. It just happened that they offered the best deal for us at the time.

But when we travel - we go to our local broker who sell us Fortis policies and I have to say they do offer what I would call "decent" as far as insuring our elderly and disabled within this family. (We DO HAVE elderly disabled since three (almost 80 and over 80 years) need new hips and knees and stuff.. and my kid sister -Ju-Ju - also has a teenage son who lost his legs after a tragic bout of meningitis as a two year old. Fortis did insure at a marignally lower premium than competitors of similar blue chip stature. Fortis are also one of the few who recognise the value of Pass Plus and IAM for young drivers.. so perhaps worthy of State salvation then.


What worries me more though is how this situation came about. I have always worried and voiced the concern on line .. only to be shouted down - that we have allowed too easy credit and that financial institutions have been moronic in allowing folk to borrow more than they and their great grandchildren could hope to repay I have always been careful .. as my wife. If we cannot afford - we just cannot afford... we replace items as they wear out and cease to be viable to repair. If the item can be salvaged in some way - then we try to dispose of to ensure it gets as viable a recycle as we can manage.

I personally find it obscene that a 1950s box semi-detached house can command a price of a million pounds . when it just cannot warrant that price in all reality.. and a chap on average income has no hope in hell of repaying the mortgage.

That is no "economic growth". Such growth was always measured in output production and not solely on estate agent greed and a beady government eye on inheritance and capital gains taxes.

_________________
If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

oh, loads of people voiced concerns... but the pressures of living in a society where consumerism is the new religion with easy credit for the things you "must have" yet hardly need and certainally can't afford are too much for many...

Probably quite hypocritical for me to say, not so very long ago, and in fairness partially attributable to "circumstance" I had around £20k of mostly credit card debt... all paid off now (well, mostly paid off, the card companies themselves coughed up the last £2k after being served papers for reclaim of illegal "fine" charges, the joy of marching into x-bank to pay in a cheque stamped "x-bank Litigation Dept." )

Now the only debt I have is the van (which mostly for tax reasons is better on credit) and the only credit card I have is for online purchase protection and a backup to when my debit card plays up... and settled by automatic direct debit.

But like you say, house prices have been absolutely stupid and for years I've been waiting for the "fall", and as ever, too many people get caught up in the hysteria and buy places they cant afford.. what did they expect? Them to go up and up till a bedsit in scum central costs £5million? the peak had to come as houses can only cost what people can afford to pay, and when the peak was reached people were always gonna panic and create the bomb...

_________________
Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

Of course the truely galling thing about this is that it is people like me (who have paid off their mortgages, consider a 14 year old car as "New" and have spurned the three_holiday _a_ year lifestyle in favour of not runing up huge credit card debts) who will be taxed to death to pay for all this!

_________________
"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

I see tough times ahead as my emploment is sensitive to people deciding to cut thier utility bills.
My father in law is feeling very exposed because he invested the £80k spare cash from downsizing in 5 year bonds in one bank (I told him to split it!)
My bank has been taken over by the Spanish.
Luckily I have a mortgage deal pinned to the base rate and I can draw down more cash as required.

For 5 years I thought Guantanamo Bay should be closed and I was please that Obama and McCain wanted to see it shut. But now I want it to remain open to house all the senitors who voted that deal down!

_________________
Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Both me und MadDoc admit we never buy what we cannot afford.


But others do. W e all pay.

_________________
Nicht ganz im Lot!
Ich setze mich immer wieder in die Nesseln! Der Mad Doc ist mein Mann! Und ich benutzte seinen PC!

UND OUR SMILEYS? Smile ... und the the world smiles with you.
Smiley guy seen when you read
Fine me for Safe Speed
(& other good causes..)

Greatest love & Greatest Achievements Require Greatest Risk
But if you lose the driving plan - don't lose the COAST lesson.
Me?
Je ne regrette rien!

On balance, if a bank goes broke it's probably better to owe it money than have money invested in it.

_________________
Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Not quite.

Only the bad debts are being nationalised, the branch network and all the profitable bits are being sold off as a going concern.

Strangley enough -todays column in the Sun -Clarkson highlighted the attitude of the Irish government - "we'll compensate savers if A bank goes bust " - no need to pump funds in as no one is panicking to take money out . Who but the Irish could have de fused the situation so neatly

_________________
lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

It's easy to promise everyone a payment, if the money isn't yours that you are paying them with.
Since it joined the EU Ireland has received over £32 billion.
In our case, our contribution to the EU money coffers is higher.
It is a bit hard to get the true picture, but we give back about 4 times what we receive...

_________________
The world runs on oil, period. No other substance can compete when it comes to energy density, flexibility, ease of handling, ease of transportation. If oil didn’t exist we would have to invent it.”

56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing

Couldn't agree more, why do people need all this stuff anyway? It is good for us tight wads/sensible spenders if other people are squandering their money, we might as well be investing in companies that help them part with money they haven't got.

People are up to their necks in debt and don't save enough for their old age either, so we might see Credit Crunch II The Revenge when all the big spenders start hitting retirement age.

And which countries are suffering panic withdrawals /bank failures ? Brown could do that too ,since it's the taxpayers money he's using to prop up B & B and used to rescue Northern Rock .Certainly a lot cheaper to educate first than act later .(Getting confused now , is that banking or road safety I'm talking about )

_________________
lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

A friend of mine borrowed almost six times his income to buy a poxy "lifestyle" apartment last year that is now worth 30% less than he paid for it (essentially a box in a high-rise in the town centre that's 'hip' and 'cool') - I often wondered if I was in the wrong job, since some of these poxy-boxes were selling for well over half a million pounds and people were filling them up (no doubt with 6x sal - 0% dep, 125% LTV mortgages!)

It amazes me that there are people out there with absolutely no financial sense. Even worse that there were banks that lent it and I'm glad they have got their comeuppance. The correction in the housing market was badly needed. I think there are five very simple rules that if followed, lead to financial success WHATEVER income bracket you fall under:

General
1. If you see something you want, wait 4 weeks to see if you really want it.
2. Save every penny of disposable income at the end of the month.
3. Don't keep all your money in a current account.
4. If you can't afford it, DON'T BUY IT.
5. If you are looking to buy a house, divide your monthly NET income by 3. If the cost of the mortgage exceeds the value, you can't afford it.

I blame youth culture though for a lot of the problems! A lot of my friends say they spend about £150 a week on booze and nights out (I don't drink, except occasionally) - if you add that up over a lifetime it works out to a staggering £195,000 over 25 years (which is enough to cover the costs of a house!!!)

Sorry to resurrect an old point, but I (as mentioned on a very similar Sabre thread) have a large bond and a equally-sized mortgage with the Nationwide - and yes there is a good reason why.

1. Are the building societies at less risk at present than the banks, and why is that?

2. In the situation above, what would happen to me?

Yes.

They don't have to worry about their share price (since they don't have one) or paying out a dividend to shareholders. So they can concentrate on balancing the books. The problems with the HBOS had nothing to do with an actual problem with their cashflow, the merger was pushed by a drop in their share price.

A building Society would never be allowed to go bust, the FSA would force a merger as happened with the Chelsea and the Derbyshire recently (and have done many times in the past, just it rarely gets much media coverage).

In the 1990's there was a push by a small number of people to convert building societies to banks, until then a building society could only lend out money which they actually had (i.e savings and profit from mortgage interest). Most of those who remained building societies kept to that principle after the rules were relaxed.

It's no coincidence that the banks which have run into the biggest problems are converted building societies (Halifax, B&B, Northern Rock). It's easy to say "I told you so" but a lot of people saw this coming ten years ago. They had to take massive risks to grow and please the shareholders, this is coming back to bite them now.



I'll quote some internal communication, though I probably shouldn't.



So you could end up owing nothing or you could end up with 50k in your pocket (100k if it is a joint account) and still owing the whole amount of the mortgage (assuming the mortgage is over 50k/100k). You should contact the Nationwide to see if they have a policy in force.

But don't do anything rash, the rules are likely to change shortly anyway.

Your not alone.... I have been the sole breadwinner all my married life (23 years) and have done the same as you, only I still have two years left on my mortgage. I drive a 1993 Proton 1.3 which admittedly I bought from brand new (my brother sold em so I "got a deal") and it failed the MOT for the first time this year on a CV boot (who says buying brand new doesn't pay).

We have also gone without extravagant holidays.

If anyone has 45 mins to spare then have a watch of this vid..

Money as debt <-- Now you know what the scumbags have been up to.

_________________
The Box said "Windows XP or better" ... So I installed Ubuntu

Thanks for that!

What if you had, lets say £200k in the bank and a £500k mortgage.

Would you be credited 50 of your 200 against the mortgage, lose the 150, then asked to keep paying the mortgage balence of 450?

_________________
Fear is a weapon of mass distraction