How is the credit crunch affecting you?

[old.user4556]

Exactly Trem, £45 or so a month for the full whack (more if you want HD) - for fucking tele?

I agree, it's insane. Then again I can't compare everyone to me; I do go outside the house.

Edit: and Trem, I was expecting your reply to be protesting that you shall continue to get false nails and spray tans

 

[Wazzerphuk]

You must have a shite CV. Word template?

No, my CV is very good. As part of my job the last few years has been looking over other people's CVs so I've literally dozens. Mine's up there with the best or better than the best. There's just a LOT of competition for jobs, particularly in London since the unemployment rate around here has gone up by ~250k in the last year.

 

[Uara]

Well in the company I work in, 4 people were made redundant last week (there was only about 10 of us to begin with so now down to 6). Personally I havent been hit yet.

 

[TheBinarySurfer]

I was fortunate enough to have a change of career stream (same job type, different area) a few weeks before serious problems hit my old company.

Now happily employed in a company that does Headhunting for the Accountancy sector (unsuprisingly, i have jobs for tax and business insolvency positions coming out of my ears).

Money wise, i'm expecting Gordon the wise to give us a Tax hike to balance out the interest rate cuts that the bank will probably throw out after Xmas to boost spending.

 

[Furr]

On Monday we should find out how much the government is going to borrow and how much our taxes will be going up a few years down the line. Apparently the tax hike will probably be huge.

 

[WPKenny]

It's all just a self fulfilling prophecy created by the media.

House prices get stupidly high so those wanting to buy them have to save their pennies.

Those that were silly with their money and over stretched get their house repossessed so "repossessions are up! economy struggling!" becomes the headline.
It affects global stock markets because people panic.

Large corporations don't want to get fucked so ahead of time start shedding jobs like it's going out of fashion. Hence unemployment rises and people have less money to spend to the retail industry reports profits are down.

All of it is fuelled by the media. The money's not disappearing, someone's making money out of it, it's just being shifted from one place to another.

It's like the whole house price thing. House prices will ALWAYS go up. There will be a few dips now and then but unless you're only living in a place for a year or two why should those fluctuations matter to you? In 5 years time house prices will recover and everyone will be like "huh? recession? Nah that was just people being silly. Everything's fine now."

It IS shitty how it's affected people and businesses negatively but things will pick up in time.

 

[Belgerath]

Until Friday it didn't affect me at all,

Sadly at that point working for CITI group as a contractor was a bad day, pretty much every contractor in the company world wide about 75000 in all all got given our notice... myself included.

O well shit happens just need to find a new job

 

[Chilly]

Sadly thats the reality of being a contractor. You get better hourly rates in compensation for job insecurity Unfortunately that works perfectly in a growing market and poorly in a shrinking one where many such sacked contractors suddenly need work.

I've not had a recruiter call to offer me a position for months, used to get them every few weeks give or take.

 

[Belgerath]

I knew it was comming so ive been saving for a bit and also i have PPI on my mortgage and loan so no biggie, just gonna be weird going from well a pretty good wage 2bh to next to nothing.

Have an interview lined up next week though so fingers crossed

 

[pcg79]

No, my CV is very good. As part of my job the last few years has been looking over other people's CVs so I've literally dozens. Mine's up there with the best or better than the best. There's just a LOT of competition for jobs, particularly in London since the unemployment rate around here has gone up by ~250k in the last year.

what kind of stuff are you looking for, out of itnerest?

and credit crunch? well hopefully my job should be secure although two friends lost theirs (and subsequently found new ones). ive just graduated so i have little in savings and investments - gonna whack down loads of money into the market shortly.

 

[Kryten]

I knew it was comming so ive been saving for a bit and also i have PPI on my mortgage and loan so no biggie, just gonna be weird going from well a pretty good wage 2bh to next to nothing.

Have an interview lined up next week though so fingers crossed

PPI, the biggest scam insurance available - even the best ones are barely legal. With the legal protection consumers have anyway, there's very little reason that PPI should be sold unless the customer knows something is going to happen.
I particularly hate it after seeing 4 people diagnosed of cancer and unable to work for 6 weeks to 3 months told "it's not a good enough reason"

 

[pcg79]

It's like the whole house price thing. House prices will ALWAYS go up.

nay - look at japan. stagnant prices for over 10 years.
this pdf shows a property price index for 6 main cities in japan. the circle line is commercial property, the squares is residential and the triangles is industrial.

the peak there in the early 90s was the top of the economic bubble. but basically, prices are flat for over a decade. the same could happen here...

 

[russell]

So far it has just made me really anxious. Economic issues didnt affect us when we were a two income house. But since having the kiddlies and being reduced to one income it scares me to death. I have stopped watching the news!

You may already know that I am back at Uni trying to secure a better future for us by qualifying as a primary teacher whilst my twins are still at home (So I am not sitting on my back side whilst Hubby bears the financial burden) When they start school in September I will have a term to settle them in and then hopefully I will able to work fulltime.

Over the last 7 years all our savings have been drained,(tho I have always worked little jobs around the kids) our ISA's and shares cashed in and so we have no back up and a pretty hefty mortgage and monthly outgoings. Hubby's job is fairly secure, I hope but he has to do alot of home jobs to keep us a- float.

My biggest fear at the moment is my monthly credit card bill and that our mortgage is up in May and we have been fixed for 5 years. Dreading it. * buries head back in the sand*

 

[old.user4556]

You might be best to get advice as soon as possible.

 

[russell]

I know I get my 'money matters' email each week and have booked to see my financial advisor after Christmas.

 

[Ch3tan]

I know I get my 'money matters' email each week and have booked to see my financial advisor after Christmas.

Do it before xmas.

It scares me having worked in retail for the past 11 years just how much people put xmas before other matters. People in this country cannot seem to grasp that xmas does not equal putting yourself in debt and spending beyond your means.

 

[MYstIC G]

So far, no changes for myself. *keeps fingers crossed*

This is mostly due to the fact that my mum's situation is frankly in shit order. Everything was about to go tits up as her fixed mortgage was ending (Northern Rock!!!) but now the interest rate drop has helped her to keep treading water, i.e. her borrowings are reducing very very very slowly (mortgage, credit cards, etc).

From our businesses point of view, we've had our usual pre-Christmas blow out. For us it is unfortunately a time where each year we have to start the process of issuing files to our solicitors for everyone that's outside our credit terms (30 days). This isn't a factor of the credit crunch but simply has to be done because otherwise we don't get paid anything from now until the end of Jan / beginning of Feb.

The credit crunch has however influenced our decision that from the start of next year our credit terms will be totally inflexible. Where once we were generally very lenient it's apparent to us now that the current climate is exposing us to greater risk. It would be all too easy now for us to get hit with a dry spell (in terms of new work) and if that coincided with us not having our fees paid into the bank it could cause big headaches as now is not the time to ask a banker to let you have an overdraft!

Still holding out hope that Woolies won't go down the toilet just yet. I have a good laugh there and if all my friends there that are full time lose there jobs it'll cause a lot of good friends some serious hardship. So, if you really fancy some pic 'n' mix, go get it!

 

[lecter]

For me I'm relatively unaffected and have decent job security because my area of business is in double digit (10%+) growth within a large organisation that is neither growing nor shrinking.

The company is however tightening its belts and all non-client related travel is stopped. Which ironically is a benefit for me as I get to spend more time at home.

I'm not in debt or do I have large assets. Therefore the shrinking in global markets/house prices etc is of great benefit to myself.

The one thing I have done is learn a lot more about the financial markets and investments because of this whole crisis.

 

[Furr]

Woooo we got a 2.5% VAT tax cut.. which is probably not going to do anything. Although if you think you might be earning 150k+ in a couple years now is the time for emigration research since income tax for high earners is going to go up... Also N.I will go up and VAT could go over 17.5% to 19% when it goes back up.

So from what I can gather, the government is about to spend a shit load of cash on the hope the economy will go back to growth by the end of 2009, then they are going to massively increase taxes on high earners, which by their own admission will only raise a very marginal amount of extra income, it will definitely scare high earners away and companies that are still here will reduce their costs by moving high end jobs other countries. Also! the rest of the country is going to be saddled with higher taxes, Oh! and if the government is wrong with its guesswork we are all screwed, even more! Time to abandon ship? India and China sound good right about now, think I'll order a Mandarin and Hindi language CD from Amazon.

 

[russell]

Do it before xmas.

It scares me having worked in retail for the past 11 years just how much people put xmas before other matters. People in this country cannot seem to grasp that xmas does not equal putting yourself in debt and spending beyond your means.

Awww thanks for your advice. I save for Christmas in a separate account so that does not affect me. Sure its not worth shopping around for a new mortgage deal until a couple of months before it is up?

 

[old.user4556]

That depends on your mortgage just now, it might have a redemption penalty. Additionally, a lot of new mortgages have silly product fees like £1000 and such, so just to change to something with a better rate may be very costly at least in the short term. Additionally, the LTV (loan to value) on good rates is quite low just now so what you're borrowing will need to be that percentage value of the property.

However, only take financial advice from someone qualifed to give it.

I'm not qualified. Don't listen to me. Ever.

 

[russell]

ok

 

[Marc]

Can you see big businesses like the supermarkets passing on the VAT cut to customers? No, neither can I. Its just more profit for them. On the flip side, it would mean more profit for smaller businesses which is a good thing, provided they can get the work in the first place, ie, the construction industry.

 

[nath]

Presumably the VAT cut means the items that are charged with VAT will be slightly cheaper. They'd have to raise the pre-VAT price to not pass on the cut and that would be noticeable as you can often see the pre-VAT prices on things.

 

[Tom]

So after today we now have a huge gamble by a Labour government that the economy will turn around by late next year. If that happens, maybe, just maybe they'll win the next election.

If however it fails, it'll be a Tory chancellor reading the following budget, and having to deal with the years of massive public spending cuts and tax hikes to fix what Labour left behind.

 

[Bugz]

Can you see big businesses like the supermarkets passing on the VAT cut to customers? No, neither can I. Its just more profit for them. On the flip side, it would mean more profit for smaller businesses which is a good thing, provided they can get the work in the first place, ie, the construction industry.

Food is zero rate VAT.

 

[Marc]

Food is zero rate VAT.

Not all food and unless i am mistaken, supermarkets only sell food? I was using it as an example

 

[Marc]

Presumably the VAT cut means the items that are charged with VAT will be slightly cheaper. They'd have to raise the pre-VAT price to not pass on the cut and that would be noticeable as you can often see the pre-VAT prices on things.

In theory yes, but..

Lets say a supermarket sells cleaning materials (for the sake of Bugz) at £1. They can still sell it at £1 and due to the VAT cut, make more profit. The shopper will get no benefit.

 

[Bugz]

Why wouldn't supermarkets pass the VAT-reduction on?

If one goes against it - the others will take its share of the market - if all go against it together - it'd be illegal.

 

[rynnor]

On the flip side, it would mean more profit for smaller businesses which is a good thing, provided they can get the work in the first place, ie, the construction industry.

The construction industry pay practically nil vat - its mostly paid in retail and services.