Have to agree with most of your sentiments Sanji and maybe you can put me right, but I have read somewhere on HT that when you pay by debit card for holidays etc you also get protection, not entirely sure but think I saw somewhere on here.

My folks never had too much both from working class background Dad a roofer and Mum a p/time factory worker, but had honest hardworking morals (don't mean to offend any one) which meant if you can't pay for it outright then you can't have it. We knew of neighbours buying stuff on the never never and it was not for Mum and Dad. It works for some folks - I personally cannot see that I would ever need one at all. It was pointed out to me before I went on holiday that I would not be able to pay for trips etc on my hols to Jamaica and would need a credit card or take cash. Well I took dollar bills and my debit card and low and behold they took my debit card.

My son, I am proud to say because I truly am, at 23 has his own bank account, a savings account a mini ISA and is NOT in the red and no credit card. He does have a small loan for his car which is being settled this year - yep he is his Mothers son but he looks after his finances well for a lad of that age which I think is brilliant.

Sorry folks think I am little

I could understand using a CC to pay everything well up front to get a good deal and then paying it off before holiday time (which is basically just owing the money to the card company rather the TO and being all square at the same point in time) but I'd never consider using credit for a holiday simply because I couldn't afford it. And to be using credit to buy this years holiday when by the sound of it last years still hasn't been paid for is daft. But there is one point that hasn't been covered, surely if the card company has cut your credit limit by 15% they might at least tell you before you embarass yourself!

Miss Pink

You do get some protection using a Visa debit card, unlike credit cards they aren't obliged to provide it under UK law but the Visa franchise membership rules say the card issuer has to meet a certain standard of cover, but it may not be as wide reaching as what you get with a credit card.

which meant if you can't pay for it outright then you can't have it

My parents said exactly the same but at the end of the day they didnt have the option of using a CC like we have today . Very different times where I believe , correct me if i'm wrong ,the only way you could get credit was from one of those men that knocked on the door and would lend you money or sell you a 3 piece suite for an outragous sum of interest . I wonder how many of our parents if they were being honest and if we are still lucky enough to have them envy the fact that we can use a bit of credit and have a nice holiday . I've heard exactly that come from many mouths of their generation. My MIL for one .She's forever telling us about how they struggled and the crappy holidays they used to have and how it would of been lovely IF . She has her own CC now and i'm sure there is a little unpaid balance on there but quite frankly good luck to her if she wants to have a little spend . She owns her own home and we all know there is plenty money in that to pay off any small debt when she's gone .

I dont think people should be frightened of using a credit card as long as they are disiplined and cc savy . I carry very little cash and use mine for absolutely everything . Petrol , supermarket (even if it's £3). I earn myself enough cashback with my american express and Tesco cards to have 2x 3 night city breaks each year . My bill gets paid as soon as it hits the mat each month and I never pay interest on that . My holiday account is "sensibly controlled " and paid at a low interest rate . We also have a fair chunck going into Cash/shares ISA's each month so should I need to it can be paid in full.

We all have very different way's of managing our finances and cashflow as well . I'm sure many of us have been there and got the t shirt at some point in ours lives as far as credit card debt goes but that's how we wise up and learn . I don't think i'd be happy if any of my lads were to go and rack up a hefty CC debt but I would understand how easy it's done and hope they learn from it .

There are many many people out there that equally think "life's too Bloody Short" . That's not for me but i'm certainly somewhere in the middle .
Is having a holiday on credit any different to someone that goes down to the nearest car showrom and signs up to pay monthly for a car that in fact they never finish paying for . At the end of 3 years you still owe 5K or sign here again sir and you can have another new one .

For me you can keep the car .I'll carry on driving my 10 year old Astra . Not's not my priority but it will be someone elses . I do though like my holidays and that's my weakness . So what

lyn

Lost my parents some years back now, so no cannot answer for them of course, can only say tell you what was told to me through growing up and even in Adult years. Would my parents liked a holiday better than camping, caravaning or staying in chalets, probably would they have liked to owe money to get it, I am not sure they would, but as I say can't answer for them. I am not saying credit cards are wrong at all - just saying not right for me.

As for holidays, just got back from one (first one in 6 years) and guess what just booked another for August, so yep I like em too

Good for you Pinky . Thats more like it

Of course they enjoyed their holidays and let's be honest there wern't the jet setting opportunities available to them that we have now . No Easyjet then either. They didnt know any differently and nor did most of us as children . I always enjoyed our holiday camp at camber sands holidays where my dad would sit in the bar all day and my mum in the TV room or playing bingo . I still think they are probably looking down in envy at you now Pinky and i'm sure at the same time they are proud that's it's all paid for .

I still think they are probably looking down in envy at you now Pinky and i'm sure at the same time they are proud that's it's all paid for

Well I feel sure that they are glad that I am finally having a good time - Whilst I know you should not have too many regrets - there is one which I think of often, Mum always wanted to go to Hawaii - of course they never had the funds, so it never happened, wished I could have taken her, I picture her on a beach with a silly hat on, and Dad moaning cos it was too hot and saying he liked it better in cornwall

Thats the thing though isnt it Pinky . To our parents these really were just dreams but now should we wish ,we can make those dreams come true .

picture her on a beach with a silly hat on, and Dad moaning cos it was too hot and saying he liked it better in cornwall

Your Dad sounds just like my FIL as I remeber him . My dads not around now either but later in life when my mum eventually let him spend a little of their savings he found "saga" . He was 77 when he first came on holiday with us "abroad" and then 80 when he took his first Saga holiday alone . He absolutely loved it . went off to spain every year , never afraid to explore and use the buses alone . The year he died at 85 he was really down about not being able to go . My mum never wanted to go but I so wish he hadnt left it so late to spend and enjoy a few more .

Thanks to everyone who posted there own feelings, and stories

I have a good credit rating, and last year got one of the credit card cheques, which gave me 14 months free interest, most years I got some sort of free interset deal, and always took them up

last years holiday came to around £900, including uk flight, and overnight in uk hotels, £1500 money changed to euros, so I had up to 18 months to clear this debt of £2400, in 8 months I had cleared the balance

The end result of what they have done to me, will soon be felt by the credit card company, as in the next few months I move towards a debt plan, and should be debt free in 5 years

I guess they cant have it both ways, account now in process of being closed, and reduced payments, would even condsider using card for next years holiday, will have to pay this up over the next 12 months

One thing you didn't mention was any initial deposit. Did you pay that by the same card and what happened when you couldn't pay the balance? Seems very unfair that you should lose that and I could see grounds for a claim against the card company if you had used them for the deposit.

Lyn, stop it, you're making me feel ancient.

I carry very little cash and use mine for absolutely everything . Petrol , supermarket (even if it's £3).

Oh I do so "hate" being behind people like you, I feel like giving you the bluddy 3 quid out of my purse, just to get rid of you.
I don't honestly think it would make any difference if CC's were available to our parents, I think the mindset of previous generations would still be the same.
You can dress it up as credit cards, gold cards, diamond cards or whatever, but to them they would still see it for what it is"¦.debt"¦and from the point of borrowing until you pay the statement, you are in debt.

I can't speak for everyone, but both my parents were born in 1916 and they saw a lot of changes in the UK before they died at 71 and 86 years old, they both came from big families. My dad one of 13 and my mother one of 11, so there were a lot of us, and I can't remember any of them "accepting" debt like it is today.
I can remember when Alan Whicker used to come on the TV, I think in the late 1960's advertising Barclaycard and my dad used to say " you can shove that up your I'll keep my money in my pocket".

My parents borrowed money, but it was for what they considered necessities, they had credit from a local firm called "Joseph Peck" in Rotherham, who sold everything from household furniture to clothes, and one of their agents would come every week for the payments, but my mother wouldn't have that, she used to go to Rotherham on either Friday or Saturday morning and pay in the shop, I think she didn't like the idea of the neighbours knowing, maybe there was some pride involved.??????

My mother seemed to spend years paying for clothes for the 3 of us, clothes were part of our Xmas present, then it was tradition to send your kids out in new clothes on Whit Sunday, and you didn't want to be the only one on the street on Whit Sunday without new clothes"¦"¦.so, my mother would get clothes for Xmas and pay for them before Whit Sunday and then pay for the Whit Sunday clothes before September, so that she could get school uniforms and it went around and around for years.
Sometimes at Xmas we got no new clothes because for whatever reason she hadn't paid for the school uniforms and the point of all this, is that it wasn't acceptable to get further debt until you'd paid one lot off"¦"¦.If you'd paid one lot of debt off and got into debt the next week, they could live with that.

I honestly don't think you would change what was instilled into the heads of previous generations, and I suppose I'm in the middle of two very conflicting mindsets when I look at my parents and I look at my kids attitude towards credit.

Sanji

you will hate me for this... but i use my cash back credit card for almost all my purchases, then pay the balance in full 3 days before the due date, this ensures my cash is in my bank earning interest for the month [not someone else's] and i get my cashback in full,

wiz

[The end result of what they have done to me, will soon be felt by the credit card company, as in the next few months I move towards a debt plan, and should be debt free in 5 years

I'm not sure that it's the credit card company that has done this to you, surely you made the choice of using one and incurring costs on it

You get in the queue behind me Brian with your £3 purchase .

I often think when I put my CC in the chip and pin machine for my little purchase that the people behind me must think i'm so skint to be paying that way but it's not so . it's actually because I'm so tight and manage my money better by using card for everything . If i was to draw out £50 in cash it would be all gone the next morning .

I can remember when Alan Whicker used to come on the TV, I think in the late 1960's advertising Barclaycard and my dad used to say " you can shove that up your I'll keep my money in my pocket".

.Brilliant

quite a turn around in the generation thing I suppose because it's actually Cash that scares me more .

And believe me shirley I'm Ancient too.

I have a good credit rating, and last year got one of the credit card cheques, which gave me 14 months free interest, most years I got some sort of free interset deal, and always took them up

This is where you have to start being careful joe because if you already have a balance on that card or make any purchases after that % deal you will be stung in interest .
All your payments will go towards paying the % debt first .

You probably already know this and I dont want it to sound like I'm lecturing which isnt my intention .I just hate seeing people hood winked and like to help if i can . let's say you wrote one of those CC cheques out for £1000 then did another £1000 in shopping that you intended to pay off when the bill came . You pay them the £1000 as intended before the payment due date leaving your holiday debt on there . Unfortunately that's it you've repaid your % deal and now and you will be paying the normal interest rate again which could be nearer 20% APR or maybe more . It's also possible that those cheques are classed as a Cash transaction that incurr an even higher rate of interest.

It's actually very naughty of them and where critism of card companies is due . They allow you to make out a cheque to your own bank account thus allowing you not only to put the cost of your holiday on there but your spending money too .and then I suppose we might as well have a bit more too so lets write out a cheque for 10k and put it in the bank.

If you use those cheques make sure the account is clear before you write it and dont make any further normal purchases until it's paid unless it's another deal exactly the same . Use another card for those .

lyn

My youngest son, I'm going to call him Pedro in here, he's living and working in Australia, he's earning obscene amounts of money, he lives in Sydney, he buys designer clothes, his clothes are collected, washed and pressed by a woman, he goes to Bondi beach, he thinks nothing of flying to the Gold Coast and Melbourne, he's being head hunted by other companies and everything is honky dory and perfecto.

Roll back to 10/11 years ago, whilst at university, he got himself into a quagmire of debt.
He was young, foolish, irresponsible, reckless and an idiot, you name it because I've called him far worse than this"¦I think every bank and CC company in the Uk had offered him loans because he had a wallet full of cards, which is why I hate them with vengeance because it's totally wrong when they knew he was a student with no income and already racking up a government student loan debt, but they said " don't worry Pedro, just borrow X amount and when you graduate and are earning a fantastic wage, you can pay it off"
The temptation was too great and Pedro borrowed a bit here and a bit there, for food, beer and he's always been a bit of a designer clothes freak, and in the end the "bit here and there" all mounted up and eventually he was on a vicious roundabout borrowing from one CC to pay the other.

The first we knew about it was when the first demand letter fell through our letterbox, then the next, then the next and at first we bailed him out for the small amounts, then we got the big boys letters.
You cannot image how my OH reacted to this, it nearly caused a divorce, he was angry at Pedro, but at the same time disappointed that he as a parent and coming from a banker had failed, neither of us had ever had a debt letter, so we drove down to Lincoln both spitting fire and we found him laid in bed in an attic room, he'd just moved out of the halls of residence and was living in some poo hole house with 3 other people.

The shock of what we saw stopped us both dead in our tracks, he was thin and pale and at first I thought "oh my god, he's a junkie". (which BTW he wasn't)
My lad has always had a lovely thick head of hair, but for months he'd laid in bed worrying about how he was going to get these people off his back and trying to keep it a secret from us, and what his dad would do when he did find out, and because of all this worrying night and day, he started losing his lovely hair and in the end it all fell out.

My OH said, "right, I don't care what you're supposed to be doing or where you're supposed to be, but get all the debts/cards/letters together and get in the car, we're going home to sort this out," and he did, we got it all put under one company and came to an agreement to slash the interest, and it took Pedro 5 years to pay it all back. It was hard, but my philosophy is that he'd enjoyed spending it, so he needed to learn a hard lesson and he was going to pay it off, and he was threatened by his dad that he'd better not default on this, or else.!
I can still see my OH as though it was yesterday stood over the dinning room table cutting up all these CC's. They'd given him credit based on the credit rating of our address and we had to write/pay to the credit rating companies to get him removed from this address.

So, I hate banks/CC companies for enticing him to borrow when they knew he was young/foolish, had no self disciplined and also had no income, but most of all I hate them because my lad has lost his hair at such a young age.
What's the big deal about that you might ask?, well until you lose all your hair as a young man, you'll never know how it affects your personality and confidence, and choosing to shave your head and knowing that you can chose to let it grow back, is not the same as looking in the mirror every morning and seeing hair disappear, and knowing that for the rest of your life you look like you've had a dose of chemotherapy.

It did grow back in places, but it was sparse and there were still bald patches, and when he did start earning a good salary, he spent £1,000's on treatments at £800 a time to get his hair back"¦all wasted money and now he just shaves all his head.
He was lucky that he had a parent who is absolutely cr@p at DIY, but he has a brilliant financial brain, who let his financial brain overtake the disappointment/anger he was feeling inside, he was lucky because although it was bad enough, we sorted it before (for some people who continue to hope it will magically go away) it gets to the point where it's a dark tunnel with no way out"¦."¦how many others are not so lucky and do these people when they are collecting their bonuses, who are so keen to lend money because they are target driven ..do they care.?

IMO: there should be a prison sentence for those who issue CC's and lend money to those who they know are immature/not earning and struggling/unable to pay it back"¦"¦they make it so easy that it takes seconds to borrow it, but years and misery to pay it back.
There are some material things that are a luxury, including taking a holiday, but today folks think it's a god given right, even if that means getting into debt.
I would say to anybody struggling with debt"¦you can't run away from it forever and it's not going to go away, so go and seek impartial professional advice because at the end of the day whether they offer fantastic deals or not, banks/CC companies are not a charity, they are there to make money out of you.

Sanji

Excellent post once again sanji. I hope what 'pedro' and your family went through will serve as a warning to anyone who thinks getting credit is a breeze. Yes, it probably is but having the means to pay it back is another thing. Some might say, it's your own responsibility to pay back a loan if you sign up for one. Well yes, this is true but when you're talking about young, impressionable students it's a different matter. The best way to stop them getting into debt is to stop offering the credit willy, nilly!

Thanks Shirley
I did have reservations about posting personal information, but when I had wrote that "I hate CC's with vengeance" it's so open-ended and subject to being "nick-picked", so for once I thought I had to explain why.

You never stop being a parent and your kids never stop being your kids, even when they are grown men, but I wouldn't want to go back to that time for all the tea in China, it nearly caused a divorce, gave us both a lot of sleepless nights, and it put plenty of wrinkles on my face and grey hairs on my head.

Sanji

I also hate credit cards, I can see their point for booking travel, but to use in everyday situations? No thanks! I was offered one last week and it took me two second to say my point, NO THANK YOU. Spend money you don't have? No thanks!! I have my own reasons for having my opinion, but it's not something I am doing to discuss.

I'm so glad you shared Pedro's story with us Shirley and I also know how proud you are of him today

Yes sometimes we have to make a few mistakes in life to be able to learn from them but that was a hard one to make .

If that story can help just one person reading then it was a story that needed to be told and I can fully understand your hatred for them .

lyn x