Just heard on the news that Thomas Cook have said bookings are up by 2.5% on last year, bu this is with all their holidays. One thing that may put people off Turkey are those that go DIY, the cost of flights to Dalaman is very expensive this year

Stewart

never mind the credit crunch i dont wish to sell my house and i will work that extra sat every fortnight to save..
I am not cutting back on my holidays

im trying to sell mine and the housing market has gone dead here so i right pain grrr for people wanting to sell

I'm also trying to sell my house just now and we are starting to feel the credit crunch here,which is a nightmare for sellers and a nightmare for people trying to get mortgages etc

However,holidays are booked and paid for and spending money savings are coming along nicely.

I think it will be 2009 bookings that will be affected. Normally I book as soon as the brochure's come out, but with my other half working within the building industry things are decidedly shakey at the moment, so we can't risk commiting to anything until things look more secure. Hopefully we shall be OK for this year's booking, but I will be really fed up when that's been and gone and we have nothing else booked
Pam

There might be increase in bookings but some people might find they don't end up paying the balance and going on holiday if, for example, they come to the end of a fixed or reduced mortgage rate this year and can't find a good deal and their payments go up significantly. We won't know until next year I guess.

It won't affect my hols. In fact I'm having two this year where I normally only have one. I am lucky to have a very low mortgage having bought a small house in 1995 and have never borrowed on the equity or anything like that. Those who have borrowed to the hilt will perhaps get a shock at their increased payments as I mentioned above.

Besides which, if it did come to my payments, say doubling then I would simply get myself a part time job in a pub or shop and eat very cheap food. The holiday does not suffer unless I am in dire straits.

yes i agree sandc, we also have a small mortgage and i bought this house 15 years ago so got it very cheap back then, so my holidays wont be affected either and my fixed rate got 3 years left thank goodness as im only paying something like 4.5 %, but we are trying to sell with the thought of possibly moving to turkey but the way things are going think we in for a long wait even though my house is a victorian and and supposed to be sort after grrr. if we do decide to go for it need to do it before my youngest gets much older as shes at a good age to learn turkish so this really has come at a bad time for us, a few years more and i think she will have more difficulties with the language !!

If there is a credit crunch, which I suppose there is (but i don't trust newspapers) I think the 2009 holiday market is more likely to be the one affected, than this years. It seems to take a while for things to filter through to people. If house prices fall drastically, say 25% or more & people don't have the same level of equity in their homes, in the past it had a bad psychologial effect on some people, making them less likey to commit to unneccesary or luxury expenditure.

There is nothing, not even a credit crunch, that would stop me having my holidays. I may be sad, but holidays are a major priority for me and the reason I go to work every day.

We have a very cheap mortgage with only £3-4000 left to pay off so higher interest rates won't affect us and we have no other debts.

I would do without a lot of other things before I would give up my holidays.

luci

smc4761 wrote:

Just heard on the news that Thomas Cook have said bookings are up by 2.5% on last year, bu this is with all their holidays. One thing that may put people off Turkey are those that go DIY, the cost of flights to Dalaman is very expensive this year

Stewart

Could that not be because of the merger with Direct Holidays/Airtours.

Nothing on this earth would stop me having a holiday.

I couldn't give up my holiday(s). The last few years I've had a decent wage and we've been able to afford a city break and a 2 week holiday. I got made redundant last year and my new job pays a hell of a lot less but we're still on for Paris at the end of this month and a week in October.
The only time we've gone without a holiday is when we had our 3-week trip to China - it was once in a lifetime stuff, not cheap and we had to save up for ages.

I only have a small mortgage with 1 year left to pay, i have 4 children and always managed to
have a family holiday , now its only me and the old man, and as we both work we owe it to ourselves to have a holiday .
But i do feel for those that do have to think of either a roof over their heads or a holiday .

Lynne

Absolutely no way would I ever give up my holidays I am lucky that we own our property so no problem with mortgage rates etc, I do feel sorry for younger couples and families with mortgages though , must be very difficult for them.

The analysts keep focusing on how the credit crunch will affect people coming off fixed rate mortgages and first time buyers as the rates are forced up due to shortage of funding but... that's already happening and house prices are now falling due to laws of supply & demand, so whereas before a first time buyer would borrow say £120k at 5%, now they'll only need to borrow say £100k at 6%.. which ends up being roughly the same monthly payment. So i don't see the youngsters losing out in the long run, this is just what they needed, the return of affordable homes. (although those that have just bought may feel some pain.) Family's who have not over stretched themselves will be fine too....

The real people who will 'lose out' are those that have invested in property, withdrawn a large amount of equity from their home or are relying on selling there property to free up cash for retirement..

the credit crunch wont stop people taking holidays but not having any equity might

But the credit crunch isn't just affecting house prices - many people are having to tighten their belts due to an increase in mortgage repayments, plus the rise in general household bills. Fuel, gas, food - all these things are rising too. And now banks are being very wary of lending money, and credit card companies are terminating some people's accounts - or refusing applicatons from people they wouldn't have turned down before - it must have a knock-on effect on people's spending habits.

Maybe it's all justf hype in the press, and it isn't as bad as they like to make out then?

Strawberry

what credit crunch??? did you not listen to martin last week on the Jeremy vine show [radio 2]?.. interest rates are falling in the UK, [unfortunately that also means savers rates are falling], the main impact of recent financial problems affect those who, [and some think foolishly], have taken out mortgages more than the property is worth. The main increases in holiday cost this year lays in 2 courts, firstly the poor exchange rate of the pound [due mainly to low interest rates], and the drastic reduction in competition in the holiday market, with the mergers of Thomson/First Choice and Thos. Cook/Airtours in the UK we have gone from 5 main players to 3, also with the reorganisation of the air transport devisions of the companies involved, there has been a reduction in the number of flights..
MARKET FORCE = supply over demand when the demand is constant but supply is reduced PRICES WILL RISE there is nothing we as consumers can do but pay or not go.

my view of the situation

Brian [aka wizard]

ps i applied for a personal loan yesterday to get another car and it was approved by my bank within 10 minutes..

I would love to say "nothing will make me give up my holidays". We've been fortunate enough to take a holiday abroad almost every year since we've been married (27 years) apart from when my husband was involved in the year long miner's strike. That's because we never took out a huge mortgage, bought on credit or went into debt. We've both been lucky enough to hold down jobs (all be they low paid ones) and now that our sons are in their twenties and living off their own incomes we are better off than we've ever been

However, with the drastic rise in fuel bills and the low exchange rate with the Euro I am erring on the side of caution. Who knows there might come a time when I'll have to do without my holiday

Hopefully, as long as hubby and I are secure in our jobs and careful about what we spend we will enjoy our holidays for years to come. To be honest, lately I've done a couple of hols a year and I live for them.

Shirley

I agree with your sentiments, we can do nothing about fuel and supply increases this is a fact of life. I was always told to cut the suite to the cloth, perhaps we may be lucky, as we are not over fussy where and when we go. but we will have at least 3 holidays in a warmer climate than the UK this year,as in previous.

the things i have noticed most are the increase in heating fuel, and the fact that i now use £20 of petrol a week to go to and from work where as three years ago i only used £12 per week. but other cost are now less, our food bill for the 2 of us is about 25% less, not that we have not changed our shopping habits, one delivery Indian's/Chinese/Turkish/or whatever a week, meat from a Butcher and fresh SEASONAL veg from the farm shop, [all we get from the supermarket is dry goods,bread,milk, etc no ready meals]

BTW the loan was to get another car which is far cheaper on insurance [ group 7 instead of 14] that is diesel [45 mpg instead of 28 for the petrol car we have] and £80 for 6 month tax not £125.

MY suite now fits with the savings i have made on transport will cover a lot of the loan cost

Brian

Brian

The expression my Dad used was 'you cut your coat according to your cloth', which i guess amounts to the same thing. He is now 86 and never been in debt in his life (apart from a mortgage) despite not having earnt much. So I have tried to learn from him. I was in the fortunate position of having 3 hols last year, but that was unusual so the credit crunch may mean reverting to one or two, rather than giving them up altogether.

Re your comment on the loan, I applied for a O% credit card this week and was accepted straight away, I guess the financial institutions will still want to lend and make money out of people. They are not going to withdraw all forms of credit or they will have no business.

I also agree with your sentiments Shirley. I suspect it is young families that might suffer the most, holidaywise.

Doe