BBC: Sharp increase in UK bankruptcies and reposessions (!!!)

[Taxloss]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4676636.stm

Nearly 70,000 people became insolvent in 2005, the highest since records began, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has said.

There were a record 20,461 insolvencies in England & Wales during the final quarter of 2005, a 57% annual rise.

...

At the same time, the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) revealed that home repossession orders also rose sharply in the final quarter of 2005.

The figures show the total number of homeowners being taken to court during the final three months of 2005 by lenders pursuing mortgage debt rose 50% year on year to 31,018.

-----

(Also buried on this Friday, the Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that actual repossessions, not just orders, are up 70%!!!)

(A bit of analysis from me here.)

[cliss]

1. This is so bad.

If things go badly for a family, they will sit down at the kitchen table and go over their finances. They realize they can't afford to keep the house they are living in .

In desperation, they will sell the house and try to recoup whatever they can. In other words, they try to beat foreclosure because when that happens, I think they get nothing.

Now, this article talks about home repossessions. That must be when you've bit the dust.

[Taxloss]

2. Repossession is when you lose your home, you're kicked out.

The bank takes it.

[maddezmom]

3. kick

[lovuian]

4. Bankruptcy, insolvency jump in Britain

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=90a493d2ba80357d

The number of people filing as insolvent in Britain jumped 57 percent in the last quarter of 2005, government records show.

Of the more than 20,500 people declared insolvent in the final three months of the year, 13,500 filed for bankruptcy, while the rest filed for Individual Voluntary Arrangements in an attempt to sort out their debt issues, the Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

We see pensioners, young people -- all across the board, said Peter Tutton, of the Citizens Advice Bureau
more...
Pretty soon they will be wanting go build Debtors Prisons again!!!

[NYC]

5. Another excerpt, but this article

doesn't explain why.

...He said that 10 years ago, people with debt problems had trouble paying the rent or taxes, while today the debt is from credit cards or personal loans...

[lovuian]

6. Credit cards are just the Money lenders in Dickens time

we are reliving these times...
Where the poor are trapped under tremendous debt and can never get free...
It makes for a very sad world!!! Britain did this when it was head of the Empire... you could see its power was dissipating due to corruption!!!

US watch out...

[NYC]

7. It's happening here, too.

I wish we could know truly how many people are living close to the edge of financial ruin. I suspect it may be much higher than it appears.

[lovuian]

8. I think the oil crisis is going to be the trigger that will do it...

Its all a set up!!!

[SoCalDem]

10. Americans owe more than half a trillion dollars in credit card debt. ...

What's So Bad About Credit Card Debt?
MSNBC - Feb 1, 2006
Is credit card debt really such a big problem? Unfortunately, it is. Americans owe more than half a trillion dollars in credit card debt. ...
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11128843/

[NYC]

11. Division:

$500,000,000,000 divided by 300,000,000 people = 3/5 of $5000 each = $1,667 debt per person? (It's late.)

If we assume that half the population = infants, children, and people who just don't use credit cards, that would be $3,334 per person debt.

That doesn't sound so bad, offhand. On the other hand, why should so many people be in debt.

[SoCalDem]

9. We have not used a credit card since August, and it feels wonderful

We decided to go cash-only, paid the ones we had, off, and cancelled and cut.. Of course we are beseiged daily with offers..which we promptly shred:)