Much will have more

It’s no surprise that creditors, or any other business, are always trying to increase profit margins. But, of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t do our little bit to keep those profit margins down, and perhaps prevent us from being ripped off so much in the process.

An article in the Guardian this weekend highlights the growing trend for businesses to use 0870 (or similar) numbers for customer contacts. These numbers are commonly known as “National Rate” numbers – i.e. you pay a standard rate wherever you are calling from. It’s misleading, in that the rate you pay isn’t necessarily the “National Rate”, but also because of the way they are set up, the creditors are making profits on each call of several pence per minute, per call.

The fight back is being led by this website. You are able to search for alternate numbers that don’t put extra money into the creditor's pocket. A good idea.

Not Enough Debt

No sooner was the ink on the virtual parchment dry than we became aware of this little nugget in recent press. It seems that really, debt problems are a figment of our imagination. So maybe it’s time to wind up this website already…

…Not. Of course, it’s telling that all this Orwellian doublethink is coming from an Investment Bank. People are rightfully wary about taking financial advice from gamblers – “put it all on lucky 7” – we think not. But that’s what this crowd essentially are. Admittedly, they have bigger expense accounts and sharper suits. But that’s about all.

But seriously for a moment, just whom are they talking about? They can’t be talking about any of our clients that’s for sure. I guess the message may be that if you’re able to invest money with Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, then you could afford a little more exposure to debt. And who are we to argue with that?

(Incidentally, we could not find the actual report and press release on the DKB website. Anyone who does and lets us know wins an Easter Egg)

Why?

In creating this weblog, we decided that there was a gap that we needed to fill. We've looked - there's nothing out there that provides a unified source of information for matters related to debt and credit matters (pertinent to England and Wales) in a public format. And certainly not one from the perspective of debtors and money advisers. And further, one that does not 'toe the line' of any one organization or interested party. The creators of this weblog work for all organizations within the debt advice sphere - Advice UK, Citizens Advice, Local Authority Welfare Rights units and similar organizations. But at the same time, they are not unafraid to 'say what they really think' about important matters and take a subjective (or ‘partial’ as opposed to ‘impartial’) standpoint where one needs to be advocated. We will not praise political parties or court the government simply because they advocate half-measures which might appear to be progressive.

That's not to say we don't have principles, that we don't stand for things: we believe in the profound transformation of society. This will become apparent. But all too often, these beliefs are inhibited by our employer’s policies of 'impartiality' and commitment to a 'responsible' development of social policy. We don’t want to spend the rest of our lives, and the foreseeable future merely ‘inching forward’ to a distant goal. We want it now.

A principle for our times?

Money advisers will be familiar with Mr Micawber’s principle, even if they are unfamiliar with the work of Charles Dickens, and the book from which the character, Mr Wilkins Micawber, quotes this line David Copperfield.

Why? Because it’s what they are spend most of their time doing: drawing up budgets from client’s income and expenditure and trying to get them to balance, in order to help the client live in line with the ‘Micawber Principle’.

However, the Wikipedia definition of Mr Micawber’s phrase is problematic: if the avoidance of debt is the key to long term happiness, then one would assume that those without debt are happy. Yet in the society we live in, this is not proven. Any money adviser will tell you that whilst it is certainly true that the most common reasons for debt are beyond the control of the individual debtor (unemployment, death, illness, relationship breakdown), we live in a society that thrives on a conceit of alienation: that the use of credit to buy consumer goods is encouraged, praiseworthy, necessary, even almost a civic duty; but that the flipside – living beyond one’s means, is unacceptable. And consumerism does not (can not and will not) bring real happiness. Debtor’s Gaol may well be long gone, but creditors today refer to debtors whose accounts are in arrears as exhibiting “delinquency”. Seriously.

The ‘Micawber Principle’ is still with us, and always will be as long as the concepts of credit and debt persist. Let’s hasten their end!