Wednesday 5th of August 2009
Britons struggling to keep their finances on an even keel in the economic storm have expressed their anger at the lack of support offered by their banks.
Speaking to the Times, 67-year-old Simon Mountford explained that his troubles started with the death of his wife, whom he had given up his job to care for as she battled with multiple sclerosis.
Upon her death, the money that Mr Mountford had received as her carer was withdrawn and he was unable to support himself without an income.
Then, as he fell back on credit cards to cover daily living costs, Barclays announced that they would be raising his repayment interest rates from 17 per cent to 25 per cent and refused to lower them until he began repaying more debt.
"I could not pay more than the minimum, so I was kept on a higher rate, increasing the debt further," he claimed.
Thankfully, Mr Mountford has now entered into a debt management plan to settle his obligations to the bank, but the retiree is still angry that the bank made it so "tantalisingly easy" for him to fall into difficulty.
Elsewhere, the Council of Mortgage Lenders has recently reported that currently, a home is being repossessed every ten minutes in the UK.
Written by Mark Waterman
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