"Kindly machine-gun the choir!"

[chaletian]

I had a letter today from my bank. Well, not today, obviously. It's Sunday. It came on Thursday, I think, but I didn't get around to opening it till today. I get quite a lot of unexpected post from my bank, which always worries me, because I think I've got into banking trouble (even when I know perfectly well that there's nothing wrong with my account).

But anyway, my post today was offering me a £12,500 loan. This loan is, apparently, "ready and waiting just for [me]", because I am "a loyal customer who handles their account particularly well". The bank has "arranged everything": "all it takes is one phone call". They have been at particular pains to point out how easy it would be for me to get this £12,500 loan. How straightforward it would be.

I think this is absolutely appalling. How cavalier are they, to offer this sort of thing to any passing customer? I am *dreadful* with money. I mean, I'm not too bad these days. I have a regular income, which helps, and I budget regularly, and I tend to know exactly how much money I have in my bank account. But I still sometimes make stupid financial decisions, and in the past I have been absolutely unreliable, and frankly it's a miracle I managed to escape my late teens/early twenties without a CCJ. Offers like this make me feel quite threatened, really, because (after the annoyance of more junk mail) my first reaction is, ooh, lovely money, before the voice of reason takes over, but that reaction scares me a lot, because I don't want to be as crap with money as I used to be. Wah. I hate money.

Comments

[nzraya.livejournal.com]

I find that totally irresponsible on their part. Unfortunately it's more and more common these days -- and really no different from all those "free" credit card offers that come in the mail, right? Which are also irresponsible, if less obviously so -- and part and parcel of the glorious unfettered capitalism we increasingly enjoy. The problem is that capitalism treats all "products" and "customers" as equal, and attempts to sell more and more of the former to the latter regardless of whether or not that's actually appropriate. (Am reminded of New Zealand in 1992, when they privatised the electricity board, which promptly tried to sell more of its "product" to its "customers" by running ads telling people to use more electricity -- the most environmentally irresponsible campaign ever, and of course it resutled in massive power cuts all over the country as people tried to actually take them up on it.) Banks shouldn't think of their "product" in the same terms as other "products," esp. because when it comes right down to it that's other people's money they're trying to tempt you with -- it's just asking for trouble all the way around.