At one stage, I had over 1 million in mortgaged loans......
The, while driving to my brother's office, I heard on the radio that BASE rates (the lowest interest available between banks, etc.) had risen to 12.5%. I was so paniced that I called my brother and told him to listen to the radio. We both wailed.... 'We are Bankrupt.....'
When I got to his office, we sat there, gloomily, drinking tea and turned on the radio..... and it was announced that base rate had now risen to FIFTEEN percent....... We looked at each other and started to laugh..... we laughed until tears rolled down our faces! We couldn't pay if it was 12.5% so raising it to 15 was a complete JOKE! They may as well have said 200% for all the difference it made!
By the end of that evening, it was back to 8%...... that was TRULY a roller coaster day!
That was the day we were ejected from the E.R.M. (the forerunner to the Euro). That's why MOST of us oldies will NEVER let us go into the Euro!
In truth, we were effectively paying about 15% when the base rate was 8% but, when it rose to 15%... the banks didn't have time to TELL us what our REAL interest rates would be.... but, it puts it at above 20%! It was only for a few hours..... BUT......
To give you an idea how BAD the last recession was..... I lost ONE THIRD of the value of my house IN A YEAR! Those of you who THINK it's tough now, wipe one third of the value of YOUR house today! Whatever you lost today, your interest rate is BL**DY CHEAP! OUR interest rates at that time were effectively 12% to 15% thus, if your mortgage was on �150,000, you payments would be between �1500 to �2000 per MONTH! If you couldn't pay, your debt went up by roughly �17,000 per year..... Repossessions went through the ROOF and the price of property plummetted because the Banks/Building societies were putting LOADS of houses on the market VASTLY less than their market value.... which made house prices plummet even FURTHER!
It was HELL at the time but those of us lucky enough (and it WAS just luck) to get through it came out OK! You guys will, too. Keep your heads down, keep pushing: you WILL make it! Stick with your WOMAN!
Remember, all Govt.s SCREW us! That will NEVER CHANGE, whatever colour they are!
Ian
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