Broadcasts & Barbours

It seems my stint on Radio 4 didn't have too many listeners screaming and running for the hills, so I was invited the following week to talk all things debt and shopping for BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio York and Radio 5 Live.

While we all know that I love the airwaves - I must do, I had to get up at 6am to do one of the interviews - I really do hope that anyone in debt or with a shopping addiction gets something from these interviews; something that might just help them come to terms with what seems like an impossible situation.

If I'm perfectly honest, doing the interviews even helped me. For a couple of weeks I've been strolling past the window of a particularly lovely shop during my lunch hour - and there, waving to me from behind the safety of the glass, is a delicious grape, quilted Barbour.

Blissful Barbour

Just before I did the interviews, I had convinced myself that I could afford it and definitely needed it, but after lecturing to all who would listen about shopping only with cash, buying nothing but necessities, leaving your credit card at home (preferably sulking in a drawer because it hasn't been used in ages), I realised that I had to practise what I preached.

So, the delicious Barbour remains in the window, my credit card remains sulking in the drawer and I can sleep with a clear conscience.

Boom & Bust Banking - Part I

I’ve been so preoccupied with playing nurse over the last few days, that a date I’d been waiting to celebrate for the last five years went by almost un-noticed.

That date was the 6th November and it marked the last installment of a hefty loan I had taken out to consolidate my credit card debts - and then like the true idiot I am, ran them all back up to their limit again.

In all honesty, I don’t know what I was expecting when that final payment was made.

A card from the bank congratulating me on my flawless repayment record?

A balloon in a box bearing the message “Well Done Debtor”?

A fly past from the Red Arrows?

None of those things happened, but I did give myself a little pat on the back and put the past five years of paying over £350 a month to that loan down as a lesson learned.

A very long and expensive lesson...

Credit (Card) Crunch

It's not every morning that Channel 5 call to ask if you're free to jump on a plane to London and talk on their evening bulletin feature on credit cards.

So, when they did just that yesterday morning, it was with a rather heavy heart that I had to politely decline their invitation. The fates were conspiring against me with a poorly partner (now at home), work waiting for me to appear at my desk and the fact that I’d probably have had to pay for the flights on my credit card.

While I’m delighted that the Government has finally decided to take a look at credit card companies and the way they operate, I’m slightly distressed that it’s taken a UK wide circulation of 63 million cards with a combined debt of 63 billion pounds to get their attention.

For millions of Britons it's a case of too little, too late.

I need to stress here that no-one forced me to take – then use – credit cards. In that respect, I am entirely responsible for my own actions (and stupidity) but perhaps if the regulations surrounding them had been a little stricter, I might have been prevented from piling it all on the plastic long before my debt reached a point where it was greater than my salary.