{"id":105,"date":"2013-07-27T10:41:09","date_gmt":"2013-07-27T09:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidwithington.com\/blog\/?p=105"},"modified":"2013-07-27T11:07:56","modified_gmt":"2013-07-27T10:07:56","slug":"ive-got-a-bee-in-my-bonnet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidwithington.com\/ive-got-a-bee-in-my-bonnet\/","title":{"rendered":"I’ve Got A Bee in My Bonnet!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve got a bee in my bonnet!<\/p>\n

A bit of indignation… that sort of thing.<\/p>\n

“Why?\u00a0 What’s up David?”<\/p>\n

It’s the TV Ads.<\/p>\n

“What?”\u00a0 I hear you asking\u00a0with that incredulous gasp!<\/p>\n

Let me explain…<\/p>\n

Is it me, or are the\u00a0TV adverts\u00a0full of\u00a0promotions for this car …and that car …and the other car<\/p>\n

Or the WeSellAnyCarAtAnyPrice car-sales-type companies<\/p>\n

…each one encouraging you to take out a loan!<\/p>\n

A LOAN for goodness sake!<\/p>\n

For a product\u00a0that will depreciate faster than you can drive it off the forecourt.<\/p>\n

The other day, a scheduled TV programme did an article on car sales.<\/p>\n

It compared the cost of taking out the car company’s loan<\/em> with a bank loan<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Compared one sort of loan… with another loan.<\/p>\n

It’s like comparing a potato… with a potato!<\/p>\n

Inside I was fuming.<\/p>\n

“Isn’t that the reason the country’s in\u00a0a mess!”, I shouted at the TV …not really expecting a reply …and certainly not ready if it had replied!<\/p>\n

You see… Call me old fashioned.<\/p>\n

But what’s wrong with saving up for something?<\/p>\n

We seem to have become accustomed to instant gratification.<\/p>\n

“I need it now!” …as we pop into\u00a0the\u00a0fast food restaurant.<\/p>\n

“I want it immediately!” …as we download the Kindle version of the bestselling book.<\/p>\n

“I must have that car now!” …as we arrange the 22% APR, 5 year loan.<\/p>\n

But what’s wrong with waiting until we can afford it?<\/p>\n

…with saving up for it?<\/p>\n

I suppose I was fortunate to get more than 5 years notice when my wife told me she wanted a “posh cruise” for our 25th wedding anniversary.<\/p>\n

So after wiping away the sweat, I opened a simple savings account<\/p>\n

…and drip fed into it every month (by standing order so it didn’t have to rely on my sieve of a memory!).<\/p>\n

Although we had to adjust a little, we got used to the money going out of the current account each month, and eventually totally forgot about it …didn’t even miss it<\/p>\n

…until it came time to book our cruise.<\/p>\n

And guess what.<\/p>\n

The bank manager had topped it up.\u00a0 We’d gained some extra money for free …some interest on our savings.<\/p>\n

A nice bit of spending money\u00a0for the holiday!\u00a0 All for free!<\/p>\n

Now that’s much better than taking out a loan, with\u00a0us<\/strong> having to pay lots of interest to<\/strong> the bank!<\/p>\n

The bank paid\u00a0us<\/strong><\/span> instead!<\/p>\n

And there’s another sobering thought which has just dawned on me…<\/p>\n

It’s this….<\/p>\n

If we’d gone for this instant gratification thing and had taken out a loan for the cruise<\/p>\n

…or even worse, if we’d put it on the credit card<\/p>\n

…we’d still be paying it off now!<\/p>\n

Hang on a minute…<\/p>\n

No, we’d probably still be paying off only the interest<\/em> at this stage.<\/p>\n

What an anti-climax!<\/p>\n

2 weeks of fun<\/p>\n

…in exchange for a lifetime of debt.<\/p>\n

So I think you can understand why I get a little cross when we’re bombarded from behind our TV screens with the instant gratification messages.<\/p>\n

…making the loan companies rich, and throwing people’s hard-earned money at the wasteful banks.<\/p>\n

Sad, eh?<\/p>\n

But on the other hand, perhaps I should keep it a secret.<\/p>\n

After all, who would have given us the free spending money – if the banks hadn’t had all that money pouring in from those massive loan interest payments?<\/p>\n

Hmmm… On second thoughts ….shhh!<\/p>\n

Pretend I never told you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve got a bee in my bonnet! A bit of indignation… that sort of thing. “Why?\u00a0 What’s up David?” It’s the TV Ads. “What?”\u00a0 I hear you asking\u00a0with that incredulous gasp! Let me explain… Is it me, or are the\u00a0TV adverts\u00a0full of\u00a0promotions for this car …and that car …and the other car Or the WeSellAnyCarAtAnyPrice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[37,38,29,35,28,36,33,34,26,27,30,32,31],"yoast_head":"\nAre The Banks Ripping Us Off - Or Can We Make a Difference?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A topical blog post by David Withington - about how loans are promoted irresponsibly.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/davidwithington.com\/ive-got-a-bee-in-my-bonnet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are The Banks Ripping Us Off - 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