The credit card junk mail has start to dry up hurrah, but taking its place the equally irritating weekly message on my answer phone offering help with debt. It is about time to put a stop to these unsolicited sharp financial operators who make it so easy to get sucked in and leave people in a financial mess. Thankfully I pay off my credit card bill every month and have just paid the last instalment of my car loan to Northern Rock. Looks like I have cleared my debts just in time.

Just a bit Smug, Stevenage, UK

I agree with Nigel from Poland that the banks are to blame for the current situation. Six months ago people were struggling to pay their mortgages. so what did the banks do stick the interest rate up to send more people over the edge. It is about time they sacked these incompetant people and employed sensible people on a realistic salary.

As for Mrs Angry she should keep her opinions to herself as she obviously does not know what she is talking about. Yes people and companies go bankrupt every day of the week but the differance is that some of the Ltd. companies cease trading owing millions of pounds only for the Directors to start up again in another name.

One company in particular went bankrupt owing the company I work for thousands of pounds so what did the workers in our company get , NO WAGE RISE FOR TWO YEARS, but never mind if I had been a BANKER I probably would have got a BIG BONUS.

Bill Ewing, Dundee UK,

What triggers my bile (re Andy Fry's comment) is the amount of people who run up 50 grand or so on credit cards and then go bankrupt. If you have no assets it's a cushy lifestyle option as you have nothing that can be siezed. They insist that it's just playing the game. Can anyone tell me who actually picks up the tab for all these personal bankrupcies? (oops, brain fart, can't remember spelling)

Mrs Angry and Resentful, Devon, Uk

Graham in Oxford, you are right of course - but in today's housing crisis you can't assume that everyone being repossessed is living in "extravagance." Many people are simply trying to afford a decent place to live. I spent 7 years with 3 kids in a one-bed rented flat (in the private sector - I was working and didn't qualify for anything) after my divorce; when I finally got my share of the house money I was told that, with it and the mortgage I could get, I could probably look at buying a two-three-bed ex-council flat in my area. All my friends were telling me to buy.

Instead, I found us a large two-bed rental flat. I spent some of the money on movers and furniture - we had no furniture to speak of, and needed everything.

Not long after that I was made redundant, and have taken a pay cut in my new job. My take-home pay is now £100 a month less than it was three years ago.

I'm now worrying about the "house money" running out, but at least I'm not going to get repossessed.

K Evans, London, UK

To think this entire credit crunch is the result of greedy banks. They are to blame for this fiasco; they have driven the situation to the result we see today.

About time they were brought down to earth for their strategies of making more.

Nigel, Poznan, Poland

I work for one of the UK Big 5 Banks in admin support. I'm being told that I may get a small bonus for 2008 - if I achieve all my targets. My boss could get 100% of salary for smashing targets. He could earn £100k in 2008 - and he's not even 'senior'.

Banks who won't pass on interest rate cuts are really using it to fund ridiculous top-end staff bonuses. It's about time British Banks were prevented from doing this, before every-day people are forced further into debt because of greedy 'only think of myself' Bank Directors & Chairpersons. Why do you think the US Banking industry is going down the pan..... greedy management. Watch this space, it'll be the UK next!!

Annoyed & underpaid, Warringtom,

Yipes! The idea of "maxing out" the credit card will become a thing of the past for many. But it's just as well, to be honest. Personally, i've never liked the damn things anyway.

Looks like some are facing up to the prospect of a really, er, ordinary Christmas. It's a shame, but it's the price to be paid.

Peter Koeb, Geneva, Switzerland

Mortgage Equity Withdrawal (MEW) is the engine of our economy and according to Bank of England (BOE) statistics is running at an annualised rate of about £60bn (based on Q4 2006). This is certain to fall dramatically and cause a further decline in supply of easy credit. It is definitely going to be the mother of all hangovers in 2008. My worry is that our society, having been used to 10 years of Labour spend, lack the social cohesion to cope with a downturn. This will have major consequences and perhaps a 'winter of discontent'for 2008.
Every cloud has a silver lining and the reduction in consumer spending should help to drag down our current account deficit and put UK Plc back into the Black. We could also have extra investment for new technologies (e.g. energy and biochemistry) that we can use to export our way out of this mess.

Steve Marchant, Torquay, UK

Hopefully we can get back to the real world where we live within our means. I have zero sympathy for reckless lenders or feckless borrowers, let them suffer greatly as a lesson to the "want it now" fools.

John, Louth,

I fear that banks and other lenders will over-react, as they usually do. They over-reacted to the good times by lending money that people couldn't afford to repay. Now they will over-react again by refusing to lend money that people COULD afford to repay.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Credit cards can be invaluable for some things: buying stuff online, booking holidays, and hiring a car (try doing that without one). But you have to take control of the card and pay off the bill in full every month. If you don't do this, the card will end up taking control of you.
And if you can't afford to do this, then the answer is as clear as it is brutal: You can't afford your lifestyle. So either get a better paid job or cut down on your expenditure.
Sleep happy.

Henderson Stench, Solihull,

The economy is teetering; it is too close to call which way it will go, if at all - and all the information that the man on the street is inundated with is biased towards the company that will profit most from it - ultimately Mr Robbins is right. The only safe rule for day to day financial viability is the old adage of 'don't live a champagne lifestyle on a lager budget'!

MUZZY, Esher, Surrey

In short banks screwed up through their insatiable greed to generate income and now they are seeking to maintain their outraeous margins and hit teh very people who have played by the rules all through.
Governments must not let banks continue to abuse their positions for a day longer. Banks must to return to the real world where they take their losses on the chin and do not handicap their customers any more by passing all their self inflicted damage on to maintain obscene margins.

Robert D Marshall, London, UK

I have some sympathy for some. There are always the families that earn to little to pay their bills but to much to get any financial help from the state.
However, these are few as when you walk into their houses you often see packets of cigarettes, big flat screen T.V's and X-Box's/Playstations for kids.
Consumerism is nasty and now we have to pay!

Stuart, Sheffield, UK

'Rob Peter to pay Paul?..'Credit where Credit's due?'.. come off it! greed will always prevail. The problem lies with your first commentator; when he flaunts 'it', others covet 'it' the lenders know 'it' and that includes investors. As the song says: 'money makes the world go round'. The world may slow down but be sure; it won't stop!.

'Banker' (spelt with a 'B'!).

Jim Currie, Glasgow, U.K.

My brother in law applied for 2 credit cards. He has a good job, a nice flat...and got turned down for one of them. A year ago the banks would have been throwing credit at him.

The days of the ''buy now, pay later'' economy are over.

michael, windsor,

It never ceases to amaze me how sanctimonious people are on the subject of debt. The current list of debtors includes young people who have to pay their way through university or get their first house, single mothers who've been left to fend for their children because of absent partners, people in pain who have to go private because of the shambolic nature of NHS healthcare and dentistry, parents putting their children through private school because of the destruction of the grammar system, parents seeking to supplement a failing school system with private classes for their children (teaching them to swim and play music - shock horror!) and small businesses being squeezed by the rocketing cost of fuel or strangulation by supermarkets. On top of all this, I also have genuine sympathy for those people who get themselves in debt because they don't understand how money-lenders suck them in. God help them because banks don't. Why not target your bile at grotesque city salaries instead?

Andy Fry, Callington, Cornwall

I would like to make a number of charitable Christmas donations to impoverished senior bank staff who's bonuses may be well under a million this year as a result of the economic downturn, but can't find any suitable organisations. Perhaps it's early days.

Tony Jones, Grantham, Lincs

To all those who think it's a nice easy answer to tell people to stop borrowing and spending, just remember that the result of this crunch is going to be companies going bust (and not just the ones who have borrowed) and people losing thier jobs.

MarkS, Leeds,

The travesty is that it was so blatantly obvious ten years ago. Money has never been an individual's right to have. It is, and always has been, a privilege to have, and one that should be respected. Unfortunately, because of the ease with which it has been available, it has been treated like any other throw-away commodity - with much disrespect. Well, the chickens are coming home to roost as they always have in the past, and millions will be blaming everyone else except themselves for their downfall. I feel sorry for those who have been caught up in, and believed in, Brown's economic miracle of no more 'Boom and Bust', to get onto the housing ladder, but I don't feel sorry for those who just had to have the Hollywood kitchens and bathrooms and the 4x4s on the drive financed by several credit cards to live the part of seeming success. They will be the ones who will be bleating the most and running to the Government for help. A tragedy and a travesty that is long over due

Keith, Newport, Isle of Wight

Schools and even businesses (as part of a benefits programme) should teach money management techniques - wealth protection, financial legacies, mortgages and that economies are linked to the politics unfolding on tv - relevant life skills.

not everyone's lucky enough to pick up these skills from their families - if no one's taught you any different its very hard to pick up on your own (and easy for others to brush off with the Y Gen soundbite).

banks ultimately have a responsibility too - should basic money skills and learning about credit be compulsory when opening a bank account?

australia did something similar when drinking was out of control in the 90s - the RSA certificate for everyone handling alcohol was the result and is, in my opinion, excellent. Everyone has a duty of care - if you just point fingers the problem will never go away.

S, London/ Sydney,

I know several family and friends who truly believe that living off of credit is 'normal', and that people who save and spend cash they actually have are 'weird' or 'tight'.

I do wonder if they'd be so tempted to spend using 'credit' if Credit Cards were renamed Debt Cards, and Loans were renamed Debt Agreements.

Apparently I am one of the 'weird' ones. However, in my mid-30s I have just 6 months left on my mortgage (ok, it was only £90k to start with, but hey!), no loans, no credit card debt, my car is paid for, and I have a small amount saved. I earn an average salary, I don't earn bonuses or overtime, I've just been careful (sorry, 'tight'). I'm also the one that family and friends turn to when they need a sub for their utility bills or car insurance. Not so 'weird' now eh?

Scrooge, Humbugville, UK

I think it's a pretty sad culture we live in. Everyone's obsessed with attainment of useless posessions and will put themselves through so much pain to have these. Housing prices may not tumble but i'll let the 'greater fools' pay 250-500k for a box in a less than desirable area. The value in uk property and living standards has been stretched. I think people need to reassess their idea of what happiness really means.

Kv, Scotland,

Society has become far too tolerant towards debt. Instead of shame, debt counselling services try to offer ways out - frozen interest, chunks of debt written off etc. Parliament is in on the act by reducing the period of bankruptcy from 3 years to 1 - ostensibly to help those who fail in business to more quickly try again, but in reality this has helped the feckless who want to spend money they don't have on imported goods. Those who through no fault of their own get into debt are now tarred with the same brush as the irresponsible. I've given up trying to explain to people that debt is merely borrowing against future productivity, hence it is a nonsense to to think that property prices and associated mortgages can rise forever. The average member of the public seems to have an economic 'reading age' of a 7 year old. As the children continue to put their hands in the fire the BoE is trying to fit them all with asbestos gloves, rather than letting them learn from the pain. Hopeless!

Clive, Chichester, UK

This government as built our economy on a pyramid of housing which is collapsing around us. Northern Rock weren’t diligent and still persist in showing a cavalier attitude by continuing to paying large bonus’s and above inflation pay rises to its 6000 employees. All this whilst expecting the tax payer to keep on paying out. We are constantly being cheated and lied too. Bankers have replaced the old union barons with holding the country to ransom, and all this with the collusion of a Labour government. Where will it all end?

Michael, Sheffield,

Capability Brown built his house on sand and now the storm is coming. Driving growth on a mountain of record dept without any meaningful reserves will end this Labour government for many many years to come. Thank god!

What a huge mess for the Tories to clear up yet again.

D Case, Newquay,

Consumers bear no responsibility for the current crisis . They have not created it . They have nothing to do with what banks charge each other or the availability of funds for banks. This is a systemic failure of the global financial system and the British financial system which could have avoided the Northern Rock crisis in the first place. In the USA, the feds are looking for protective measures for homeowners. Here with an endemic 'blaming' culture, consumers are vilified. But Brown's tripartite banking system is weak and lacking flexibility. The Rate Cut is too little, too late. Shame on them, not consumers.

Reader from Berkshire

abrown, Windsor, Berks.

Mike, Dunstable:

If you take a look at savings rates they have been increased by many of the banks recently. If your rate is hasn't been then shop around for a new savings account - you'll always be ripped off if you allow it.

With inter-bank lending drying up, banks are now relying more on savers to provide the cash they need.

Mark, London,

It's all very well to say the millions of debtors have only themselves to blame for reckless borrowing etc etc ... But the fact is that heavily leveraged borrowing, especially on houses, has brought this situation about, driving property prices to ridiculous levels and creating a spiral of debt among 'ordinary' people who - when all is said and done - have to live somewhere. The free-market entrepreneurs who undertook the initial leveraged borrowing will no doubt be toasting their success at making a few million at the start and losing only a few thousand when their chains of debt finally collapsed in ruins. But - as a society - we have to ask whether that sort of deregulation is really helpful. After all, we need primary school teachers and nurses. So it's not much use if they haeomorrage what little money they have and get turfed out of their houses. Remember Northern Rock. Who acted more irresponsibly: the thousands of mortgagees or Mr Applegarth who gambled the entire bank?

Frank, London, UK

carol - spalding ... It's always ok for people to spend money they don't have, debt is a necessary evil for most. The problem comes when debt is seen as an "asset" and a "neccesity" and possibly even a "lifestyle choice enabler" (sic), in other words what people need to do is to stop spending what they don't have on crap they don't need!!!

Meow of HPC, Newcastle,

"If you are a borrower you will have to pay higher rates" unquote.
Why is there never any mention that the banks will therefore have to pay their savers higher rates,or am I being stupid ?
Obviously in "rip off Britain" it doesn't work like that .

Mike, Dunstable, England

As someone with former experience in legal practice, the saddest thing about this is seeing the realisation people come to (far too late) that the goods and services they spent so much borrowed money on are worth so little - both materially and spiritually. Only when the bailiffs come knocking to put a value on household contents that is a tiny fraction of their original price, and then turf the family out of their, now repossessed, 'dream' home does it dawn that going from extravagence to nothing is far far worse than maintaining a more modest, but sustainable, lifestyle.

Graham, Oxford, UK

Here we are again. Banks bad lending policies are going to effect us all.

R. Harris, Winchester

R. Harris, Winchester, Uk

Banks handle money, commercial and personal, and they is a cost for that service, alway has been. It is the banks greed for profit that has caused the situation.(They are much more geared to sell you a loan nowadays even to the point of being bad advice.)

When lending money to any client, there is a degree of risk attached, banks should accept the risk of there own actions and not try and pass it back to the clients.

It has been said, "Banks give you an umbrella when it's sunny then take it back when it rains" This just seems another example of this.

Nathan, Essex, UK

I work in the City and it's been a jolly good year for me (not everyone in the City is not getting a bonus). Guaranteed bonus and no debts. All I need is a mortgage on the second pad in the new year!
Credit crunch? What credit crunch??
The silly people who spend more than they earn should learn from this. Some of them may never recover. Saying that, things should change quite a bit by Q2 08.
Merry Christmas!!

Wise guy with no debt, London,

Hint to people who spend more than they earn: buy less stuff.

P Robbins, Cornwall,

It's about time people stopped spending money they haven't got!

Yes there are going to be some people who have got into debt through no fault of their own but for most people it will be down to living beyond their means.

Banks have made it far too easy for people who cannot manage their personal finances to spend, spend, spend and it's about time these people were forced to tighten their belts.

carol , spalding,

Thing is Don, did no one ever teach you that to get rich.. you need to take a small amount of money from alot of people rather than a large amount of money from a small amount of people.

Personally I think they should be allowed to go to the wall for their own pure stupidity, people and companies.

Robert Hexter, ex Notts, Vancouver BC

Somehow I find myself feeling very little sympathy for all those City employees not getting their annual bonus.

Scamp, Aberdeenshire,

Typical of banks isn't it?
They lend recklessly, get into trouble and hammer the customers .
The Government should regulate increases in interest rates, some of these providers are little better than loan sharks.

Michael Rigby, Blackburn, England

The only thing that the BoE has done at this juncture, by dropping rates, is make people believe that what ever happens the BoE will make it OK in the end. Even though they have no choice to reduce rates - they have done so for the wrong reasons rather than the right. Irrespective of what David Smith of The Times states in his self congratulatory rubbish he calls news. The bottom line is this situation is a very serious one and will not go away. When Banks hurt they will want to pass the hurt on - in any way they can that is not seen as detrimental to their own marketing tactics.

Rates should have remained on hold as a quarter reduction is sending out the wrong message at this time.

Unless the BoE wants more debt? Pass on that one....

Paul, London, Canada

It's about time the minimum monthly payment on credit cards should be raised to at least double. If you only pay the minimum, it would take you a lifetime, adding a zero to the total repaid !

Don Gill, Wiltshire, England

The UK spent its way into a probable recession and Mr Brown believes it can spend its way out.2008 is going to be very interesting as the inflation target looks like it will be tested.Its been the only economic polocy since Black Wednesday.Target an imaginary inflation target and everything will be OK.

stephen hulton, eure, france