Why do the banks bail outwhen you ask them for help?
By Liz Jones for The Mail on Sunday
Updated: 14:56 BST, 8 June 2023
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Funny, outrageous and downright rude. Who’s in Liz Jones’ firing line this week?
Recently I had a run-in with my bank. I have a mortgage with the Halifax.
I missed two mortgage payments (renovations on my home went 150 per cent over budget and six months over schedule), which I repaid almost immediately.
Wanting to get rid of my debt, I decided to sell my house — thinking I could take my fixed-rate mortgage, which was tied into a three-year deal, with me.
Mortgage troubles: Liz Jones has not been able to keep up her repayments and has had little sympathy from the bank
I would buy a cheaper property, reducing my debt by several hundred thousand pounds. The bank’s response? A flat no.
Apparently I am too high risk and cannot move the mortgage at all. Then they told me I will never qualify for a mortgage on another property again, no matter how small.
OK, how about if I sell my house and use the equity to repay the mortgage in full, straight away?
Then buy a small cottage, mortgage free.
Ah, in that case — because it will be before the end of my three-year deal — they will slap me with a £21,000 penalty.
Pray, what do they suggest? They suggest I stay in my present home, with the mortgage I already have that currently costs me 11 times the current Bank of England base rate (5.5 per cent), and which I have no desire to keep on paying.
The Halifax is owned by Lloyds, one of the banks to be bailed out by you and me in the current financial crisis. I think we have been duped when it comes to owning our own homes.
I read a report the other day that revealed, even with the current downturn, investing in stocks and shares would have made us far richer than owning a property.
The downturn was blamed on ordinary people reneging on their mortgage payments, but I think that’s a big fat lie. Most people will do anything to keep a home over their heads. I am trapped. I wonder how many others are, too?
CELEB BRAIN DEAD MOMENT OF THE WEEK
Lily Allen says: ‘I still think I’m fat. Right now I’m worrying about how I’m going to lose weight after the pregnancy.
‘I feel like an elephant, but I do get the occasional sexy pregnant day where I think I look great.’
Um, has the whole world gone insane? Pregnant women are not supposed to look sexy, or thin. What will she do once she has the baby? Moan that she now looks tired?
CRIMES AGAINST FASHION
This is ‘super stylist’ Rachel Zoe at New York Fashion Week. This is the woman who gave us ‘zoebots’, the super-skinny, super-tanned women who wore kaftans and thought themselves stylish.
Anyone who is currently bemoaning, like me, that they can’t afford to buy autumn and winter clothes need only look at this picture (the Hermes bag, the peep-toe platformshoe-boots, the playsuit) and thank your lucky stars your Amex card has been scissored into tiny shards…