Generation 'Y' hooked on credit:

krisbarry said:

Point taken, but I guess when you just want a fridge, then you just want the credit to buy the fridge and not the attaching credit card that comes with it.

Other compaines just start a credit account at the store of purchase and there are no extra credit facilities attached.

Harvery Norman is not a bank, but a theiving bank with high interest rates!

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Didn't realise that you actually get a card when you buy from Harvey Norman. Now I know why they thought I was strange paying $300 cash for something I bought there!

I expect Harvey Norman gets some sort of commission from other purchases on the card too.

Yes most probably...maybe even a trailing commision

Kris,

Consumers can not be forced into taking cards they don't want. If you wish to buy something from Hardly Normal on interest free and to do this you need to take up a card then simply request the credit limit be equal to the amount you purchase. Then at the end of the interest free period (where you have paid off the full amount so you don't incur any high interest rates) simply cancel the card.

At the end of the day you sign up to agree to this and as a consumer you have many choices

krisbarry said:

Ahhh but what did he do.....made everyone that bought a pc, and turned it on, was forced to see microsoft products on their computer.

Consumers had no option when buying a complete computer package, it was supplied.

Hence microsoft was sued and (Microsoft) Bill Gates was fined squillions.

This is a classic example of corporate greed at its finest.

Mass sackings occurred and the share price went south!

Microsoft is another example of outsourcing its workforce to India. Computer programmers getting paid crap!

Bill Gates is nothing more than a corporate criminal doing it all legally!

Too much greed, I say!

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Bill Gates - reality check

Bill Gates - Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the
Head with this! To anyone with kids of any age, here's some advice.

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will
expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school.
You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a
boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your
Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't
whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing (getting rid of lice) in the closet of your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually
have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Kauri said:

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

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LOL Good one Bill!

You sure he wasnt having a coffee with Kris?

NAH!!,Kris wouldnt have the time---Gates would be too greedy to even warrant a meeting. Still bet he'd pay for the coffee---after you offered of course!---better still he'd buy the coffee shop!! Then it would be free---
Clever guy this Gates!

Having been in the situation that Kris is talking about - I moved out of home (agreed I'm now 32 but was 19 then) and needed to buy a new fridge. Went into the major electrical stores who were all offering the various credit cards (AGC comes to mind I think) at extortionate rates and decided to go elsewhere and buy a 2nd hand fridge (shock horror). It cost me $25 and still goes like a dream today - it's not pretty (looks a bit dinged and still covered in stickers) but guess what - I could afford it. I get the impression that you think that there is no choice other than to go in and use credit from these marauding rip off merchants. You dont have to have brand new, you dont have to live in the most expensive suburb, you dont have to have the new car/clothes/mobile etc. You dont have to be ripped off - it is a choice and the sooner people realize it is THEIR choice the better. You can go on blaming whoever you like but at the end of the day YOU made the choice to sign on the dotted line, YOU chose to live in the expensive suburb, YOU chose to not buy property earlier, YOU chose to buy the fridge from Harvey Norman, YOU chose to buy brand new and not hunt for a 2nd hand bargain, YOU signed for the credit card and YOU chose to not pay it off as quickly as you could.

You can argue age/wisdom/role models or anything else you like. It's no-ones fault but mine, sure I'll make mistakes but if I (that means me, me only, just me or more commonly known as me!!!) accept responsibility for them, I'll learn, gain wisdom and hopefully not repeat the mistake.

I work for a company where the main ethos is "Never be on the end of a blame chain". Unfortunately, with the topic we are talking about here, the person, whether they are 18 or 80, is on the end of the blame chain and needs to take responsibility for it!

If no-one is to blame, except for yourself,

why then do some silly fools accept this offer for credit @ 27.5%?

There is no excuse for this kind of interest.

A wise shopper would go elsewhere for their credit, or save the money, but a few silly fools take up the offer and...

thats why Gerry Harveys slogan is " Go Harvey Go..." LOL

I'm 35 and I just bought my first new fridge five years ago. Nobody is forced to get involved in credit. Like Happy said, buy second hand goods, brew your own beer, take responsibility for your consumption. Nobody needs a new fridge. People want a new fridge. Big difference.

The bottom line is people know what they are getting themselves into. If they don't, then they simply aren't paying attention and deserve to learn the hard way like many others before them. Life is full of hard lessons. I have a mate that declared himself bankrupt after going on a spending spree on credit. He knew what he was doing, he just thought he could handle it. He thought wrong. He paid the price and is a more responsible person for it now.

Kris

I think you're answering your own question:

Because they are SILLY FOOLS!

Unfortunately there will always be silly fools and there will always people who will gladly seperate them from their money amongst other things. If there wasn't the demand for these things, they wouldn't survive in the market place.

People have a right to be silly fools if they want though. You cant legislate them from being foolish and you cant remove their God given right. But we can educate them and I've found the best way is by example. I like to think I am responsible in my wealth creation and the more "succesful" I become the more the silly fools take notice and ask "how". This gives my wife and I a chance to maybe help them a little and point them in the right direction but again - THEY have to choose - no one else can do it for them - THEY must take the ultimate responsibility for THEIR actions/decisions.

Malachii

A fridge is an essential service in any home right so it is not a question of need, it is a must.

Not unless you live in Canada, like I did for a year and you chill your 6-pack of beer in the snow.

True no-one is forced to have credit but no-one should be forced to pay 27.5% interest, that is criminal

We need to have more rigid credit checks, and far more laws for credit providers.

If banks can offer much cheaper credit so can finance companies.

I agree, my fridge is second hand too, got it at a garage sale, works a treat!

krisbarry said:

A fridge is an essential service in any home right so it is not a question of need, it is a must.

I agree, my fridge is second hand too, got it at a garage sale, works a treat!

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Yes, I agree a fridge is a necessity... a new fridge however is not.

Glad to hear your second hand fridge is going well... never had a problem with mine either.

The thing with rates like 25%+ is that generally they dont qualify for lower rates.

And them being SILLY FOOLS really hits the nail on the head.

I once heard a story about Cash Convertors and their "credit lending" facility.

I am only going on what i was told but apparently you lend them something of value (golf clubs) and they loan you it's value (as if you sold it to them).

the rate is some ridiculous figure 30%+ and you are given x days to pay it back. If you dont pay it back within given time frame you still owe them the money (interest calulated daily) and they sell your product for a profit.

Now that is nuts.

Report on this very issue last night on 60minutes.Apparently these moronic y gen. want us all to give way to them,because apparently they cant wait forever,wait for what,was my first impression.They want a lifestyle that their parents have after years of working and scraping,except they want all this without the saving and scraping.Most of the people interviewed hadnt held a job for more then a few months ,yet had a lifestyle of someone who has established himself or herself.Who taught these morons to want and not give?Apparently they also have no intention of paying tax for the x ers pensions.I certainly didnt bring my children up like this,so if this moronic group is a representation of the new gen Y,where did they learn to be so selfish,at school?the government? with its give aways.They might have to pay for their education now, which apparently is a bug bear but they also enjoy government hand out wich the previous generation,didnt have.Who the hell do they think is paying for that.

When we care for our child we assume that child will care for us, well we might be right/wrong, it’s a toss.

visual said:

Report on this very issue last night on 60minutes.Apparently these moronic y gen. want us all to give way to them,because apparently they cant wait forever,wait for what,was my first impression.They want a lifestyle that their parents have after years of working and scraping,except they want all this without the saving and scraping.Most of the people interviewed hadnt held a job for more then a few months ,yet had a lifestyle of someone who has established himself or herself.Who taught these morons to want and not give?Apparently they also have no intention of paying tax for the x ers pensions.I certainly didnt bring my children up like this,so if this moronic group is a representation of the new gen Y,where did they learn to be so selfish,at school?the government? with its give aways.They might have to pay for their education now, which apparently is a bug bear but they also enjoy government hand out wich the previous generation,didnt have.Who the hell do they think is paying for that.

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I saw some of the same programme, Visual, before becoming so irritated that I turned it off. What arrogant, egocentric young people! I don't honestly believe they are typical of their generation. The main protagonist was interviewed on ABC Radio some months back. I think he wrote some sort of book. Presumably he's just doing his best to obtain free publicity.

Julia

Julia,I didnt switch off because I was so flabergasted ,surely I kept saying out loud there has got to be a point to this moron.But no, you are right he was simply looking to adverstise his book,which by the looks of it simply shows that he an illiterate ,unskilled,uncreative type of guy who probably only got his book published because he knew someone.The title included the word f888k off.So right from the start this book ,would fall off my radar as soon as I looked at it.
The other thing that had me gasping for air,was the selfishness demonstrated by the Charles Woolley researcher who after holding her job for barely 5 months not only wanted his job but felt that she was entitled to spend 800dollars on a coat.They may not represent their generation but that story seemed to create the feeling that they did.And that was enough to

visual said:

Julia,I didnt switch off because I was so flabergasted ,surely I kept saying out loud there has got to be a point to this moron.But no, you are right he was simply looking to adverstise his book,which by the looks of it simply shows that he an illiterate ,unskilled,uncreative type of guy who probably only got his book published because he knew someone.The title included the word f888k off.So right from the start this book ,would fall off my radar as soon as I looked at it.
The other thing that had me gasping for air,was the selfishness demonstrated by the Charles Woolley researcher who after holding her job for barely 5 months not only wanted his job but felt that she was entitled to spend 800dollars on a coat.They may not represent their generation but that story seemed to create the feeling that they did.And that was enough to

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Times are changing visual. I wont hold the same job for nearly as long as you did, it's got nothing to do with loyalty its got to do with the way companys are structured (hiring externally etc.).

I didn't actually get to see the program but by the sounds of it they did the usual commercial channel thing and shocked people like yourself. Personally 20 i've worked 3 different jobs and recently moved city, i chose not to go to uni. It's almost expected these days that i will change roles/jobs within the next 5 years.

I expect to work hard to earn a living and am doing so. So don't label my generation off some crappy so called "investigative journalism" you want to watch some real journalism turn on 4 corners.

That guy and any person like that is a deadset idiot. He's said something about not wanting to stay in a job for longer than two years, but still wanting a good position. Where's the sense in that? Which business in their right mind would train and promote someone on the basis that they would leave within two years.

I don't like the whole "generation" thing, because it covers too broad a base. Being twenty I hate having the whole addicted to credit stereotype. Just like people who are older, have worked hard, paid off a house and maybe bought another for retirement purposes getting slandered as being greedy.

Don't worry about those two being representative of younger people, they're just morons.

Mlennox,
I have two children in your generation,I was not crappying on your generation as your put it,your fellow genY were doing that,one of them even wrote a book so the rest of you would have a guide!My son even asked me,mum do you think I`m like that!of course not.
But the thing that worries me is that once again at the head of our society we are going to have inappropiate people .
Also please understand that I both admire someone who can go out there find himself a job and better himself.
The example that they were using on channel nine were of people who were swapping jobs like tissues but somehow it wasnt allowing them to have the choices they wanted(money).Spending money however didnt seem connected to their ability to pay.