eighth?
Boo and hiss ninth... but then I've always been a bit shit with numbers.
Before starting uni I'd been earning £250 a week without paying tax (which actually wasn't too bad without any real outgoings back in '97).Needless to say that I became accustomed to spending this without having anything much to show for it... all the while telling my dear mother that I couldn't afford to contribute money to the house as I was saving for uni - getting piss fit would have been a better description.

Upon arriveing at Uni I signed up with Barclays as the girl signing us up was cute. I didn't get a sniff, but I did now have a £1,000 a credit card and my grant cheque (it was the last year of grants for the poor). The downside was that you had to constantly request for the overdraft limit to be upped. So by Christmas (end of only the first term) I had to venture in to see my unfriendly bank manager, let's call him Mr Cunt, for that he was.

AW: Hello, can you extend my overdraft limit from £750 to £1,000?
MC: Well, we'll have to see. I just need to go through your account.
[after a few minutes looking on screen]
MC: Good God! What have you been doing? Look you spent £200 that week, and here you've spent over £300!! There's no way that I am going to increase your limit.
AW: But hold on, the limit clearly states £1,000 for first years. I'm in my first year and have not reached that limit, so you're not exactly doing me a favour here -
MC: Well what do you think an overdraft facility is a gift?
AW: No, clearly it is not a gift. It is an incentive offered by your bank to help entice me and other students use your services once we're in a position to earn money. Given it's highly probable that my monthly wage once I qualify will be considerably more than £1,000 I do not see what the problem is.
MC: The problem is that you are spending money irresponsibly.
AW: Thanks for the tip Dad, but I am not your personal responsibility. Irresponsible as you may feel that I am, you as a bank are not honouring your end of the deal by not providing me with what you said you would. It's now almost Christmas and you're leaving me in a position where I have no access to money. You know full well that I will be receiving cheque in January - or your bank would not lent me moeny in the first place. So again, can you please give me the limit advertised which is £1,000.
MC: No. You'll just have to use you Barclay Card.
AW: Really? So you're suggesting I'lll be more responsible with that?
MC: That's not my concern Mr Wound, but I will not be increasing your overdraft facility.

I went out and maxed the card's £500 limit buying nice presents for my family and of course had a great, Christmas, birthday and New Year. When I returned picked up the cheque went to RBS made up some bullshit story about having an account with Staffordshire Building Society and because there wasn't one locally I wanted a new account. They promptly opened it and gave me a £1,200 limit.

They eventually caught up with me, but couldn't charge me interest as I was still a student. My mum couldn't afford to help me out, but was really helpful and supportive. They tried to bully me for quite a while... but eventually we struck a deal as it was costing them more in administration than it was worth - when you consider there are unemployed people who owe more than £20k, you can see that most debts are manageable. Don't buy into their threats, and generally you'll get a nice person - they seem to like playing good cop bad cop. So that was really the only thing I learnt from uni was how to manage seemingly unmanageable debt and to help out you're mum/parents when you can.
( @><|= w0nu!) or cunt to my friends, Thu 16 Jul 2009, 13:30, Reply)