The true affects of the 'credit crunch'

[CraigGreen]

I blame the news for scare mongering & adding to the credit crunch.
Nightly shock headlines havent helped people keep spending, infact the opposite.

So glad I wasnt talked into buying a house in the last few years though, despite my parents trying to get me on the housing ladder, I always knew this situation with the housing market was only around the corner.

[Andy_L]

Originally Posted by tathan

I'm facing redundancy but I have no significant debts and can find a job washing dishes or whatever til things pick up. Just means less beer and cars for a bit.

I wonder how many people who are struggling to pay their mortgages think like this??

You cut your cloth to the situation.

[Brett]

I hate the term credit crunch, its media BS

Originally Posted by Station

A sandwich making company going under though?! Does that type of business get affected by financial trends?

Im probably qualified to awnser that question, I work in accounts and do sales stats for the company behind the Shell range of sandwiches! We dont really feel it, not at the moment anyway. What happens is we lose a bit in redundancy etc, less people earning a living on the road. Also people tend to start making their own sandwiches rather than buy ours, but equally people who were having fancy lunches 'downgrade' to our sandwiches and replace what we lose.

We're also doing really well right now thanks to the lower petrol prices, people are more willing to spend money on a bit of food when getting fuel, we should do better in terms of sales this November than we did last!

[Twelfty]

im gonna be different and say i hope it all goes tits up i dont know why but it seems to me if everyone fails then were all the same and perhaps everyone will learn a lesson that wont be forgotten

[namkeaps]

well i got back from oz a month ago and still looking for work. its difficult and dunno what am gonna do. starting to get a bit worried now. luckily have no debts but not got a social life atm due to no job and out of pride i refuse to join the dole queue

[j17sparky]

Originally Posted by Twelfty

im gonna be different and say i hope it all goes tits up i dont know why but it seems to me if everyone fails then were all the same and perhaps everyone will learn a lesson that wont be forgotten

Thats my hope too. If it all comes to an end right now then no-one will remember that several banks went tits up, people lost their homes etc etc.

I owe money but not that much, but i really do hope the **** hits the fan in a big way; true inflation has far outweighed cost of living increases for years now. House prices have been going up at unsustainable rates for years. The average house has cost far more than the average family could afford for years. Petrol prices, food prices etc...

We need a big shake up or all of this will only come along again in 5 years time.

[Jimbo]

Originally Posted by Twelfty

im gonna be different and say i hope it all goes tits up i dont know why but it seems to me if everyone fails then were all the same and perhaps everyone will learn a lesson that wont be forgotten

That's a little unfair isn't it? I'm in a hard place at the moment. I've always been quite carefull about my spending I have no credit cards a small morgage which is a offset tracker this means I get no intrest on my savings (is anyone?) but that amount is offset from my morgage and of course every intrest rate drop is good news for me as it tracks base rate! Happy funking days.

I'm looking to sell/rent my house and buy bigger as house prices are soooo cheap at the moment. BUT the down side I've always based our out going so that if me or the good lady wife bites the bullet as they say we can manage on one wage. If I take this leap of faith and down the line one of us gets the mallet selling one or two houses in the current market will be no joke!

I'm torn between the two. Do I sit tight and miss out on a golden oppertunity to own houses that where out of my reach big time about 18 months ago? Or wait till things pick up and watch the same houses sail away out of my league again due to being a media lemming cowering in the media spotlight of impending gloom............

[Twelfty]

the idea is you get the bigger house rent that out and live in your smaller house that way you dont pay for the larger bills like mortgage electric gas etc make a small profit off it to go towards your living costs or w/e living in the bigger house would be plain crazy in these times


also while what ppl have said about the cause of it is true but i think in a non racialist way thta with so many imagrants etc i think it makes our economy unstable
look at austrailia they have REALLY strict laws on who they let in and i cant see it being a problem its like "yeah let em all in **** it we will be alright" when we quite clearly are not

liek theres some sort of law that says we cant deny a load of poles, romanians and all the others coming in working for cash adding nothing to our country yet taking away everything and then when it all does go tits up we blame it on stuff like tesco for putting up the price of baked beans or BP adding pennys to the petrol prices or the media winging about everyone getting sacked

[Allvaux]

Originally Posted by Brett

I hate the term credit crunch, its media BS



Im probably qualified to awnser that question, I work in accounts and do sales stats for the company behind the Shell range of sandwiches! We dont really feel it, not at the moment anyway. What happens is we lose a bit in redundancy etc, less people earning a living on the road. Also people tend to start making their own sandwiches rather than buy ours, but equally people who were having fancy lunches 'downgrade' to our sandwiches and replace what we lose.

We're also doing really well right now thanks to the lower petrol prices, people are more willing to spend money on a bit of food when getting fuel, we should do better in terms of sales this November than we did last!

Bit mad really but I think *some* caterers suffer because stuff like bacon butties are a luxury. Yet everytime I go to the petrol station in the morning there are always queues of builders etc getting fags, cans of pop and butties. They must be ****ing loaded to shop in a petrol station but there you go.

[Twelfty]

Originally Posted by Allvaux

Bit mad really but I think *some* caterers suffer because stuff like bacon butties are a luxury. Yet everytime I go to the petrol station in the morning there are always queues of builders etc getting fags, cans of pop and butties. They must be ****ing loaded to shop in a petrol station but there you go.

yeah we are

[tomstickland]

Originally Posted by Jimbo

I'm torn between the two. Do I sit tight and miss out on a golden oppertunity to own houses that where out of my reach big time about 18 months ago? Or wait till things pick up and watch the same houses sail away out of my league again due to being a media lemming cowering in the media spotlight of impending gloom............

Wait.

[Paul Baldwin]

Not much sign of it bottoming out just yet?
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...ices_10_08.gif

Paul.

[Steve!]

If petrol hits 59.9 then I will be a happy man, but until then.....

[tathan]

Originally Posted by Bicco

3 mates been made redundant so far, Mainly consturction type industreis, painter decorator, thermo heating engineer, etc...

None of our suplyers have folded at all and we (Motor Factors) are doing quite well, figures are roughly the same as this time last year, which ain`t too bad considering two new competitors have opened up, one of whom are not looking very stable, and the current economic crisis.
I speak to around 100 different gaages in a week, can honestly say none have gone under, some are quieter than usual, some aren`t. I`ve noticed an increase in part sales for older vehicles, maybe people repairing instead of replacing?

Definitely a trend towards this. People are not buying new cars, or any 2nd hand cars really, especially stuff like Blobeye Scoobies , they are just fixing their's and plodding on for a bit.

Did you see that STI bug on SN the other day? Was up for 3.5k

[Rick Draper]

My line of business is doing utter ****, high fuel costs lasts year but at the same time high yields helped us make record profits. This year low fuel costs but a weak pound combined with the impending recession and low yields mean we are only just in profit.

[Colonel K]

I seem to be alright at the mo. Technically in the construction industry (kitchen & bathroom fitter) and we are booked until march 09. Shame I hate my job LOLz. At least Im lucky enough to be in a situation that unemployment wouldnt be a ballache for me, should it come to that, but at the same time as said it would be nice to have the cash waiting to take advantage of the downturn. We shall see.

Having said that, all our suppliers are busy, none of them are really reporting any downturn (common topic of convo when getting bits). So my local area is apparently in a strange limbo land. Hmmmmmm

[Melv]

Originally Posted by Rick Draper

My line of business is doing utter ****, high fuel costs lasts year but at the same time high yields helped us make record profits. This year low fuel costs but a weak pound combined with the impending recession and low yields mean we are only just in profit.

What line of business is that Rick if you don't mind me asking?

I'm in freight forwarding. The company I work for specialise in Oil and Energy movements up in Aberdeen. Its actually been really busy recently but maybe that's down to the inability of some customers to plan projects and co-ordinate the parts they need. I mean importing things from Brazil to QC them then send them to a similar plant in Malaysia. Surely to feck its cheaper to send a QC guy to Malaysia for a few days!

[Allvaux]

Originally Posted by Melv

What line of business is that Rick if you don't mind me asking?

I'm in freight forwarding. The company I work for specialise in Oil and Energy movements up in Aberdeen. Its actually been really busy recently but maybe that's down to the inability of some customers to plan projects and co-ordinate the parts they need. I mean importing things from Brazil to QC them then send them to a similar plant in Malaysia. Surely to feck its cheaper to send a QC guy to Malaysia for a few days!

Interesting that as I'm concerned with supply of relatively similar goods and trade seems to be dreadful at the moment. There's a slight increase in one area (selling these goods into Europe) but it's alleged because the pound is fairly weak they're buying from Britain as it works out cheaper.
Also regarding Brazil>QC>Malaysia there was talk the other year of making something in America, shipping to Britain, putting an addative in and shipping back to America!

[Jasovanooo]

im beginning to think we are gonne end up being offered the euro were one small step closer to the nwo

[Rick Draper]

Originally Posted by Melv

What line of business is that Rick if you don't mind me asking?

I'm in freight forwarding. The company I work for specialise in Oil and Energy movements up in Aberdeen. Its actually been really busy recently but maybe that's down to the inability of some customers to plan projects and co-ordinate the parts they need. I mean importing things from Brazil to QC them then send them to a similar plant in Malaysia. Surely to feck its cheaper to send a QC guy to Malaysia for a few days!

Airline industry.

[Melv]

Originally Posted by Rick Draper

Airline industry.

Ah OK.

By all accounts freight rates for one are falling in the airline industry because less companies are shipping ex UK. Airlines seem to be trying to boost their revenue by offering rates to Freight Forwarders which include fuel surcharges because fuel is costing them less therefore making them more money on the basic freight rate.

The Fuel surcharges don't make much difference to freight forwarding as they are usually passed on at cost.

As freight forwarding is a 3rd party 'industry' we get off rather lightly. Buy space on a plane / ship and sell it on. If the buying price rises then the selling price does too. OK profits may not be as high for some contracts but if you are working to a cost + x% contract then its not too bad.

Originally Posted by Allvaux

Interesting that as I'm concerned with supply of relatively similar goods and trade seems to be dreadful at the moment. There's a slight increase in one area (selling these goods into Europe) but it's alleged because the pound is fairly weak they're buying from Britain as it works out cheaper.
Also regarding Brazil>QC>Malaysia there was talk the other year of making something in America, shipping to Britain, putting an addative in and shipping back to America!

Crazy isn't it. I can understand buying things from the cheapest source but when the source is in a different country you would think that buying from the same country would be cost effective. OK the freight costs may be back charged to a customer but surely the customer would see that they are paying more.

[tathan]

He's a trolly dolly, bless.

[Melv]

Originally Posted by tathan

He's a trolly dolly, bless.

I'm basically a travel agent for boxes in leymans terms

[Colonel K]

Originally Posted by Melv

I'm basically a travel agent for boxes in leymans terms

think hes talking about the rickmaster... cut faster.

[Rick Draper]

Originally Posted by tathan

He's a trolly dolly, bless.

I am and i am currently in San Francisco.