South

Joe writes...

Where did it all go so wrong?

Less than a year ago, everything seemed just fine and dandy, at least to a layman like myself (and I’m certainly no Robert Peston).

House prices were still rising, there were plenty of jobs to go around and free flowing credit was being doled out with the reckless abandon of custard in a school canteen when the dinner lady’s had one sherry too many.

Money, money, money

Some clever investors had even unearthed some absolute bargains such as savings accounts with a whopping 7% interest.

Where? Iceland of course!

And then, it all came crashing down. It had to, I guess.

The only real mystery, looking back, is how we all managed to develop collective amnesia of the last crash and failed to see this one coming.

However, I do know from our filming in a Southampton pawn shop, that the effects of this economic strife are starting to filter down to ordinary people.

The Cash Converters we filmed at was doing a roaring trade as people who’d been denied credit by cautious banks or regretful credit card companies sought another way of getting cash.

Most people just needed a few quid to tide them over until the next pay cheque and it seemed that DVDs were the currency of choice, pawned for £1 or £2 each.

But as well as providing a reliable (although high interest) last resort for credit, pawn shops have also played their role in facilitating the spend now, pay later culture of recent times.

Spend now, pay later?

BJ's story

I met BJ, a window cleaner on benefits. He was constantly buying items from catalogues on a buy now pay later basis then walking straight into the nearest pawn brokers and cashing in on these brand new, unused goods.

It was certainly a way of getting cash quickly but it’s also a vicious cycle that has left him in huge sums of debt, continually having to pawn the few remaining items he owns outright just to service the interest on the amounts borrowed or things pawned.

And the horrid thing is that for people like BJ, it really is hard to see any way out.

But while he’s an extreme example, we all borrow to a lesser or greater extent, and it’s a little depressing to think how difficult it is to change this culture of debt that’s now engrained in every area of our society.

Perhaps though, the one bright note of this recession is that it rids the world of some seriously bad taste bling.

Sad though it is when people have to give up personal jewellery, there really is no accounting for taste.

Yes, when things get tough it seems that fewer people make it back to claim their huge gold medallions and skull shaped gold signet rings.

And with the gold price holding up, few pawn brokers need any more encouragement to consign the fate of these tasteless trinkets to the smelting pot of history.

Good riddance!