A reader contacted me recently. Like many people, she was in a financial crisis.
Having cut back on all her expenses, she was still unable to meet the R3 000 additional cost to her mortgage each month.
I asked her bank, Standard Bank, to contact her and it was able to tailor-make a financial solution to help her through these difficult times.
Banks are often the whipping post for frustrated consumers and their credit policies in recent years have landed them and customers in hot water with higher interest rates, but it is good to see that they are putting on a very human face and assisting their customers rather than just foreclosing on their mortgages.
The effects of higher interest rates and inflation cannot be underestimated. This week I reminded myself of my father. I remember when I was young he used to complain about the cost of things. “I can’t believe this is what they charge for a bag of apples”; “Look at the price of that shirt, they can’t expect me to pay that.”
He also used to wander around switching off lights and complaining about the phone bill. It irritated the living daylights out of me. Then last week I saw a jersey I quite liked — I took one look at the price and told my husband: “They must be mad.” He told me I was out of touch with prices.
Then I met a friend for coffee and cake. We were both horrified at the bill. If I look back to the 1980s when my father was complaining, inflation reached 18% and interest rates were as high as 20%. No wonder he was feeling the shock of rising prices, just as we are all today.
The cost of living is going to become increasingly the topic of conversation at every table. We will start to meet friends for coffee rather than dinner and there will be more going “Dutch” as generosity will decline.
As consumers we will all be battening down the hatches until rates come down and, hopefully, the petrol price stabilises. The economists all say that things should get better by the end of 2009. That means holding out for another year, and part of that may be making a call to your bank before they call you.