Quote ="Dally"No one was so gullible as to think they were getting the money for free. They just think they "deserved" a flashier lifestyle. To suggest they needed protecting from themselves (except for some disabled people) is frankly socialist nonsense.
NR had become (in my opinion) an unethical selling machine long before they crashed. I moved a mortgage away from them (at cost to myself) because that was my opinion and they disgusted me. I find it hard to believe others hadn't formed such a view.'"
No-one suggested that they were getting it for free, but by over selling their mortgage products in an orgy of greed they failed to provide any sort of test for applicants being only interested in lending larger amounts than needed secured against assets that they seemed convinced would never devalue, that was their failing, not the borrowers failing, if someone promises you that you can afford to borrow more than you thought you'd ever be approved for then many will go for it and trying to pretend that the whole of the UK population are chartered accountants and will apply their own stress tests is frankly ridiculous, they won't and they didn't and were led by the nose by the greed of the sales staff.
NR were not always like that, I took out my first mortgage with them in 1982 when I lived in Newcastle and they left me with the impression that they were doing me a huge favour in lending me £9400 to buy a one bedroom flat, I virtually had to crawl on hands and knees and beg for the mortgage even though I was in a decent salaried job, I left the office after filling in forms for nearly an hour so that they even knew which day of the week I changed my underpants, the Gestapo would have probably required fewer details than NR did - that all changed when the bankers and their pals in government decided to trust them enough to release the reins and almost let them self govern, NR became a bank and the selling vultures took up roost.
