What with interest rates going up - and likely to go up again before the year is out, now is a good time to make friends with your bank manager. This is so that if and when you have to enter their office genuflecting and in a hushed voice have to ask for some sort of arrangement regarding your account, you have a greater chance of success. Actually, they don't usually have fangs dripping blood and will probably look upon your plea with sympathy because you're unlikely to be alone; the number of people under financial stress is growing as too many of us buy to the limit when rates are low - and then suffer when rates inevitably rise. Of course, the best way to solve a problem is to avoid it in the first place. Before taking a loan I have always assumed interest rates would double, I wouldn't get an increase or bonus, and rates and taxes would double - and if I could still afford my new toy, then I'd go for it. If I couldn't, I didn't. By the way, you'd better be serious should you have to have to ask for relief; once I decided to buy a caravan and went to apply for finance. The young lady took my details, leaned forward and asked "Do you have collateral?" Equally seriously, I leaned forward and replied "No, it's just the way I cross my legs." Thud... straight over her head and against the wall. It took a while to get us back on track as she explained to me in very painful detail exactly what collateral is (and I played innocent).

Rod Baker, Content Manager