Getting fat on debt
26 Mar 08
An economist has devised a bank-mass index
Self-indulgence raises your body-mass index, we all know that – but now a real economist has devised a bank-mass index, which is also increased by self-indulgence.
It’s a wheeze by Lloyds TSB to get us to take debt seriously and you can find out how overweight in credit you are by going to its website, www.needtoknowaboutbanking.com
Fill in the form with what you owe on plastic, what your savings are, and one or two other details and it will give you a score: 20 to 25 you’re safe, 26 to 29 watch out; 30-plus, danger zone.
A poll found that Scotland is the most financially obese part of the UK with an average score of 33. Lloyds TSB, which no doubt issues a credit card or two every now and then, and occasionally approves the odd overdraft, goes on to offer “top tips for your financial detox”, rather in the way booze adverts at the pictures say in tiny print “drink responsibly”.
The thing could be looked at through the opposite end of the telescope. You could say huge debt meant financial anorexia – not a spare pound. But while we’re viewing it from Lloyds TSB’s point of view, we say: “Let’s hear it for the size zeros!”