Many financial problems in today's society stem from the now attitude, people want everything now, worrying about paying for it later, obviously banks and lenders are more than happy with this situation as we will on average pay them back double the amount borrowed, making them wealthy in the process.

However, within the finance industry there appears to be a distinct lack of morals and limits with regards to the amount you can borrow, there even seems to be a purposeful and often dangerous lack of communication between departments within the same company, a good example being, when someone holds credit cards from apparently different card companies, only to discover when they are neck high in debt, that just one credit card company has issued several cards under different branding and threatening court action.

In the last 20 years more people than ever have credit card bills that have little or no chance of ever getting repaid and more still have obtained mortgages beyond their means. Obviously this is not a good situation to be in, but who is at fault? The lending companies for over lending or the public for over borrowing?

The bottom line is that all companies have the sole purpose of making money and many will do whatever it takes to fulfil this objective, whether you are dealing with a bank or a supermarket, they all use ingenious marketing campaigns to seduce us into parting with our money. With the UK gradually becoming a company in its own right and nearly every public service being run by a limited company, it's becoming harder than ever to determine what is in our own best interest.

The only answer seems to be, not to believe what we are told on the can, but to research the people offering services and come to our own conclusions, anyone good at their job will be perfectly happy to supply details of satisfied customers, and this principal applies to all trades, from plumbers through to mortgage advice. In addition, when dealing with finances, the reason a loan amount is calculated upon income is to ensure it is affordable to you and doesn't leave you in financial disaster, so honesty really is the best policy.