Dear Mary

21 February 2009

Your problems solved

A. Confide in your friend your worries that you have recently become somewhat stale as a thinker. You no longer have confidence in your judgment of her work — especially now it has entered a new league of excellence. You would never forgive yourself if you held her progress back. Consequently you advise her now to find a new sounding board and, indeed, to refresh this role on a regular basis.

Q. I am currently paying 29.9 per cent on a credit card bill on which I have no hope of paying anything but the interest. Meanwhile a pensioner friend is getting only 1 per cent on his savings. Would it be wrong for me to suggest he pay off my debt (of £5,000) while I repay him at, say, 10 per cent interest?

Name and address withheld

A. It is best not to do business with friends. Instead suggest he introduce you to another new pensioner. While you do secured business with Pensioner Two you can meanwhile introduce Pensioner One to one of your own credit-card-indebted friends that he has not met before.

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arky

February 19th, 2009 1:00pm Report this comment

May I pass on a tip to the person with the credit card bill of £5,000 at 29.9% interest? The cardholder should try directly negotiating with the bank to see if the interest rate can be reduced. Instructions are available at: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20020415a.asp

Failing that, the borrower should try Zopa.com for a loan at 10%, instead of bothering friends; the site is a matchmaking service for loaners and borrowers.

justin kent

February 20th, 2009 10:17pm Report this comment

god, what an idiot this pretentious snob is...surely mary you can see this is pure self-aggrandizement...each reference to self worse than the next (US gratuate school, albany, wanting to help australians meeting titled folk...)is this what your column is for?