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Your Grandchildren will ask you where the revolution began and you will tell them: The Barrel House
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<p>I’m toying with doing this myself. What if I can walk away from my £5K bank loan? -Just walk away mind you. Not bankrupt. Still remain a legitimate human being. Walk around with my head up and a credit rating worth, at a push<span id="more-919"></span>, a beach hut. College sadled me with an 8 grand Barclays career development loan. Right now it’s a ‘better-than-half-price’ four and a half grand. I’ve been paying it dillegently but recently I’ve heared that I don’t even have a contract with Barclays and Barclays aint got no contract with me. Contracts are signed by <em>both</em> parties, thus, I haven’t agreed to pay them anything<!--more-->.</p>
<a href="http://www.getoutofdebtfree.org"><img class="size-full wp-image-963" title="no contract" src="http://www.totnesmonster.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/no-contract.png" alt="no contract return slip" width="299" height="120" /></a>
<p>Jon Witterick, of <a href="http://www.getoutofdebtfree.org">GetOutofDebtFree.org</a>, claims to have saved members of the website well over £2 million (and counting, <em>fast). </em>But are the ‘savings’ members make costing you and me? If I stole an apple, the supermarket loses the thirteen pence it costs to fly it over. If I keep on stealing apples (imagine I get really good at it) the price of cox’s will go up for everyone.</p>
<p>In 7 minutes then, is it ethical, is it <em>possible</em> and what will your credit rating look like once you’ve officially become bad debt?</p>
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<p>And here’s the <a href="http://www.getoutofdebtfree.org">website</a>. Buckle up, you’re in for the ride of your life. <!--more-->You (probably) don’t have much in the way of a contract with your own bank re said load/credit card and neither do they. <em>You</em> signed the application forms, and the other bits, but <em>they</em> didn’t. So you have less than a half a contract. OK so far? Good, then let’s take a look at your name. Here’s where the fun begins. Indulge me a little please:</p>
<p>Name: (Please PRINT)</p>
<p>__________________________________________</p>
<p>What ever you put in the box above – it doesn’t mean YOU. According to Jon, the name your bank impresses on your credit card IN CAPITALS is a legal fiction. It doesn’t mean <em>you</em> the living person, in the flesh so to speak. To illustrate his point; the opposite would be you turning up at Barcleys as a living person, and Barclays, the Man Himself had turned up as well. I can hear him now, he’ll say ‘Chris your business is important to me because I’m feckin’ loaded, and you’re part of that’. And I’ll feel modest but proud that my labour was a key part in his massive <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jan/09/barclays-bonus-boss-bob-diamond">bonus</a> <em>and</em> the global economic recovery. <em>BTW</em><em> right now I’m not convinced that killing a banker is wrong, so if you perceive any anger coming through you can be sure that you’re s</em><em>aving lives </em><em>just by reading</em>.</p>
<p>It’s like this: they are a limited company and <em>your</em> name (the actual word, in CAPITALS) is also a company name. Jon’s site originates in the UK but handles several different countries – the essence is the same.</p>
<p>I had a look at the forum and baring in mind that a bank will want to talk to you regarding shed debt, (which itself is illegal and, like this man, can get you <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1362603/Judge-writes-customers-20-000-credit-card-debt-hearing-hounded-repay-money.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">off the hook</a>) you’re going to need advice. Luckily the <a href="http://www.totnesmonster.org/audio/jon%20witterick.mp3">forum</a> is active and friendly. So why does the idea of using ancient contract law, hammered hard in the mud and stone boardroom of the past. Designed and built by humans protecting the humans of the future. As in us. Scare me half to death?</p>
<p>Jon would have you believe that our ancestors devised a strategy to keep the future safe from a financial fiction that would grow beyond all expectations, I mean who would believe that? Largely speaking, they seem to have failed. Or we’ve failed. Either way the laws still exist and they can be used by anyone. You might like to reassure <em>your</em> bank that all is well and no laws have been broken. And, who’s with me here, Barclay’s: you won’t be getting another penny from me.</p>
<p>Still, before you jump in with both feet you might like to check out the alternatives. <a href="http://www.totnesmonster.org/2011/02/28/the-moneyless-man-chats-to-chris-about-money-and-the-lack-of-it/">Mark Boyle</a>, for example, lives entirely without money. Using a concept he calls <a href="http://www.justfortheloveofit.org">Freeconomy</a>. Mark reckons money is to relationships what prostitution is to sex. Without money, says Mark, all his interactions are more honest and fullfiling. You might want to read the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moneyless-Man-Year-Freeconomic-Living/dp/1851687874/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299412048&sr=8-2-spell">Moneyless Man</a> book and get hold of a caravan. If these two extremes leave you feeling faint then maybe you could dip your toe in with a complimentary currency.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/20/george-monbiot-recession-currencies">George Monbiot</a> rates complimentary currencies quite highly even going as far as saying we might actually <em>need</em> them to get out of global recesion. George rates one of the economists in this video on making your own money.</p>
<p>I’m going to leave you right in at the deep end with the first part of the film Money as Debt. It explains fractional reserve banking and why it makes the masses poor and the few, as R Buckminster Fuller would say, <em>uselessly advantaged</em>.</p>
ahh, so it’s begun then. I cancelled the standing order, not just because I can but because I’m bloody skint. Last month I scraped the rent by going into the red (unauthorised and expensive). So that’s it – no more career development loan payments, I’ll be following the advice set out in getoutofdebtfree.org and I expect letters and phone calls from Barcleys shortly – I’ll keep you posted!
Ok, I’ve received the first phone call. Got a bit flustered and didn’t say the set piece ‘any future calls may constitute harassment’ but did say I’ll go and get him and left the phone hanging until they got bored – about 6 minutes. I anticipate a letter and will then respond with letter number 1 from http://www.getoutofdebtfree.org. I love the way the process set things up so that the bank could end up owing me money if they take me to court! The gloves are off…
Second phone call, heart rate went up. But did say that any further phone calls may be taken as harassment. Received a letter from Barcleys this morning, suggesting that I was in arrears and that I should consider my credit rating. Time to send them letter 1.
How did things turn out after you sent all three letters?
I’ve now sent the 3 letters and the Estoppel – Barcleys have phoned me 27 times. Under our Tacit agreement I now have invoiced them for £27000 – they have yet to pay. Join http://www.getoutofdebtfree.org forums for help with specifics. One of the best things is although I thought this would be horrible it’s actually good fun. Do join the forum for moral support:)