Banks Telephone And Threaten Customers To Cut Spending Or Risk Foreclosure

Cash-strapped homeowners are being telephoned by their banks and told to cut spending on ‘luxuries’ – or risk losing their homes.

Every week, around 2,000 customers of Northern Rock Asset Management and Bradford & Bingley are being warned to slash their outlay on mobile phones, gym memberships and even socialising, to ‘prioritise’ their mortgages.

In an extraordinary admission, the taxpayer-owned banks said that for the first time they were doing secret credit checks to identify high-risk customers.

They expect to call 30,000 in total. Although it is standard for a credit check to be done when a loan is taken out, it is unprecedented for so many to be carried out after mortgages have been approved.