Barclays Life Skills Session

Just had a session on life skills with three amazing people from Barclays, really interesting and interactive session.
We touch upon many different aspects of money and loans and paying off payments, we even touched upon fraud towards the end which was good.

We spoke about different bank account like current accounts and what some of the transactions actually are, like a standing order, direct debit and also overdraft limits. I did not know what most of this meant before this session and now I have a better understanding of it.
I also, with credit cards, did not know that different banks offer different incentives for you to take out a card with them. For example some banks offer travel insurance, discounts for students exc which are really good because some banks are better suited for different types of people.

Another thing we touched upon was terminology like APR or what interest actually meant. Now I have a phone contract on my bank account which I pay for and also with my car insurance. I have no intention of not paying that off each month but i did not know that when you buy something on a credit card and if you miss a payment, the amount you have to pay increases. Now that kinda scares me, imagine if I loose my job and suddenly don't have an income, Im gonna be in a bit of a mess because I will owe loads more than i originally needed to pay.

Then we went onto talking about credit score, i've heard about credit scores on the radio and TV but I never really knew what one was until today and it's very scary to find out that everything you do is being monitored and then any money issues you have will affect your credit score.

Then we spoke about insurance and what insurance you need to take out and that you might want to think about. We also looked in depth about what you are actually covered for on your insurance and that insurance companies will do anything to get out of paying. Then it was mentioned that someone had their belongings stolen because they left their window unlocked, the insurance company refused to pay because there was no forced entry... Now that just annoys me, you make a little mistake and then that can have a massive impact on you and you could potentially lose thousands.

Then we went onto fraud which was a very interesting and scary topic, about how someone could take your identity, take out a loan for loads of money and then vanish off the face of the earth and you are responsible for that.
Its a scary place the world now with technology advancing, we just need to watch what were doing and be careful when it comes to borrowing money and letting people know your personal data.

Overall an amazing session which I was very happy to attend