Two hours after the 20-year-old driver left, the gas station called the police, who interrogated the stranded "deposit" before releasing her.

It does not help them that interest rates are at their lowest for 400 years (at 1%); mortgage providers are hardly in a state to lend on high multiples of incomes at the moment.

Too often lenders connived with borrowers to swell the size of mortgages, or worse, sell borrowers the wrong policy.