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Tizer
VIP Member


5150 Posts
Posted -  25/06/2010  :  09:59
I just love banks, don't you? They go out of their way to make life exciting and to make sure we are always wondering if our account will have been emptied by tomorrow morning. They spend a fortune launching `Chip & Pin' and trying to convince us that it is infallible and that any fraud on our card in future will be due to our failings, not theirs. They do us great favours like deciding, unilaterally, to get rid of cheques. They are so good to us I thought we should reward them with a thread devoted to their marvellous escapades. Let me start with this offering but please add your own experiences and comments...

We have received a letter from Santander (Abbey Nat to you and me) beginning "We are deligted to inform you..." which always sets alarm bells ringing, and ends "As Santander we will continue to offer innovative, great value products and are committed to delivering excellent service to our customers" which sets the sirens blaring.  What they are delighted to inform me is that they have upgraded (without consulting me) my Cheque Guarantee Card to a Visa Debit Card. But I don't want a Visa debit card, I don't need another card, it's just another thing to get stolen, lost or defrauded.

But there's a sting in the tail. They then tell me to destroy my cheque guarantee card by cutting it in half. OK, I think, the new card will be used for this instead. But no, lower down in the letter it says the new card cannot be used to guarantee cheques. I know that cheques are set to be phased out (unilaterally once again, by June 2011) but it looks like the banks have devised a great scam to deprive us of cheque guarantee cards so they can say that cheques are not much use. I use cheques a lot and I would prefer that they were not phased out, but then, hey, the banks are not there just for you and me, are they?

I notice that although the letter tells me to destroy the cheque card, nowhere does it say that I cannot continue to use it. So I'm going to use it for as long as possible. I advise everyone to do the same. The banks are just hoping we will all fall in line with their demands and destroy the cards immediately.


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Tizer
VIP Member


5150 Posts
Posted - 29/11/2010 : 10:13
Catty, banking is based on confidence among customers and markets, it couldn't exist without confidence.

This is used by Terry Pratchett in his novel `Making Money' which is about the bank of Ank Morpork. If you haven't read it already borrow it from the library and enjoy it. Some details are on Wkipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_Money


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Tizer
VIP Member


5150 Posts
Posted - 29/12/2010 : 09:45
I hope you haven't missed out over Christmas on all the news about what the banks are doing to lose your money! Here are just a few examples from the last week or so.

 
Row over bank card loophole thesis (Press Association, 29th Dec 2010)
A Cambridge University professor has accused the bank cards industry of making a "very nasty attempt at censorship" over a flaw in chip and PIN technology. The UK Cards Association (UKCA), which represents the country's biggest banks, wrote to the university to try to remove the online publication of research which shows how a £20 hand-held device could be used to buy goods without entering the correct PIN. Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University's Computer Laboratory, said: "This was absolutely unacceptable. It was a very, very nasty attempt at censorship."
----------------------
Bank blunder sends wrong statements (Press Association, 24th Dec, 2010
Spanish banking giant Santander has sent bank statements for up to 35,000 customers to the wrong addresses. The group said a printing glitch led to customers being sent the first page of their own bank statement but pages two and three of another customer's. The statements included customers' names, account numbers and details of transactions they had carried out, although Santander insisted this was not enough information to enable someone to commit fraud on their account.
-----------------------------------

'Error' led to bank payments delay (Press Association, 24th Dec 2010)

Incorrect bank balances, declined cards and missing wages have all been reported by shocked Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers on Christmas Eve. The banks were inundated with phone calls from concerned customers when a technical error led to delays in payments being made and received. But the problem - which only affected debits and credits conducted overnight - has been corrected and all delayed transactions have now been processed.

-----------------------------------

Lender Set to Pay Out £19 Million in Mortgage Blunder (mortgagerates.org.uk,28th dec 2010)

Earlier this year thousands of already cash strapped borrowers faced increases to their monthly mortgage payments due to an error caused by Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank. The Glasgow based bank is now set to have to pay up to £19 million as a result of their blunder.

Around 18,000 customers of the two banks who currently held variable and tracker rate mortgages were affected by the error. The error is a result of the two banks calculating capital payments incorrectly. The miscalculation resulted in both banks collecting less than the minimum monthly payment. This was made worse by the record low interest rates. These underpayments have led to many of its customers having shortfalls on their mortgages which means they will not pay off their mortgages within the agreed term.


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 30/12/2010 : 06:15
Funny you should bring this topic up today. Occasionally Old Dads come in useful. I got a call from my daughter in Oz asking for advice about her Barclay's Bank account in UK. She kept it open to make transactions with UK easier but recently started receiving notices that she was over-drawn and debits were mounting up. It transpired that they had made an alteration in the terms of the account which she missed. I don't suppose they tried very hard to appraise her of them. The letter told her that the debit was curently about £250 so she asked me if I'd go to the bank, sort it out and we'd square up between us. So far so good.

I went to the local branch and managed to get one of the tellers to abandon his warm seat and fire up the terminal in a cold private room. (It took ages to boot up!) I explained the problem, told him I had no interest in how the debit had arisen and that my intention was to stop the charges, make certain that no more be made and get clear directions on how to close the account and srtike a closing balance which would result in a final payment being made to my daughter as this would be incontravertible evidence that the account was indeed closed.

He started off by trying to explain how it had happened (Daughter's fault of course according to him.) and said that I couldn't effect any changes because it wasn't my account. I had to educate him! (Sorry about the length of this but there is a moral and a warning.)

I told him that I certainly could do something, like paying in enough money into the account to put it in credit. He agreed that this was correct. I then had to get him to see sense and tell me exactly what the balance was. Of course the rules say that I can't do this either but I persuaded him to tell me what payment I would have to make to clear the debit balance. We finally arrived at a figure of £360 not £250 as the bank had told my daughter. I didn't bother to try to get him to explain the discrepancy, I just deposited £360 in the account, got an assurance from him that no further charges would be generated in the interval between my payment and the arrival of the (registered) letter closing the account and got out of the bank.  I rang my daughter, told her the result and gave her the form of the letter and the adress to send it to. She will sleep better tonight.

The moral and the warning. If you have a moribund account and still need to keep it open keep a careful eye on it. The bank will not necessarily send someone round to your door to tell you of any changes in charges etc. Far more likely to be buried in the fine print in one of those thick statements of bank policy they send which nobody ever reads. What was more disturbing, and it smacks of sharp practice to me, was the fact that the 'current blance' they quoted her was not correct and if she had simply taken it at face value and made a deposit the charges would still have been mounting up. There is little doubt in my mind that some of the bank's finest brains are being bent towards extracting the maximum amount of charges from any account that is under-used in their terms or actually carrying a small debit. They have ways and means of making this grow at rates which would look bad in a back street loan shark!  So, my recommendation is stay alert and if you find a situation like the one I have described (and you can afford it) don't argue with the buggers, just take steps to clear the debit balance and close the account. Any possible inconvenience from doing this will not be anywhere near as troublesome and expensive as trying toget the bank to admit culpability. As Tiz said when he started this interesting topic, the banks are out to get you!


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 07/01/2011 : 07:56
Apart from the bad news about the rate of increase of management wages compared with workers which I don't think will ever be cured as long as the management has overt or covert influence on so-called 'independent' remuneration committees, we now begin to realise that the bankers have won again.

The ConDem goverment promised they would 'do something about excessive bonuses'. They are beginning to realise that the bankers are too smart for them. Many bonuses have been converted to shares instead of cash and another ploy has been to raise basic salary rates to reduce the headline figure of bonuses. Even people like the CBI and the Bank of England agree that the payments are excessive but the general view seems to be that the only people who have any influence at all in the matter is the shareholders. However, as their dividends depend on the same mechanisms as the ones driving the increases in remuneration of the bankers any help from this quarter looks unlikely. Once again Bankers 1, Government Nil!


Stanley Challenger Graham




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frankwilk
Senior Member


3975 Posts
Posted - 07/01/2011 : 09:02
It is for shareholders to reign in the Bonus Culture.
Goverments  be it Labour/Conservative/Liberal can only Tinker around the edge with Salary and Tax .
We/You could always draw out our Cash and put it into a Mutual Building Society with online banking facilities ???

" The moral and the warning. If you have a moribund account and still need to keep it open keep a careful eye on it. The bank will not necessarily send someone round to your door to tell you of any changes in charges etc"
They Will and have to do so by Law, the person who delivers it on behalf of the Bank is called the Postman or it is done by the Internet.
 I am not defending the Bank's, but as you rightly say Stanley you need to keep a careful eye on your own money, because no one else will, and if you don't you will end up being parted from it.

Edited by - frankwilk on 07/01/2011 09:43:41 AM



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Tizer
VIP Member


5150 Posts
Posted - 07/01/2011 : 11:13
It's true Frank that you have to keep an eye on your money but the banks have crafty ways of burying the information about account changes so that most people won't see it.

The shareholders are largely the pension trust funds which have been negligent in their duties as major shareholders. And the people who run the funds earn fortunes like the bankers so they're not going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Most individual shareholders no longer have voting rights after the stock exchange changes about a decade ago and can only show their concern by selling shares, not by influencing company decisions.

The banks are making so many errors I almost missed this one...

"More than 200,000 people who used their credit and debit cards on New Year's Eve have been double-charged by Lloyds. The customers may discover two identical charges appearing on their statements after an error, the BBC has reported. The problem is linked to Lloyds TSB Cardnet, the payment processing service provided to retailers by the banking giant. Lloyds told This is Money that the retailers experienced a 'technical error' with wireless terminals used to deal with card payments. However, the bank couldn't confirm the BBC claim that over 200,000 customers were affected."

From the This is Money web site.


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frankwilk
Senior Member


3975 Posts
Posted - 07/01/2011 : 13:05
I understand that Tizer hence my statement that Labour/Liberals/Conservative Goverments can't do anything about it.!!!
They can Only Regulate the Bank's which is what failed, oh that was the bit under control of the Goverment !!!!



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Anni
Regular Member


634 Posts
Posted - 07/01/2011 : 14:43
For anyone who actually believed any political party was capable of reignng in the banks and the huge pay/bonus can I just politely suggest medication and/or therapy. LaughingLaughing

Was it Liza Minelli in Cabaret who sang "Money makes the world go around" and where the other saying which springs to miind "Money Talks! comes from I don't know.

It is times likes this where I hate being older because the experience age brings outweighs a natural optimistic outlook. 

I have become very cynical. Laughing


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pluggy
Geek


1164 Posts
Posted - 07/01/2011 : 17:12
The banks argument is that they need to pay hefty bonuses to keep the best people who make them money, so they pay off the baleout debt quicker.  If thats the case I can't see the shareholders saying much. 


Need computer work ?
"http://www.stsr.co.uk"

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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 08/01/2011 : 05:31
You're right Plugs. That was something that was mentioned yesterday on a money programme, the government daren't take the threat of damage to the casino banking sector by screwing down seriously on excessive bonuses, however improbable the threats, because they look forward to the bonus of repayment from the banks we invested in. I don't believe the threat that institutaions will leave. There are other reasons for them to trade from London, the biggest one being the time zone and how it meshes with the rest of the world. Besides, turkeys don't vote for Christmas.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Tizer
VIP Member


5150 Posts
Posted - 08/01/2011 : 11:52
"I don't believe the threat that institutions will leave."

Have a listen to that humorous Radio 4 podcast I linked on the Attention thread. In particular the last words!

Edited by - Tizer on 08/01/2011 11:53:55


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 09/01/2011 : 05:37
While I was reading this news on R4 of an enormous bonus for the boss of RBS. We own 87% of the bank. QED.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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frankwilk
Senior Member


3975 Posts
Posted - 09/01/2011 : 08:44
" because they look forward to the bonus of repayment from the banks we invested in ".

They the Goverment also look forward to the 50% Tax Take from any bonus paid out !!!!! 
I often wonder about the headline salary/bonus figure. Take RBS quoted as £7 Million it is actually £3.2 million after stoppages I know it is still a lot, but we don't do so badly out of it !!!!

Edited by - frankwilk on 09/01/2011 10:38:28 AM



Frank Wilkinson       Once Navy Always Navy Go to Top of Page
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 10/01/2011 : 06:29
Cameron thinks it is too much, or at least that's what he was saying yesterday for public consumption. However, if you listened carefully there wasn't a single concrete statement of intent in what he said. He left all the loopholes open. How surprising!


Stanley Challenger Graham




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frankwilk
Senior Member


3975 Posts
Posted - 10/01/2011 : 08:43
That is because he can't do anything about it.Neither can Cable (Liberal) or Milliband (Labour) I would love to know what the answer is, every banker to get the minimum wage ?? No Answer Stanley and you know that to. PS Don't forget the Bank Levy introduced by the Goverment and the 50% Tax take !!!!



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