| Author |
 Topic  |
|
Tizer
|
 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.
|
|
| Replies |
| Author |
|
|
Tizer
|
Posted - 21/03/2011 : 10:49
I think you will find these are the Amazon contact details:
Amazon EU Sàrl
5 Rue Plaetis
L-2338 Luxembourg
Registered in Luxembourg No. B-101818, Business License Number: 104408, Luxembourg VAT Reg. No. LU 2026074
But check about three-quarters of the way down this web page.
Edited by - Tizer on 21/03/2011 10:49:33
 |
catgate
|
Posted - 21/03/2011 : 11:00
quote:
Anni wrote:
Do I go for Amazon or Apple? I'm guessing Amazon and it then becomes their problem with Apple.
Some good pointers. Thanks.
Amazon sold it to you so they are responsible to you for the quality of your purchase.
They of course should check the quality of the goods they buy in for resale. However if the choose not to do so you can not be expected to suffer the consequense.
Having said that it sounds as though the guarantee period has past and so we come to the question of reasonable usage expectation. At this point you are more or less at the mercy of Apple, but Amazon is probably your best choice for first strike.
Every silver lining has a cloud.
|
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
|
|
Posted - 22/03/2011 : 04:53
I didn't hear it properly but there was a news item yesterday about the banks taking the question of splitting investment/high street functions seriously.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
|
Posted - 20/04/2011 : 09:18
More trouble at t' mill...."Norwich and Peterborough building society has been fined £1.4 million for mis-selling investments to 3,200 customers. The Financial Services Authority (FSA), which imposed the fine, said the society had failed to give them suitable advice... The society has already agreed to make compensation payments totalling £51 million." (BBC News, 18 April 2011).
"The problem for N&P customers, and thousands of other people who were sold Keydata polices by independent financial advisers, became evident when Keydata was closed down by the FSA in 2009. The policies it sold had been based on second-hand life insurance policies bought from elderly people in the US. The investors would earn a return when those people died and the life insurance policies paid out. After Keydata's closure it swiftly emerged that £103m invested by 5,500 people in one set of policies, packaged for Keydata by a Luxembourg firm called SLS, had in fact been stolen in a fraud.
"About £350m had been invested by another 23,000 people in another set of Keydata policies. These polices were packaged for Keydata by another Luxembourg firm called Lifemark. They stopped paying their expected monthly income and are still at risk while an administrator in Luxembourg tries to rescue Lifemark."
|
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
|
|
Posted - 21/04/2011 : 06:51
Thanks for bringing this one back up Tiz, saves me doing it! I noted that the Appeal Court has thrown out the bank's appeal against having to pay back-dated repayments to customers who can prove they were mis-sold income protection insurances. The thing that strikes me is that if, as the reports suggest, the total at risk for the banks runs into Billions of pounds, the interest on that amount of money will more than pay for a furher Appeal by the banks. As far as they are concerned it must look like a no-brainer. Even if the last appeal fails they will make money if the interest is coming in faster than the lawyer's fees are going out. So my message to the victims is don't start spending the proceeds yet!
On another level, a good sign that the courts have decided against the banks. Remember the judgement on the small print in conditions which allowed the ridiculous bank charges? Even though this was a straightforwad decision on Contract Law it was beginning to look as though the Law Lords were supporting the Masters of the Universe.
I was listening to the Money Programme on Saturday and they were warning anyone who relied on payments getting into their account to avoid penalty charges should be aware that because of the coincidence of the Easter Holiday being followed by the wedding, in effect, allowing for the normal lag between paying in a cheque and it getting to the account, some payments made late today and tomorrow could take 12 days to reach the account. I wonder how many people will be caught out by that one? Being a simple minded bugger it seems to me that if the banks are not operating they should not be allowed to use those days in any penalty decision. But I suppose that's far too naive.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
|
Posted - 21/04/2011 : 09:26
I'm pleased to hear the result on payment protection insurance which has been a major scam with many people being `sold' it without their knowledge (it was added in to the total without them being told) and many finding that if they needed to call on the insurance they were ineligible (and it should not have been sold to them in the first place). If anyone out there has this insurance it's worth looking at the terms & conditions as if you were going to claim and see if you would be eligible for it. If not, file a claim to get your premiums back.
|
Anni
Regular Member
634 Posts
|
|
Posted - 21/04/2011 : 14:18
And me Tizer. I have a 76 year old friend who tried to claim on his Payment Protection insurance for a credit card over 11 years ago, only to be told he wasn't eligible. And he has been paying a small monthly sum to the credit card company ever since.
I will now be working with his other friend (we have joint PoA although it is not yet in force), who is a hot-shot lawyer to try to do something.
It is interesting to note that the credit card company (a large bank), recently contacted him offering him a one off deal to pay it off now. He wanted to do this, but I did the figures and advised against it.
I wonder whether the bank smelt their loss coming?
|
Anni
Regular Member
634 Posts
|
|
Posted - 21/04/2011 : 14:50
I decided to close down my "secret emergency savings account" purely because I am tired of trying to remember all the different log in and password names and numbers required to exist in today's world.
I have just got off the phone to the bank. They are closing the account and transferring the amount into my current account. It will be credited next Thursday. I was given the tired explanation of the public holidays.
So much for electronic transmissions! I didn't know computers got Easter off. It really does beggar belief.
|
Tizer
|
Posted - 21/04/2011 : 20:11
I once tried to get the London branch of a big American bank to give me an account into which I could pay American customers' dollar cheques and occasionally transfer the monies to my sterling account without me being charged for the currency change to pounds. Can't do it, the man said. Why not? Well, we have to cover the cost of the currency exchange. But, says I, you're an American bank with dollars in your vault and you're office is in London so you have sterling too. And it's all electronic anyway, no coins or notes involved, so it wouldn't cost you anything to do it for me. His response was "Still can't do it without a charge". (Note that we weren't talking about a free account, but simply avoiding the extra charge for changing the currency. They would have still made money out of me from ordinary account charges and interest on using my money.) It's one big scam and the governments let them get away with it.
|
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
|
|
Posted - 22/04/2011 : 06:58
Did you see the news that the hedge fund that lost Billions in gas trading has eventually been fined £18million in the States? Small change in the world of High Finance I know but cheering that someone is pursuing these matters. Has anyone been following the Vodaphone Scam with HMRC in PE? So many questions, so few answers!
I once had an American bank account and often wonder if I should have kept it going. First National of Northfield.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Anni
Regular Member
634 Posts
|
|
Posted - 23/04/2011 : 17:49
The sun is shining and what do I decide to do? My tax. Must be mad.
Anyhooo, I was checking my bank account and saw that cheque guarantee is ending in June. Bearing in mind, I can't remember the last time anyone asked me to guarantee a cheque, I was mildly curious. So, I read on.
The biggest change to their terms and conditions is that from that date, you will no longer be able to cash a cheque at the Post Office in Scotland. OK. I read on. If you are happy with this, you don't need to do anything. If you are not happy with it, give 'em a ring and they will close your account at no charge to yourself.
Doesn't affect me, but it does strike me as though you are kind of caught between a rock and a hard place and reminds me of the wording of some of the credit card companies. Simply, if you don't like the increase in interest you can cancel your account. Of course, the whole amount then becomes due.
I might have a very tight monthly budget, but am grateful I don't have to play their games.
|
frankwilk
|
Posted - 23/04/2011 : 18:57
It's just a move forward to charging for a bank account !!!!
Frank Wilkinson Once Navy Always Navy |
Anni
Regular Member
634 Posts
|
|
Posted - 23/04/2011 : 20:10
Frank - it is a move backwards - I can remember being charged for bank account transactions .
The one that always sticks in my mind is being charged either 30p or 50p to withdraw cash from my own bank's cashpoint.
|
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
|
|
Posted - 24/04/2011 : 05:47
Anni, when there were charges we got interest on deposits, not much I'll grant you but now we get nothing. Bank accounts have never been free, they always find some way of getting their money. There was a Man Who Knows About Banking on the Money Programme yesterday and he made the point that what the banks lose on the swings of PP insurance they will gain on the roundabout of bank charges. I think he's probably right!
The same man also had something to say about HMRC sending the grippers in for small amounts of tax owing (Only seems to be used on small accounts!). He gave a useful tip: The bailiffs cannot force their way in, they have to be invited. Once invited in they can break in on a subsequent visit. His advice was keep the windows closed and don't allow anyone over the threshold until you are certain who they are. Don't let them in!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
tripps
|
Posted - 24/04/2011 : 08:46
" but now we get nothing"
Not true I'm afraid. Lloyds pay interest on current accounts if you change your account to "vantage". Thsey don't promote it too hard though. It was 4% on the first £8000, but they changed it yesterday to 3% on the first £5000. The letter advising this change was a masterpiece - implying that the situation was improving! Still a good interest rate for curent times though.
I seem to recall that the fee for cash withdrawal was only for machines of other banks?
Edited by - tripps on 24/04/2011 08:46:50 AM
|
Beware, the banks are out to get you!
