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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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frankwilk
Senior Member


3975 Posts
Posted - 03/05/2011 : 08:13
The banking system changed when people started to be paid directly to the bank. I remember getting my wage packet on a Thursday and that was it. The system couldn't cope now with type written statements simply because to many of us now have Bank Acounts. 



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


36804 Posts
Posted - 06/05/2011 : 07:19
Refreshing to note that Lloyds Bank has broken ranks, bitten the bullet and announced that it will not be contesting the Appeal Court decision on the mis-selling of PP insurance. They have set aside more than £3billion to cover repayments and taken the hit of a first quarter loss.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Tizer
VIP Member


5150 Posts
Posted - 10/05/2011 : 10:26
...and very interesting now to see the whole banking system has given in and effectively admitted they've been ripping off the UK public for years with their PPI scam. Estimates are that the banks in total will end up paying out between £7 billion and £9 billion in compensation. Of course we musn't rejoice too much because (1) they will claw it all back by introducing more bank charges and (2) the drop in the bank share prices will hit millions of ordinary UK folk via their pension funds. And all this after they wrecked the world economy (with the help of complicit governments) and have millions of customer complaints every year on issues other than PPI. Don't we just love bankers?


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 11/05/2011 : 06:13
You beat me to it Peter! For a while I was puzzled by why they seemed to care nothing about their image. Of course that didn't last long. They don't need to worry because they know (or think) they are indispensible and invulnerable. I still believe that the biggest mistake that was made was the 100% bail out. There was a choice at the time, we could have taken them into public ownership and attacked the faults in the system via a different route. Whether that would have been any improvement is debatable but one thing is certain in my mind, more money could have been pumped into the economy at low level to stimulate the economy and I suspect that in the end that would have benifited more people than simply protecting the banks and their shareholders.

One thing we tend to forget is that the bail-out is still going on. Think of Ireland and the other EU members in financial trouble. The reason why UK PLC is guaranteeing support and could eventually have to pay money is to protect the UK banks who have lent money to their banking systems and are exposed. We haven't seen the final fall out yet. 


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Tizer
VIP Member


5150 Posts
Posted - 11/05/2011 : 09:19
We were told at the time of the credit crunch that we couldn't let the banks fail, it was unthinkable, too dangerous. Now I wonder if those telling us were in thrall to the banks and we might have been better to get it over with and let them crash then start again with new banks. We set a bad precedent by bailing them out, it made the bank executives feel they were as invulnerable as they think themselves to be.

---------------------------------------------------
Had an email from the Co-op Bank this morning which begins:
"In September 2009 the UK Cheque Card Management Committee announced the closure of the UK Cheque Guarantee Card Scheme. In line with that announcement the last date on which you will be able to accept a cheque relying on the guarantee is 30th June 2011." This is the first stage in the banks' attempt to abandon cheques.


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

BBC News 11th May 2011

Credit card 'torture': one man's story

The giant loans company MBNA has been told to write off a man's £20,000 debt because they treated him so badly. MBNA, and then the company it sold the loan to, chased him with over a thousand phone calls but wouldn't listen to his reasons for missing payments. Full story here...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13199797

Edited by - Tizer on 11/05/2011 11:00:00


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pluggy
Geek


1164 Posts
Posted - 11/05/2011 : 11:32
About 10 years ago I closed a credit card account  which wasn't actually closed because several months later they paid a debit request that had sat dormant. After abusing them on the phone I decided they should be punished.  I overpaid the account by 5p with the result that they sent out a statement every month saying I was 5p in credit and I owed them nothing.  I figured it cost them a lot more than 5p sending out a statement every month for 10 years.  I just put the statements through the shredder. 

Last year I deciced they'd been punished enough and rang them, closed the already closed account again and donated the 5p to a charity of their choice........

 I've vowed never again to buy stuff with money I don't have.


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

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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 12/05/2011 : 05:29
Tiz. I made that argument when the crunch first became public. Reverse the situation and you get stories like the one you illustrate. We should have done the same to them.

Pluggy, I sympathise and approve. However, it's a ploy that needs some care. Some credit cards make a 'service charge' and if an account is left moribund, even if slightly in credit, they can get to a point where it is in debit again. Needs close attention. You're right of course, the computers hate a credit balance on a credit card. My recent experience with Barclay's and the problems I had with my daughter's account illustrates the problem when you come to close an account. It's a minefield.

I see the estimate of the total of repayments under PPI could be as high as £10billion.  Private Eye did a good piece on it this week pointing out that small personal loans were actually running at a loss and it was only the PPI sales that kept them viable. They also point out that of course the banks will want to recoup their loss. Guess where that will come from! Watch out for the small print and sneaky little charges that mount up.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Tizer
VIP Member


5150 Posts
Posted - 12/05/2011 : 10:14
First the banks led us into the Credit Crunch, then they were in trouble for over-charging on overdrafts, then exposed for mis-selling PPI...and now here comes the revealing of the next big bank scam - anti-fraud insurance. The Financial Services Authority is taking them to task for misleading customers when selling policies to insure against fraud on credit cards and bank accounts. Customers are persuaded to sign up because they are led to believe that they need the insurance to get their money back in the event of a fraud. The truth is that banks are obliged by law to give customers their money back after a fraud; you don't need insurance. The only exceptions are if the bank can *prove* that the customer has been careless with their PIN or their account details...and in that case the insurance probably wouldn't be any good either. So there we are, they've capitulated on PPI but they are still happily misleading customers on other products.

A bit of good news, not on banking but on legal services. The government plans to change the law so that a wider range of legal services, such as conveyancing and wills, can be bought in supermarkets. The lawyers don't like it....


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catgate
Senior Member


1764 Posts
Posted - 12/05/2011 : 11:26


quote:
Tizer wrote:
First the banks led us into the Credit Crunch, then they were in trouble for over-charging on overdrafts, then exposed for mis-selling PPI...and now here comes the revealing of the next big bank scam - anti-fraud insurance. The Financial Services Authority is taking them to task for misleading customers when selling policies to insure against fraud on credit cards and bank accounts. Customers are persuaded to sign up because they are led to believe that they need the insurance to get their money back in the event of a fraud. The truth is that banks are obliged by law to give customers their money back after a fraud; you don't need insurance. The only exceptions are if the bank can *prove* that the customer has been careless with their PIN or their account details...and in that case the insurance probably wouldn't be any good either. So there we are, they've capitulated on PPI but they are still happily misleading customers on other products.

A bit of good news, not on banking but on legal services. The government plans to change the law so that a wider range of legal services, such as conveyancing and wills, can be bought in supermarkets. The lawyers don't like it....

When will the government admit, and correct, the fact that the banks are "lending" something they do not have and are charging the borrower dearly for the privelidge of being fooled.


Every silver lining has a cloud.


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 13/05/2011 : 05:05
Catty, not until they force them to hold funds to back up the telephone numbers they use in casino banking. Money to me is cash, to the banks it's just a concept and it was us who persuaded them to accept that view when we first started to borrow from them.

Tiz, in the old days many cotton manufacturers didn't use insurance, they invested what they would have paid in premiums into a contingency fund. When the Bishop House mill engine ran boggart and destroyed itself the didn't need to consult their insurers, Newton Pickles told me they just rang Johnny up and told him to fix it, they had more than enough put on one side to pay. I've always taken that view on the extended guarantee insurance white goods manufacturers try to sell you.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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catgate
Senior Member


1764 Posts
Posted - 13/05/2011 : 10:40


quote:
Stanley wrote:
Catty, not until they force them to hold funds to back up the telephone numbers they use in casino banking. Money to me is cash, to the banks it's just a concept and it was us who persuaded them to accept that view when we first started to borrow from them.


You have a very good imagination, Stan.

When did the public ever "persuade" the banks to do anything?  The sole aim of banks is, and always has been, to indulge in the most profitable forms of usury.


Every silver lining has a cloud.


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 14/05/2011 : 06:28
Catty, in the days when the banks were first starting. I'm spending a lot of time at the moment with the Craven Bank in 1890 and whilst the customer was always disadvantaged because they were the supplicant and went to them for credit they were listened to and interst rates were open to negotiation. Not just an opinion, I have hard evidence of it happening. By the way, they were not small numbers, when converted to today's values we are talking about an overdraft at one point of £3million.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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catgate
Senior Member


1764 Posts
Posted - 14/05/2011 : 13:12


quote:
Stanley wrote:
Catty, in the days when the banks were first starting. I'm spending a lot of time at the moment with the Craven Bank in 1890 and whilst the customer was always disadvantaged because they were the supplicant and went to them for credit they were listened to and interst rates were open to negotiation. Not just an opinion, I have hard evidence of it happening. By the way, they were not small numbers, when converted to today's values we are talking about an overdraft at one point of £3million.

I think you need to go back quite a lot further than 1890. Say 2000 years...or more. There are referenvces to "usury" in the bible...whenever that was written.


Every silver lining has a cloud.


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 15/05/2011 : 03:35
So a Sharia Bank is a charitable institution?


Stanley Challenger Graham




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catgate
Senior Member


1764 Posts
Posted - 15/05/2011 : 09:55


quote:
Stanley wrote:
So a Sharia Bank is a charitable institution?

Not in Roman times.


Every silver lining has a cloud.


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