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Tizer
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 Posted -
25/06/2010
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09:59
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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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pluggy
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Posted - 20/12/2011 : 15:30
Its bound to p*ss 'em off when they can't gamble with our money, expect an increase in bank charges when the changes bite......
Need computer work ?
"http://www.stsr.co.uk" 
Pluggy's Household Monitor  |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 21/12/2011 : 04:42
Quite right Pluggy but there is little doubt that part of the plan is to minimise the passing of costs to High Street banking by making the firewall between the two parts of banking effective. One thing is certain, they are taking heavier regulation seriously now. Let us not forget where the money went in 2008.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 21/12/2011 : 10:51
It's interesting that Bob Diamond, head of Barclay's, now says that `banks should be allowed to fail'. Pity he didn't think of that earlier.
The Payment Protection Insurance scandal rumbles on - to the detriment of bank customers of course. Having been ordered to compensate their customers the banks are now failing to do so and making customers chase them instead. These are the banks that got us into the credit crunch and now won't lend to people who genuinely need loans for businesses to get us out of the recession. If I'd written a novel 10 years ago predicting the credit crunch, the behaviour of the banks, how they wrecked the global economy and got enormous bonuses for doing it, nobody would have bought it, they'd have said it was ridiculous (well, everyone except the bankers themselves who knew they were deliberately crashing the economy, rather like the insurance scammer who disconnects his car's rear warning lights and then jams on his brakes to claim from the insurance of the poor driver behind).
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Tardis
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Posted - 21/12/2011 : 14:18
quote:
Stanley wrote:
Let us not forget where the money went in 2008.
Into property prices?
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 22/12/2011 : 04:32
I heard the same programme Tiz and also the lame explanation by the bank spokesman. Amazing how a mention on Money Box can trigger sudden attention and activity.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tardis
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Posted - 22/12/2011 : 10:22
A Lloyds branch in Nelson will become one for the Co-op under the new deal of branch sales
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 23/12/2011 : 05:31
News this morning that excessive charges for using a debit or credit card are to be banned. About time too!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 23/12/2011 : 09:31
We ran a small online business selling worldwide for 16 years and we never charged anyone a separate fee for using a card, even though we were having to pay much higher rates on cards than the big retailers do. It's just part of the cost of selling online and I think the big companies shouldn't be charging. If someone bought a book from us they paid the price shown plus the postage, which was also obviously displayed, and nothing more. Simple.
On the radio this morning they were discussing a businessman in the US who is in trouble for fraud and the word `swindling' was used. It's great to hear that word again, it's what we always used in the old days: "He's a swindler". Perhaps a good description for the banks Payment Protection Insurance racket, `swindling' the public.
Edited by - Tizer on 23/12/2011 09:34:37
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 23/12/2011 : 10:05
'Swindle': We owe a debt to the Germans for this one. 'Schwindler' a crook or fraudster. There appears to be an earlier root in OG and OE which had a slightly different meaning, to languish. Perhaps what you did after being schwindled! Good word and desrves to be used more. I like 'spiv' as well.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 28/12/2011 : 07:19
All those computers churning out the first credit card statements and overdraft charges of 2012.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 28/12/2011 : 14:33
In recent months the British have paid off more on their credit cards than they've spent - great to see them moving towards saving some money but the downside of course is that the retailers will be going bust.
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Whyperion
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Posted - 28/12/2011 : 20:51
I think re Boxing Day sales etc , a fair amount has been for semi-essentials ( judging by one of my local bins - new kettle , new toaster ) , a few clothes for the new year as the old ones have worn out and that people have saved up for over the year.
The Views above may or may not be true , I may or may not agree with them. |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 29/12/2011 : 05:21
I used to think that credit card interest rates at roughly 30% were excessive but I note now that the new bench mark of companies offering loans at rates measured in the thousands APR has made credit cards look like cheap money! A sign of the times and confirmation that there will always be someone ready to take advantage of difficult times. Will this eventually promote greater acceptance of credit unions?
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 29/12/2011 : 09:37
The pay-day loans companies look cheap compared with the overdraft charges of high street banks. Now, on today's news there is a fuss about `rent-to-own' being too expensive, with people paying twice as much as the price of the item. I wonder how it compares with hire purchase as we knew it in the 1950s? None of the news reports that I've seen on rent-to-own this morning mention HP.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 29/12/2011 : 09:58
I thought the same thing. If my memory serves me right the repayment total was about 25% or 30% higher than the shop price. We knew this when we went in and regarded the extra, spread over the term of the hire, as a rent we paid for the use of the item while we were saving the money to buy it. Some of the rates quoted this morning were in the order of 300 to 400%.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Beware, the banks are out to get you!
