Banks cancelling overdrafts

olly300

ahai1 wrote: »

I am also better off than a few years ago as well.

If we were to make allowances for people who were not capable of understanding the basics then the country would go down the toilets worser than it is now.

Personally whilst I do feel sorry for the people involved for the greater good the banks have to take away their overdraft to avoid there been a worser suiation then there currently is.

If I was working in a bank I would have no moral qualms about cancelling people's overdrafts if I felt they had been abused.

Banks have always been able to and have always done that the difference this time is due to their lax lending criteria,
they have caused lots of economic problems.

Both businesses and people tend to be greedy and have a herd mentality so need checks and balances in place.

ahai1 wrote: »

Some pople feel they have been hard done by but the reality is that the banks have been too generous with them and it is now time to take back the money.

It may be time to take back the money but doing it like banks are doing on mass doing is helping no-one except the banks due to the bank charges they can charge.

When I was a undergraduate uni student the first time round, lots of banks went out of their way to ensure that 2 years after you graduated you owed them little or nothing.

There is a difference between cancelling something completely and reducing it over a year. The bank has the account holders financial details so it's not hard to work out how much a customer can reasonably ask them to cut back over a year or 2 years.

rb10

olly300 wrote: »

To put it bluntly many people in the UK are financially naive.

I agree entirely here ... people should be educated into these sorts of things from an early age (I'm thinking from around 14-18). Some of the replies to this thread show that there are some people who clearly have no idea how to manage their money, and think that if an overdraft is there, then it's fine to live in it. Everyone should be aware that on opening an account, the T&Cs are not just there for fun, they are there to be read and understood. And the customer should always understand that the bank can ask for all the money back at any time, and so the overdraft should just be used to tide you over if you have an unexpected expense, or your salary is delayed, or you make a mistake with DD dates etc.

Of course, I appreciate that there are people to whom this does not apply, and who are in genuine serious difficulty. And these people should be getting specialist help (CAB?) to help them to get out of these difficulties.

Lokolo

Thanks whoever moved all of the posts.

ahai1

I am in total agreement with you. Personally the banks should have removed the overdraft from those people a long time ago. They are far behind then they should be.

rb10 wrote: »

I agree entirely here ... people should be educated into these sorts of things from an early age (I'm thinking from around 14-18). Some of the replies to this thread show that there are some people who clearly have no idea how to manage their money, and think that if an overdraft is there, then it's fine to live in it. Everyone should be aware that on opening an account, the T&Cs are not just there for fun, they are there to be read and understood. And the customer should always understand that the bank can ask for all the money back at any time, and so the overdraft should just be used to tide you over if you have an unexpected expense, or your salary is delayed, or you make a mistake with DD dates etc.

Of course, I appreciate that there are people to whom this does not apply, and who are in genuine serious difficulty. And these people should be getting specialist help (CAB?) to help them to get out of these difficulties.

OrkneyStar

Justamum wrote: »

Some people live on £4,000 a year? Is that before or after all essential outgoings? Or do they own their homes outright, or pay no, or little, rent (council house for instance). Our rent is currently £10,200 a year. In order to live on that little we would have to live in a cardboard box. Everybody's circumstances are totally different, so you can't say that because some people manage on so little that everybody can.

And no, not everybody can save. All our money is tied up in essential outgoings. Sorry to pop your balloon.

I think everybody can save something. Even £1 per month is something IMHO. If you start small you can build it up slowly!
We are on a low income (I am currently a SAHM) but we manage to save a little every month.
I do think people sometimes class luxuries as needs nowadays (not saying you are personally but some people are--- just look at some of the SoA on DFW or Bankrupcty boards). This is not me being judgmental but I think some doses of reality can be needed (again not directed at you, but in general).

OrkneyStar

Lokolo wrote: »

Thats after rent and bills. To be quite honest I don't believe that you couldn't cut back on your outgoings and save. By all means you can say all you want but even on minimum wage with 2 of you, thats £20k. £10k on rent, £10 a year to spend on bills and food. Food of £150 a month is £2k. Bills of about the same, thats another £2k. Clothes £500. Car another £1k-£2k depends on what you drive and insurance. £100 TV licence, although not an essential. Do you have Sky or VM? Is that an 'essential' or a luxury?

Do you have a budget planner? Do you track everyday outgoings?

By all means I am not saying the banks are in the right here but I do believe there are other options available to the consumers which they haven't considered.

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the edited bit

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£190 between 2 of you is £85. I currently pay £35 myself (theres 5 of us, and adds upto just over £160 a month between us). Although we got our bill throught and owe a further £250 since September - opps!. We now only have the heating on from 7-9 in the morning

My £300-£400 includes bills, just not rent.

By all means I know children are expensive, we have all been one, but I am sure somewhere you could cut back.

Oh yeh and my expenses has gone up, shopping for myself costs around £100-£120 a month compared to £80-£90 6 months ago :-|

I am not sure £150 a month for food is realistic for a family of five :rolleyes:.

Lokolo

OrkneyStar wrote: »

I am not sure £150 a month for food is realistic for a family of five :rolleyes:.

Yes and I also doubt a family of 5 would have both parents on minimum wage.

Justamum

Lokolo wrote: »

Yes and I also doubt a family of 5 would have both parents on minimum wage.

Really? How can you be so sure? Maybe that's the only work available to them.

There's an old saying - cut your coat according to your cloth. I'll use that analogy - give 100 people the same size piece of cloth (income). Some people might only need to cut one coat out of it leaving plenty for something else. Others might need to cut out 2, 3, 4 or more coats out of it meaning that some coats might have to have no sleeves!

Lokolo

Justamum wrote: »

Really? How can you be so sure? Maybe that's the only work available to them.

There's an old saying - cut your coat according to your cloth. I'll use that analogy - give 100 people the same size piece of cloth (income). Some people might only need to cut one coat out of it leaving plenty for something else. Others might need to cut out 2, 3, 4 or more coats out of it meaning that some coats might have to have no sleeves!

Yeh I'm not saying that there is no-one in this world who is living off minimum wage and has 3 children, but generally this isn't the case. Stop being pedantic, you know what I am saying.

Justamum

Kavanne wrote: »

Justamum, pop on over to the DFW to see how they do it

I found the thread for you: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1593987

I had a quick look at this yesterday, but will have a better read later. However I did notice that someone had posted "£1 a day each for food"! Realistic (not!). Blah, blah, Aldi, blah, blah, Lidl, blah, blah, Netto, blah, blah, value range. I do the value range - unfortunately other than that we have only Tesco, a local supermarket whose prices are the same as Tesco, or the Co-op, and I'd have to be desperate to go in there as their prices as astronomical. I don't believe anybody can eat healthily on £1 a day - 'something on toast' is not what I'd class as a meal.