MSE News: Bank charges update: the phoenix from the flames + full Q&A

Cardew

acslater wrote: »

I have charges with Woolwich of over £10,500 plus interest of over £5,000. (£600 in one month alone)
I also have charges with Lloyds of over £4,000 plus interest of over £2,000.
My wife has charges with Lloyds of over £5,000 plus interest of over £2,500.

Banks owe me and my wife £19,500 plus £9,500 interest.

Would if be fair if Tesco’s allowed more well off customers to wheel their weekly groceries through the till without paying and insisted that the poorer customers pay for them instead. NO!! That would not be fair. If you have a product or a service from a shop, garage, builder, lawyer, etc., you pay for it yourself – not anybody else!!!
.

May we ask why you allowed such a situation to occur over a long period?

Do you consider you are one of the poorer customers?


I must say I find this assumption that the rich customers don't have charges but poor people do, rather strange. Careful and careless would describe the majority!

We have all been 'ripped off' in various ways over the years; the wise take steps to ensure that particular situation doesn't re-occur.

Once bitten!!

pingchris

I agree totally with the above post BY ACSLATER,the leaders probably did know and it was lip service,i agree with you entirely on all subjects adressed,the banks have just bitten away part of britain,how can we allow this to happen ?

pingchris

The banks have told britain,"con anyone,as you will get away with it",
who am i kidding i knew this years ago,government,courts,banks all drink in the same bar.one nice money spinning clubhouse ,get the champagne out and laugh at the public,we just scored billions hoorah,

they need to be stopped

spango

I feel that as tax payers we should be consulted over what happens to OUR taxes, it's very well the government shoveling money at financial institutions while health and schools are getting worse and worse, and facing funding cuts. I think it's time we lobied our MPs to get the money back from the banks and sort public services. banks have gone under before and hey! the world survived.:T

pingchris

You cant lobby your mp over this they have been gagged

acslater

In response to Cardew.

Some 6½ years ago, my job was made redundant at the company I had been with for 8 years. My wife fell pregnant, and because I had had no success with the job hunting, I decided to try working for myself. Though my own grit and determination, I am still here and working for myself. Things are very tight at the moment but I am still hanging on. Just.
When I started on my own, I had a reasonable income which the bank (Woolwich) could see– just an irregular cashflow. Working for yourself, you don’t get paid X amount on a certain date of the month, which the bank didn’t understand. I had direct debits set up like most people to take care of my utility, mortgage and other bills.
Just after our child was born, I recall I asked the bank for a temporary overdraft until a cheque that I had just paid in would clear, so that my direct debits could go through. They declined. I explained that I had a new born baby and that I needed some understanding and flexibility from them. They wouldn’t listen and declined my request. That month I received over £600 in charges. That crippled my family and had a knock on effect every month following, playing catch-up with the charges. This went on for years until I could eventually break even – but then the recession came. A weaker person may have given up and ended things. I think the bank realised athat they had an easy target with me - a cash cow.

Does that answer your question?

acslater

Cardew wrote: »

May we ask why you allowed such a situation to occur over a long period?

Do you consider you are one of the poorer customers?


I must say I find this assumption that the rich customers don't have charges but poor people do, rather strange. Careful and careless would describe the majority!

We have all been 'ripped off' in various ways over the years; the wise take steps to ensure that particular situation doesn't re-occur.

Once bitten!!

I wouln't consider myself poor, but at the time when it all started I had difficult cashflow.
No I dont think only poorer people have charges - that would be stupid wouldn't it!!

[Deleted User]

ILW wrote: »

I agree, I went to buy a Bentley the other day and the advertised price was £150,000. That is more than I can afford so I think their should be a campaign and court case to reduce the price to a level which I find acceptable. I cannot see how they jusify this amount. I doubt it costs them anything like that to make one. Its just a way of keeping the poor poor. Can Martin start a new campaign "fairness to Bentley purchasers".

This will be my 3rd attack on this post, mainly because I am sick of everyone else posting about, "once bitten, twice shy" "you should manage your money better" "I don't want to have to pay for my free bank"..

Nothing in life is free. Why the hell shouldn't you have to pay for using you bank!!!!!

Please go away if you have nothing useful to contribute to the fight AGAINST bank charges as they stand. We really don't care about your smug perfect little existence.

And one final note, if like the above quoted OP, you wish to give examples, please give relevant examples. When one buys a car, one does not enter into a contract. Please do correct me if I'm wrong. (And please do not tell me that "if you buy a car on finance you do..." you pretentious ****s.

Rikochet

After many years of struggling to pay DDs and bank charges I decided to bank with a company called Think Banking. They do charge a small monthly fee but they also give you 2 accounts. One for your DDs and one for your debit card. They take a set amount from your Salary each month to cover your DDs and the rest is yours to spend. As soon as another DD is applied to your account you let them know.

Think Banking don't ever charge you for a missed DD and you have the peace of mind that you can't spend the money for your bills on other things.

If all banks were like this people would be happy to pay for their banking and we wouldn't all be in the state we're in. Banks want people to miss DDs because they can make more money that way.

They have a business to run and we all have a choice of which bank we use it's just unfortunate that it has taken everyone so long to do anything about these charges.

Don't get me wrong I think they're ridiculous and I have a claim in with RBS for almost £2000 but there are other choices for those of us unfortunate enough not to have been financially stable in the past.

[Deleted User]

ILW wrote: »

I never sign anything without reading it first, why would I?

Anybody that did not know about bank charges must have been living on another planet.

Do you use a PC with Microsoft Windows, or a Mac with Apple OS X?

I assume you do, or some other variation, as you read everything you agree to, could you please quote Paragraph 60 of the EULA of either..

What?? You didn't read it?! I'm truly shocked!!

For those who don't know what a EULA is, it's the "End User Licence Agreement" that most software has and you have to agree to it before installing/using the software.