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Realy do not - understand- bank charges
justjohn
Posts: 2,260 Forumite
Why is it unfair
is it
1) Because the charge is too high?
If that is the reasoning i realy do not understand.
mortgage arangement fees can be £1000
Building trade hourly rate can be 30-55 pound per hour
They decide thats there choice
2) Is it because it takes advantage of the poor/peeps who cannot manage money?
Can understand that , but you cannot have your cake and eat it.
You get charged you lose your account you do not get another.
The bank is not a charity.
is it
1) Because the charge is too high?
If that is the reasoning i realy do not understand.
mortgage arangement fees can be £1000
Building trade hourly rate can be 30-55 pound per hour
They decide thats there choice
2) Is it because it takes advantage of the poor/peeps who cannot manage money?
Can understand that , but you cannot have your cake and eat it.
You get charged you lose your account you do not get another.
The bank is not a charity.
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Comments
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or 3) because it's something that people experience, decide they don't like - despite having signed up to the standard T&Cs when they opened the account - and therefore start whining about how "unfair"* it all is.
What, exactly - based on these people's clearly broad and deep knowledge of the industry - would constitute a "fair" charge?
*see also - "unfair" payscales for bank/business/civil service/any-industry-where-mean-salaries-are-appreciably-more-than-min-wage workers.0 -
yeah, I agree. I don't see the problem with Bank charges, they are completely avoidable.
Every single person I know that has jumped on this bandwagon is up to their eyeballs in debt and can't manage their money. They all want something for nothing. I know this because 5 years ago I was the same and racked up about £600 in charges, all completely avoidable.
I'm sick of people on the news talking about bank charges of thousands of pounds and then explaining how stupid they have been.0 -
Why is it unfair
is it
2) Is it because it takes advantage of the poor/peeps who cannot manage money?
Can understand that , but you cannot have your cake and eat it.
You get charged you lose your account you do not get another.
The bank is not a charity.
It's the way it's imposed.
I'll give an example. In my example, you've got a person who is not 100% savvy with money, is a little intimidated by organisations that they deem in "authority" - (examples being banks, tax office, schools, councils etc, etc).
This person worked 40 hours a week and doesn't earn a massive amount of mney. They don't understand the ins and outs of their bank account - other than the fact that they need one to pay their bills and get their wages paid into.
They are beng paid on Friday. Which is fine, as they should have enough money to cover their bills. Except the direct debit for their mobile phone bill (say £20) is due to come out on Friday.
What that person doens't understand is that the £20 for the bill should be in the account the day before. So what happens? The direct debit doesn't get paid. The bank refuses to release the funds.
Fair enough. The mobile phone company then re-present the DD a week later and it does get paid.
In the meantime, the bank has charged £25 for the priviledge of refusing the DD.
They also then three weeks later charge an extra £38 just because they can.
This is what happens to real people every week. Who can it be deemed "fair".
It's just one type of example, but it happens up and down the country.
It's taking advantage of people who are:
1. a little finanically ignorant in the first place
2. don't have the funds or resources to pull themselves out of the hole when the charges start mounting up to say £300 every month (they have enough money to pay their bills, but not when you include the charges - therefore more charges build up).
3. Intimdated enough by the bank that they don't feel in a position to argue their case or do anything to defend themselves.
To me, it's a breach of trust. There are thousands of bottom earners all around the country who have been taken advantage of by their banks. It never used to be like this. The charges have crept up over the years to a ridiculous level.
I have no problem with the idea of charging someone for a service, but it needs to be proprtionate. Charging someone £63 because one transaction would take them £10 overdrawn is not "fair" as you put it.
If the bank is that bothered about making sure people stay in their terms, then why not simply block the account until further funds are available? It's what used to happen. The technology is certainly there. A transaction can be refused at any point.
Why not?
Because charging poorer customers is a massive income driver. And doing it in a way that is incessant - taking it out before they've been able to pay thier mortgage or their food etc - how is that "fair"?"One day I realised that when you are lying in your grave, it's no good saying, "I was too shy, too frightened."
Because by then you've blown your chances. That's it."0 -
I'm sick of people like yourselves coming on these HELP and SUPPORT forums and thinking you're god's gift because you're not in financial difficulty and facing bank charges.
Well done. You've established you can count, and earn a decent wage. Congratu-fking-lations, you've passed stage one of not being an idiot. Now on to stage two - having some compassion and understanding for those in a worse situation than yourselves.
The reason bank charges are 'unfair' is because unlike the Building trade hourly rate or Mortgage arrangement fees, they are not proportional to the work done / effort taken.
No one is arguing they shouldnt exist (no one with brains anyhow), everyone is saying they should be kept to a level at which they are proportional to the difficulty/effort they cause the bank. Much like anything else.
The fact they have been in may cases changed since the original contracts were established adds fuel to the fire here too.
I suggest that instead of acting like you're something special because you haven't run up any charges, you !!!!!!, and let those that want to use this forum for support in reclaiming charges (as is its purpose) use it.
Thanks0 -
Geedoubleu wrote: »Every single person I know that has jumped on this bandwagon is up to their eyeballs in debt and can't manage their money.
Just for the record, the last time I was charged by any financial institution was back in 1993 when I forgot to pay my Barclaycard bill and they charged me £10 (which they promptly refunded).
Not all of us are on the "bandwagon" because we've got debts!
I've spent alot of time going through accounts and letters etc of friends/family who simply don't understand what's been going on with their accounts. The charges can often mount up to several thousands of pounds.
It's actually embarrassing to go through it and see how some people have been charged - with no (real!) offer of help. How can someone's bank - somewhere where they put their money each month - somewhere that they trust - take such a blatant advantage? Surely at some point, the bank should have out a stop on an account and said, "Right Mrs. xxxx. You've had £1000 of charges in the past 3 months - we're having you in to come up with a solution as obviously it's not working out at the moment". Why not do that?"One day I realised that when you are lying in your grave, it's no good saying, "I was too shy, too frightened."
Because by then you've blown your chances. That's it."0 -
Ok, I get it now.
It's deemed unfair because it exploit's vulnerable or finanically ignorant people.
I agree it does and it shoudn't.
But the banks are not the only people doing this, it's capitalism.
Energy Companies exploit much greater volumes of vulnerable or finanically ignorant people for much greater amounts than banks with their uncomparable rates, complex products and nasty salesman.
I think the real issue here is the lack of competition in banking, because any other service industry would be offering cheaper and cheaper, less complex services and we customers could choose a better bank that doesn't charge such fees.0 -
<snip>
The reason bank charges are 'unfair' is because unlike the Building trade hourly rate or Mortgage arrangement fees, they are not proportional to the work done / effort taken.
Thanks
Mortgage arrangement fees are proportional to the work done!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:"If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools"
Extract from "If" by Rudyard Kipling0 -
I'm sick of people like yourselves coming on these HELP and SUPPORT forums and thinking you're god's gift because you're not in financial difficulty and facing bank charges.
Well I'm sick of people coming onto the forums and blethering on about how "unfair" the charges are.The reason bank charges are 'unfair' is because unlike the Building trade hourly rate or Mortgage arrangement fees, they are not proportional to the work done / effort taken.
Nonsense - just as in any other line of business, these charges are in line only with exactly how much the business thinks the market will bear. You accept this reasoning across the rest of your day-to-day life - do you loudly and shrilly denounce Asda for profiteering by making a 240% profit on baked beans, for instance? - so what's the difference here?
Out of interest, how much would you deem to be "fair"? Clearly you have an intimate knowledge of the financial services industry - else you'd surely not be talking of how the charges aren't proportional to work/effort, right? - and so I'd really value your input. Too many people here know very little except to loudly shout "I DON'T LIKE THIS SO IT MUST BE UNFAIR!!!"; I look forward to hearing your thoughts.0 -
voiceofreason wrote: »Well I'm sick of people coming onto the forums and blethering on about how "unfair" the charges are.
'Onto the forums'... you mean, onto the RECLAIM BANK CHARGES forum, for goodness sake, if you don't like what you read go onto a different part of the MSE forums, don't come on here expecting people to be saying that bank charges are great and fair. If you want to hear that, there are many fat cat banking forums you can go on, i'm sure you'll fit right in!0 -
'Onto the forums'... you mean, onto the RECLAIM BANK CHARGES forum, for goodness sake, if you don't like what you read go onto a different part of the MSE forums, don't come on here expecting people to be saying that bank charges are great and fair. If you want to hear that, there are many fat cat banking forums you can go on, i'm sure you'll fit right in!
But in law, they've been found to be entirely fair - correct?
Just checking.0
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