MSE News: CONFIRMED - OFT gives up bank charges battle

davidgmmafan

If you cannot afford the original charge how do you avoid the compound interest and further charges? Perhaps go to a loan shark, oh wait.

Secondly you don't neccesarily pay the charges. The bank applies them to the account whether or not there are funds in there, whether or not that means other priority creditors are paid. This is another issue. If, as the banks argue (in a hurry in response to the test case) the fees are a charge for service then they should be invoiced seperately like any other service. This would go someway towards eliminating the sprial I keep referring to. But there's no money in it so it won't happen.

KimYeovil

moo_cow wrote: »

Am astounded at kimyeovil's post. EXCUSE ME! If you don't mind me getting a point across here. I am now a poor person. I do not have enough money coming in to meet my basic day to day living expenses. we (3 of us) survive on less than £100 for a months groceries. And by the by, I did not incur ANY charges before our income was hit. So where on earth you're getting this rubbish about poor people not getting charges...........well it just defies belief that someone could make such a statement.

£100 is quite generous for a month's groceries.

But as you seem to admit yourself you would find it difficult to pay a charge of £20 or £39. So, obviously, you do not incur charges in the first place. Surely? Why would you want to pay charges? It does not make sense.

Sane poor people do not pay charges. They can not afford to. They would be mad to waste their income on such frivolous carelessness.

davidgmmafan

£100 a month for three people? That's £33.33 per person per month. That doesn't sound like much at all.

neilthegooner

Just cancel all direct debits and pay bills through internet banking. I did and the problem has been solved, no more rip off charges, I pay bills in my own time on the days I get paid.

As for the OFT, they seem more interested in looking at a dodgy plumber in Leeds rather than the dodgy banks in London. What a waste of our money!!!

jdx

orc wrote: »

Can you please provide the research or facts that you base this "statement" on.

Sorry, but you are totally and utterly wrong on that- the statement is complete and utter nonsense.

KimYeovil wrote: »

No I'm not.

*wahh, whaa*

Is that the best you got?:rotfl:

chris1huk

Kim, you talk absolute tosh, so much so it is really beginning to irritate me.
When you finish judging people with your snobbery attitude, try considering how things REALLY work.
Maybe if you were ever(and im guessing you havent been judging by your attitude) in this sort of situation you would have a different attitude. The sleepless nights worrying about how you are going to pay for things, the stress, the headaches, the depression. You know you're getting a bank charge of £63 for going less than a pound overdrawn, yet theres nothing you can do about it, that £63 takes away 25% of your wages, leaving you very little to pay bills with.
£63 on a £1 overdraft.. does that seem fair? does that seem like a rational charge?
on a yearly % rate thats like 2.3million % interest (APR or AER or whatever) on a £1 1 day overdraft.

Pay for your own banking, dont expect others to pay it for you, and for the record, i am on no benefits whatsoever, so whoever said they pay for charges through taxes and benefits can forget that arguement.

Also to add, I'm no legal expert/finance expert, so im talking from just a general standpoint of someone who is in this sort of situation, my facts or reasoning maybe wrong.. just saying things how i see them

UncleJaysus

KimYeovil wrote: »

Again, it is not the poor they are 'preying' on. If you can afford to blithely continue paying charges then one thing you are not is poor. Stop talking such rot.

It is insane to repeatedly suggest that somehow you are on the side of the poor.

At the risk of talking more 'rot' (chuckle), you are making a fool of yourself in the presence of more informed company.

If you have not seen, and truly cannot imagine, how low-income individuals can get themselves into situations of spiralling bank charges, then you are indeed very lucky, but also not very well informed.

orc_2

alexjohnson wrote: »

No wonder you get charges with maths like that! EH??!!

Claiming is not, in itself, evidence of hardship, OK? So, what is your point please?

Pretty basic logic. I was responding to a poster who said charges had lead to difficulties for "hundreds of thousands" of people.

You were the one who said lets assume xxx000 people have had charges, not me.

[/QUOTE]





Who said I get charges- I don't. Why did you assume that?:rolleyes:

Don't make assumptions please. You know the old phrase.;)

I am not here because I have charges to reclaim. I am here to help people reclaim their charges. I am here to help people get a grips on their lives, given what the banks have done to them.

esmerellda

Its people who get unexpectedly hit by loss of income - losing job / partner - or having an unexpected outgoing - like your boiler exploding / car breaking down etc - and the bank refuse to allow an extension on your overdraft temporarily and its too late to cancel debits - whether DD/SO/debit card etc payments. On a low income where you live penny to penny each month one or two of these charges are devastating and can throw you off track for months however carefully you budget. Sometimes its not an option to spend £70 or whatever less a month, because that is your entire food budget, or means you have to not pay your council tax / electric bill.

It can happen to anyone, at any time, we all sometimes live to our limits, if something goes wrong and if the bank won't assist with a temporary increase you are pretty stuffed. The sprial is pretty fast down after one or two mistakes. They dont let you out, you cant arrange to repay in installments as you can afford without waiting for the charges to increase month on month until they decide to pass you to collections. Drives me mad that actually and is one of the things that should be changing through work the OFT is doing on PCA's.

I do though think that over the past couple of years whilst the bank charges issue has been ongoing some people have relied so much on reclaiming their charges that if they have enough income not to be devastated by the odd couple of charges they have possibly been a little 'ahh well I'll claim it back after'' attitude, and that will now start coming back to whack people in the face a bit.

I also agree people should get away from Direct Debits - although I understand it is difficult and can cost more with the extra charges from companies like BT/Virgin etc for paying by other methods. Paying over the post office counter costs extra, and paypoint doesnt cover all bills. Bill payment is good if you have internet banking and are good at organising yourself.

Personally I have my benefits paid to a post office card account and live on cash only and pay via paypoint/over the counter/put it straight into their bill account over the counter at the creditor/suppliers bank, and council tax I pay at the council office, electrics on a key meter. Is a pain in the bum and takes a whole morning up every week but gets me out the house lol.

orc_2

chja wrote: »

This is good news for those of us who are able to run out accounts properly and wish to continue to enjoy free banking.

Bank charges are avoidable. Simply do not take money that does not belong to you.

You simply have not taken the time to understand the issues.

The bank does not let someone just take money they don't have. The banking automated systems take a decision to allow the money transfer. They take a conscious decision to do that, as it generates money through bank charges.

Please take the time to clue yourself up before you jump in making statements that are wrong.

The banks best customers, from their perspective, are not the ones with credit in their current account (banks could not care less about them), but the people that incur charges. They depend on them. They do not want them to change accounts to another bank, they want them to stay and pay charges.