MSE News: CONFIRMED - OFT gives up bank charges battle

orc_2

KimYeovil wrote: »

£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.

Sorry Kim from Yeoval, but you are talking complete and utter tosh.

You are indeed a fortunate one - good for you, thats nice and cosy.

I don't want to say much more, as anyone can read these posts, ie children.

neilthegooner

esmerellda wrote: »

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.

Are you reading this KimYeovil, chja?

moo_cow

KimYeovil wrote: »

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

KimYeovil wrote: »

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.

When you've finished listening to the sound of your own voice kimyeovil read my post again. It was ONE (3 charges in one day) incident when my husbands income took an unexpected hit. Your sanctimonious attitude is beyond belief. We have been a working household all our lives and have managed excellently. This was ONE glitch that the bank added and added too. However, I'm not as mercenary as you and hope you never fall upon unexpected hard times. If you do though, don't expect any sympathy here. You are some piece of work.
also you seem to think that an average of around £8 per week per person is enough for food and toiletries/detergants etc. GET A GRIP!

orc_2

KimYeovil wrote: »

More rot. They are not better off. The idiots who are better off are those who can repeatedly pay £39 charges for months on end. Poor people do not incur the charges more than once.

And a parent who is poor never uses prepayment meters and they budget for Christmas and birthdays. That is part of their obligations as a decent human being. They should stop wasting money on charges and treat their children instead of the banks.

With parenthood comes obligations. Giving money to banks for charges is frankly sick. Using prepayment meters when you have children is frankly sick. Not budgeting so your children can be fed, kept warm and educated is frankly sick. Benefits in this country are very generous. Child tax credits for the low paid are slightly dodgier but can be negotiated with care. Their is no excuse for families with children to be incurring charges.

Grow up.

I was really trying to be polite with my previous reply to a post of yours, and then you top it with this clap trap.

Who are you to come on here and spout this? In effect, to call reclaimers bad parents?

I again, could say more, but will refrain from voicing what is to the fore of my thoughts, out of respect to others.

neilthegooner

moo_cow wrote: »

When you've finished listening to the sound of your own voice kimyeovil read my post again. It was ONE (3 charges in one day) incident when my husbands income took an unexpected hit. Your sanctimonious attitude is beyond belief. We have been a working household all our lives and have managed excellently. This was ONE glitch that the bank added and added too. However, I'm not as mercenary as you and hope you never fall upon unexpected hard times. If you do though, don't expect any sympathy here. You are some piece of work.
also you seem to think that an average of around £8 per week per person is enough for food and toiletries/detergants etc. GET A GRIP!

£8 per week, Does she shop in Lidl's?

moo_cow

neilthegooner wrote: »

£8 per week, Does she shop in Lidl's?

No, we have to hang around waiting for the out of date stuff to be reduced. Isn't that funny and doesn't that make you feel on top of the world?

neilthegooner

moo_cow wrote: »

No, we have to hang around waiting for the out of date stuff to be reduced. Isn't that funny and doesn't that make you feel on top of the world?

Sorry I don't mean you I mean KimYeovil.

Cardew

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.

I am seriously not trying to be facetious, but does your “basic day to day expenses” have to include internet access?

If I had only £100 a month for food, I would re-examine my priorities.

Frank_John

Frank John wrote:
I don't understand what all the fuss is about. I have been a bank customer for 35 years and I have never been charged for going overdrawn. The reason why is not because I am wealthy. It is because I accept that it is my responsibility to manage my account. Not the banks. I signed an agreement not to issue cheques or other instruments for payment unless there are sufficient funds in my account or within my pre-arranged overdraft facility.I therefore ensure that I don't. Simple really. If I take cash into a shop do you think the shopkeeper will let me walk away with goods costing $200 if I only have $195. I doubt it. If I decided to take the goods anyway I would be arrested for stealing and expect to pay a fine. So please lets try and get it into perspective. If you go over your limit the bank will charge you. If it's a one off and for a small amount for a couple of days, the banks are actually quite reasonable and will almost certainly refund you. They might even extend your overdraft facility. So to finish, lets accept that banks may not be perfect, but this is not their fault so stop this unnecessary bank bashing.

mystic_trev

Another thread turns into a 'bun fight'