How will reclaiming bank charges impact banking discussion

m.colak

The other thing to consider which i believe has been mentioned before is that when the banks do start charging for banking and services (Note the when not the if). This will in turn generate a competative market for the banks and they will then in turn have to start viaing which each other for business. This means in turn the mortgage offers will get better and therefore maybe better for everyone in general. See a positive out of all that negative. Come on everyone this is what this site is for not for getting rid of that pent up aggression which everyone already has enough of.

How about i do a comparision instead:

Insurance companies increase your premiums because they blame young drivers however they still charge young drivers even more than before. Banks will charge for services blaming the people whom got in debt but still be charging them more too. See its not just banks whom use this tactic you just to have a look around and you see the similarities everywhere. Supermarkets state that food prices are increasing because of wheat prices therefore charge the consumer more. However the pay the farmers less than the overall gain in profit for themselves.

I do believe the term is called creaming.

IvanOpinion

m.colak wrote: »

The other thing to consider which i believe has been mentioned before is that when the banks do start charging for banking and services (Note the when not the if). This will in turn generate a competative market for the banks and they will then in turn have to start viaing which each other for business. This means in turn the mortgage offers will get better and therefore maybe better for everyone in general. See a positive out of all that negative.

Not necessarily .. it all depends on how it is packaged. For instance compare how much a 2-3 year mortgage product costs versus how much it cost 5 years or so back. The headline interest rate looks positively wonderful, however the overall cost is actually more ... there have been wonderful headline rate deals out there whcih worked out more expensive than the SVR also on offer.

As per currently there will always remain people that are basically too stupid to be allowed near money.

ivan

Mark7799

m.colak wrote: »

The other thing to consider which i believe has been mentioned before is that when the banks do start charging for banking and services (Note the when not the if). This will in turn generate a competative market for the banks and they will then in turn have to start viaing which each other for business. This means in turn the mortgage offers will get better and therefore maybe better for everyone in general. See a positive out of all that negative. Come on everyone this is what this site is for not for getting rid of that pent up aggression which everyone already has enough of.


I do believe the term is called creaming.

I disagree with the bit I've emboldened. People who have a history of exceeding their facilities may find mortgages, loans, overdrafts and other credit facilities very hard to access as the lenders cherry pick who they want to lend to (and even those can can expect to pay a higher price for the privelege)

Can I pose a general question to those who've reclaimed? Has your experience changed the way you manage your bank accounts since you've received charges refunds? This is not asked with any sleight or malice, I'm genuinely curious.

m.colak

Mark7799 wrote: »

I disagree with the bit I've emboldened. People who have a history of exceeding their facilities may find mortgages, loans, overdrafts and other credit facilities very hard to access as the lenders cherry pick who they want to lend to (and even those can can expect to pay a higher price for the privelege)

Can I pose a general question to those who've reclaimed? Has your experience changed the way you manage your bank accounts since you've received charges refunds? This is not asked with any sleight or malice, I'm genuinely curious.

I've put in bold the text i think is irrelevant to this thread :rotfl: sorry i couldn't help it. My situation is slightly different but in a way yes. I trust the banks a lot less to act in my best interest anymore and have had a better control over my finances for the last four years. PS haven't managed to reclaim a penny yet though. Thanks for asking.

Mark7799

m.colak wrote: »

I've put in bold the text i think is irrelevant to this thread :rotfl: sorry i couldn't help it. My situation is slightly different but in a way yes. I trust the banks a lot less to act in my best interest anymore and have had a better control over my finances for the last four years. PS haven't managed to reclaim a penny yet though. Thanks for asking.

I thought it was quite relevant:p We wonder how the banks will deal with things but what about the customers;) ?

m.colak

Mark7799 wrote: »

I thought it was quite relevant:p We wonder how the banks will deal with things but what about the customers;) ?

How about posting a new thread titled (and this is just a suggestion:p )

"How will those reclaiming bank charges impact banking and have an affect on those poor people soon to paying charges on all their accounts, Have your say:D"

or Variations:

"How do people feel about those reclaiming?:rolleyes: " Poll

"How do you feel it will affect you personally when the banks win/lose the Bank Charges Test Case":D

I hope that i am making people smile in an all to easy depressing time for Britain (Haven't included Great with that Britain because face it. It hasn't been great for a while now!! My opinion don't shoot the messenger)

borgbaiter

alexjohnson wrote: »

It's still "indefinItely" - see your signature. Everyone makes mistakes, but I think I pointed that out before and you haven't changed it.

Still, I blame the spell-checker. It should have picked it up. It wasn't your fault, you were the innocent victim.

Attention to detail: it's a wonderful thing, and it can save you thousands of pounds. In your case it would have saved you £6,694, apparently. Wow. That's a lot of pennies falling behind the sofa cushions. Or indeed a lot of nasty letters from ten banks and credit card companies that you seem to have ignored many, many times. It really isn't fair if you were having some miserable life experience but on the other hand I wonder just how many of these you planned to get before realising that your current budgeting system wasn't working, to put it mildly?

I'm going to make a prediction: that £4,982 you got back is going to be like casino winnings, and in smaller £12-odd drips and drops you're going to give it right back over the next few years because unless you've had some big moment of realisation - and I honestly hope you have - there's nothing in the pattern of charges and fees you've posted that says anything other than that you are a bank's dream customer. All power to you, but to get back to the thread title, I don't particularly want to be subsidising you while you do it.

Thank you for kind words and interest in both my spelling and my life history. the reason for my brief insolvency was indeed beyond my control and unexpected. the consequences of this briief financial problem lasted many years after the event and no bank or building society gave a damn they were happy for me to personally finance everyones free banking, boosting their credit card profits and indeed writing off five years of my mortgage repayments in penalties for late payments (despite these being met by insurances i had to cover such an eventuality) and siezing back of cashback for being 3 months in arrears.

if you dont have friends or family to help you out of this sort of situation it is very difficult to get out of the hole. i was on income support at the time with two young children. there arnt many jobs available to those with no child care or money to pay for it and debt growing by the day. My circumstances have since changed unexpectedly again so im solvent and debt free (ignoring the mortgage). but i remember the kids and how it affected them too and i will never forgive the grasping banks for it. The only charges i have since were casued by both the halifax and Alliances creative internet banking schemes whereby they change the order of payments so as to fake your having funds when it should report that there are no funds available. both refused to refund and i will be recovering them after the result of the court case. i have moved to the nationwide and they actually report what is truely available so i do not anticipate any further charges.

As for casino wins hardy. the money went to pay of the debt cased by these charges.



Borgbaiter

Once_bitten

Banks, Building societies etc are like any semi-monopoly, they will try and make as much profit out of their captive audience as possible. In this case they have been both short sighted and greedy by lending to people who they had no right in doing so.

This has blown up in their faces with a double whammy, ie people who literally cannot pay the money back coupled with the on-going cost of refunding charges.

The title of this thread is "How will reclaiming bank charges impact banking?" so here are my thoughts. It's just wild speculation but here goes.

Regardless of who wins (my guess is the level of the charges will be deemed unfair not the charges themselves) the banks will have to re-adjust their attitude to customers.

I think there will be competition but only to those with decent credit ratings. There will be an element of fees but charges will still be in place with T&Cs locked down tight.

For customers who are credit risks the products on offer will be greatly reduced. Hopefully they will include accounts which will reject outgoing payments which take the account over a preset limit

YorkshireBoy

Once_bitten,

I agree with much of your post, but just a couple of points...

...but charges will still be in place with T&Cs locked down tight

I can't see how they can lock them "tight". Any ruling the OFT makes on 'fairness' (read anything more than £xx will be deemed 'unfair') will be meaningless and unenforceable as has been proved with the £12 default fees for credit cards. People are still successfully reclaiming these newly acquired charges nearly 2 years on.

Hopefully they will include accounts which will reject outgoing payments which take the account over a preset limit

I don't think they'll go down that route at all. I think they'll operate a '3 strikes and you're out' policy. Make an 'unplanned overdraft request', ie by the presentation of a DD, 3 times without funds available and that facility will be removed from your account. Similar policies will be introduced for standing order and debit card/cheque guarantee card abuse.

Persistent offenders will end up with, to all intents and purposes, a (poorly paying) savings account with a cashcard, meaning they'll spend most Saturday mornings queuing at the Post Office to pay their bills (like our parents did).

Then again, I could be wrong?

Smasher

Whatever happens, something will have to happen to either make sure that there are banking facilities available to absolutely everyone regardless of status & history that do not charge a monthly fee because it is obligatory to have a bank account if you want to have a job or receive benefits.
It is bad enough that everyone is forced to lend their entire income to bankers who have shown themselves to be extremely irresponsible with it, before they can see it themselves. It would be rather worse to be forced to lend them all our income and also have to pay them aswell especially given that we (the taxpayer) are already footing the bill to bail out all of these bankers because they have been so irresponsible with our money.

Either that, or there should be legislation that obliges employers to pay their employees with cash if they so wish.