First step to eliminating banks from my life...

Thursdayschild_2

At my skintest, I shudder to think how many thousands of pounds HSBC had from me over the space of about ten or so years. When anyone has asked in disbelief and bemusement how I could have possibly been in such financial dire straits when I have earned a decent, regular living, It's hard to describe how a cycle like this is so difficult to break out of, without sounding like a thick sucker with a ...victim mentality who has brought it all upon herself. It's a vicious cycle of bank charges and more bank charges to cover the other bank charges etc. It goes on and on because they've had me by the, er, balls (?lol? You know what I mean!)
Well, upon deciding that I'm sick and tired of them keeping me down and in a state of borderline breadline, I have taken every penny that is mine out of my accounts and cancelled all of my direct debits, endeavouring to pay bills at the Post Office instead in future. This way, the bank can't process any direct debits, thus making me overdrawn and then being able to charge me £25 for going overdrawn unauthorised by a quid (At the least!), then charging me four pounds per day until my charges come out…. Then taking my charges out, sending me overdrawn again.
What has both peeved and surprised me is when calling my central heating insurance company and car insurance company to enquire about paying all future bills at the G.P.O with cold, hard cash; they replied that this wasn’t possible and they only accept payment in the form of Direct Debit. This means that despite my efforts to be independent of banks, I’m still tied to the system somehow, because in order to pay these two bills, I will have to put cash into my account to cover them on the days they go out. It’s a sad realisation that eventually ALL companies will one day only accept payments via Direct Debit. Oh well, no drama, I’ve done my bit at beating this corrupt system as much as I can for now. Just imagine if EVERYBODY followed suit and did this?! We would be so powerful!

shortcrust

Thursdayschild wrote: »

At my skintest, I shudder to think how many thousands of pounds HSBC had from me over the space of about ten or so years. When anyone has asked in disbelief and bemusement how I could have possibly been in such financial dire straits when I have earned a decent, regular living, It's hard to describe how a cycle like this is so difficult to break out of, without sounding like a thick sucker with a ...victim mentality who has brought it all upon herself. It's a vicious cycle of bank charges and more bank charges to cover the other bank charges etc. It goes on and on because they've had me by the, er, balls (?lol? You know what I mean!)
Well, upon deciding that I'm sick and tired of them keeping me down and in a state of borderline breadline, I have taken every penny that is mine out of my accounts and cancelled all of my direct debits, endeavouring to pay bills at the Post Office instead in future. This way, the bank can't process any direct debits, thus making me overdrawn and then being able to charge me £25 for going overdrawn unauthorised by a quid (At the least!), then charging me four pounds per day until my charges come out…. Then taking my charges out, sending me overdrawn again.
What has both peeved and surprised me is when calling my central heating insurance company and car insurance company to enquire about paying all future bills at the G.P.O with cold, hard cash; they replied that this wasn’t possible and they only accept payment in the form of Direct Debit. This means that despite my efforts to be independent of banks, I’m still tied to the system somehow, because in order to pay these two bills, I will have to put cash into my account to cover them on the days they go out. It’s a sad realisation that eventually ALL companies will one day only accept payments via Direct Debit. Oh well, no drama, I’ve done my bit at beating this corrupt system as much as I can for now. Just imagine if EVERYBODY followed suit and did this?! We would be so powerful!

I don't get it. If you're smart enough you can make money from banks rather than give money to them. If you need to go overdrawn to pay your bills then surely without the overdraft the bills won't get paid.

Good luck.

jonesMUFCforever

My central heating insurer accepts credit cards - I know you stil need a bank account to service it but at least you get a month to pay.

mgdavid

? do people really have 'central heating insurance'?
no wonder some are skint !

System

Open up a building society account with Direct Debit functionality?

NatWest / RBS offer a free overdraft control addon on their standard current account so you don't pay for unpaid Direct Debits.

opinions4u

Bank charges are a choice.

Manage your money properly and you can bank for free.

pinkdalek

mgdavid wrote: »

? do people really have 'central heating insurance'?
no wonder some are skint !

Yes and mobile phone, pet, washing machine, 42" tv et al.........yet how many insure themselves?

Gromitt

mgdavid wrote: »

? do people really have 'central heating insurance'?
no wonder some are skint !

I have boiler insurance, which I would assume is quite similar. This year it broke down and cost more than what I've paid in premium to fix it, so I would say that was a good deal.

opinions4u wrote: »

Bank charges are a choice.

Manage your money properly and you can bank for free.

Manage your money properly and you can make a profit.

In the last 25 years I've had three sets of bank charges, typically because I forgot about payments. All 3 were refunded by the bank (assumingly as there was over a year between each of them). Meanwhile I've been profiting from the interest.

pmduk

I suspect you're cutting off your nose to spite your face. Many organisations will charge you extra for paying other by DD. It's probably easier and more profitable to learn to budget properly.

Goldiegirl

Most companies want to be paid by computerised systems - it's cheaper and more efficient for them.

Looking at it from their point of view, why should they spend money so that just a tiny few people can pay at the post office by cash. It's not good business sense for them

Maybe you need to find new insurance companies that will accept your desired method of payment.

Incidentally, where are you keeping all your money now? Hope it's not under the mattress, if you have a fire or a burglary you could lose everything.

apesxx

I used to be a bit like you, getting charged because I forgot about direct debits. In the end I opened up another current account and transferred all my direct debits to this account. Now my wage comes into my main current account and I then transfer over the amount for my direct debits plus a bit as a buffer to my other account straight away. What is left in my main account is then what's left to spend for the month. If I have to write a cheque I write it from my DD account and transfer the money in for it ( so I don't forget about the cheque). I don't touch this account at all for any other spending.

This method has really helped me to grab a hold of my budgeting and I haven't had a bank charge for over 12 months now x