Help Get the Bank Charges song to number 1!

abu5e

I used to visit your site regularily because it started out as a way to trade little-known financial secrets as a way to save some money. But now, I think it is just a way of causing irritation to others.
Most banks, if you ask them, will refund one overdraft charge per year as a gesture of goodwill. Forcing banks to refund these charges will only take away any such gestures of goodwill - where is the benefit for the struggling one parent families who never go over budget, and struggle every month to meet payments, but NEVER go overdrawn? Those are the kind of people who are looking for help.

If you get more than one charge per year, perhaps you should be asking yourself not "Why are these banks robbing me?" but more "Why am I in such a financial mess?". I know there are, as always, some exceptions, but this is normally the case.

Are you paying for a widescreen TV on finance but struggling to make the payments? - What's wrong with a portable like everyone else who can't afford these luxuries?

Are these regular payments essentials such as gas, electric, rent and council tax? Then where is the rest of your wage (or benefits) going? Unless you take out credit, it's unlikely your ESSENTIAL outgoings will be greater than your income - and if they are, there is generally free financial help available to help you get yourself out of this situation.

I originally thought this site was meant to be helpful to people who are looking to save a bit of money, but I think I have realised that the only people you are helping are people who prefer to write strongly worded letters whenever they are "wrong-treated", and complain about being robbed whenever they are charged a fee they AGREED to pay when they signed up, not people who genuinely want to fix the cause of these financial problems.

Now I feel it has just become a publicity thing - what is the point in this song? The bank charge refund cases are all on hold (and I hope this is concluded with the banks winning). Maybe instead of counting the billion or so pounds that have been reclaimed, you should display the figure as how much debt people have gone in, and not been charged for it.

And on a side note, I notice you have a signature in one of your savings forums that reads something like "Successfully ticking off the treasury by keeping £x out of circulation". Maybe you should change it to "Successfully ignoring the aim of this site, by contributing my £x towards an inflation rise" - not just that, but I can't see ANY positives about that statement - you are also preventing any interest (and possibly even compound interest) from being earnt on that money.

Whatever the values of this site were originally, they have been truly lost.

greenpixey

Have sent a message and got the code straight away :j

Ialso forward Martins email to everyone I know

burgesst

I think this is a great idea, but I'm very wary of mobile phone companies.

If I text this number, am I guaranteed that my mobile number will be used for no other purpose? (spam, advertising, being added to a database etc.) ???

I've been 99.99% unsolicited call/text free for about 9 years on my phone, and I'd like it to stay that way!

nickmack

abu5e wrote: »

I used to visit your site regularily because it started out as a way to trade little-known financial secrets as a way to save some money. But now, I think it is just a way of causing irritation to others.

It's sad you feel like this. There have been and still are plenty of ways of saving money using the information on the site.

Most banks, if you ask them, will refund one overdraft charge per year as a gesture of goodwill. Forcing banks to refund these charges will only take away any such gestures of goodwill....

This thread isn't the place for that discussion, the rights and wrongs of reclaiming are debated at length here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=304960

Now I feel it has just become a publicity thing - what is the point in this song?

Alot of the reclaiming is about publicity. Banks like to try and sweep these things under the carpet. If people don't know the full information, they can be fobbed off. The point is awareness gives people the bigger picture.

Thanks to Martin and other sites, this issue hasn't been forgotten and people have been given the confidence to make claims. Otherwise they may have been intimidated by the bank into thinking they're wrong.

Taffyscot

Hey I just realised something huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge. Last week I bought a mobile phone in Tescos. As I have said in latter posts I am not very mobile phone literate buttttttttttttttttt get this

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. Because of this site someone wrote about getting £25.00 quid off a mobile phone if you shop for £50.00 of groceries in Tesco. Because of me reading that last week I got a new mobile phone with my groceries. Because of this site I checked my bill and voila like magic the £25.00 did not come off and I got £50.00 back on my groceries, well 25 on the phone but a free 25 off my groceries. So do you think I will spend 50 pence to text? You bet your life I will and in the process I learn how to text ,how magic is that? I tell my friends when I find a bargain that I was reading "my bible" they all know that is Martin Lewis and the forum now. Taffy

JDPower

Musically poor and lacking in humour or cleverness. As for raising publicity about bank charges it's about six months too late so pretty pointless IMO

System

Taffyscot wrote: »

I am not very mobile phone literate buttttttttttttttttt get this

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.

:beer: blimey !!!!

Jenna_Appleseed

great :money: - I'll have to wait til it's on itunes as texts don't work on my mobile:(

What's this about Sony owning the rights to I Fought The Law? didn't know The Crickets & The Bobby Fuller Four were owned by Sony - thought they'd just own the rights to The Clash cover (money grabbing wotsits :mad: )

Rob_B_8

JDPower wrote: »

Musically poor and lacking in humour or cleverness. As for raising publicity about bank charges it's about six months too late so pretty pointless IMO

Possibly but there are worse ways to spend 50p plus the woman in the bradford & bingley hat is a bonus for watching the vid

irrelevant

I don't usually spend on premium texts, but I've sent mine :-)