I have an opinion that is slightly contraversial... I hope you can change it

lazy&indebt

Thanks for all your replies and hope I haven't offended anyone!

I understand what you are saying rayday and I think you are right, the banks should have been more responsible in the first place and children should be educated about this at school.

I suppose when you add up the numbers, for every person taking their charges back from the bank there are probably 3 people giving it back to them (those who aren't financially savvy or maybe just earn a FORTUNE etc)

If that makes sense?

rayday2

Banks to be fair to them (which breaks my heart!) are a bit no win, we criticise when they lend to people willy nilly and then when Egg start freezing accounts and doing the responsible thing we criticise them then.

I certainly wish someone had called my cards in and not proactively encouraged more loans and I would definately be a few thousand better off - but live and learn that is all we can do!

Snaggles

lazy&indebt wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies and hope I haven't offended anyone!

Not at all (speaking personally anyway ). You expressed an opinion politely, and then asked for others to discuss it, and stated at the start you were prepared to be corrected, so I don't see a problem with that at all.

Shineyhappy

I thought the main cause of it was the US crash, but by the same token surely its to do with people borrowing money and not being able to pay it back? I dont have an issue with reclaiming their charges but what I do have a problem with is people delibratly running up debt and then look for ways not to pay it.

I have a colleague who lives in a council house and brages about how he ran up 60k worth of debt then went bankrupt. He has more flash clothes and games consols than I knew exisited, went abroad several times a year etc. He knows he cant loose his house and know he is bragging about his wifes new Visa card.

lazy&indebt

Shineyhappy wrote: »

I thought the main cause of it was the US crash, but by the same token surely its to do with people borrowing money and not being able to pay it back? I dont have an issue with reclaiming their charges but what I do have a problem with is people delibratly running up debt and then look for ways not to pay it.

I have a colleague who lives in a council house and brages about how he ran up 60k worth of debt then went bankrupt. He has more flash clothes and games consols than I knew exisited, went abroad several times a year etc. He knows he cant loose his house and know he is bragging about his wifes new Visa card.

Ah, now that's not fair at all is it??

tyllwyd

I only know what I've read in the press, but it seems that the credit crunch is a lot to do with sub-prime mortgages in the US and the way that they have been sold on by banks. There's an article here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7073131.stm

I think that the bank charges reclaiming is a separate issue - the figures are a lot smaller.

Just for me, personally, I'm not a great fan of bank charge reclaiming because I've got free banking on my current account, and it seems pretty obvious that if banks lose the money they would get from bank charges then they will try to find excuses to get rid of free banking.

At the same time, I can see that if you get stuck in a cycle of charges it can drag you down very quickly, so I can understand why people do get very upset with the current situation.

I don't know, looking ahead to the year coming nobody seems to be expecting good news.

Do you get the free Money Morning e-mails, and Merryn Somerset Webb's Moneysense e-mail? They are interesting (but always gloomy)!

lazy&indebt

Thanks tyllwyd. I agree with the bank charges thing but again it depends on individuals. Sometimes people are charged with good reason and they should not be able to claim it back!
You can't get stuff for free and like you say, if it is decided that banks cannot charge you for this anymore they will make money another way...

redmel1621

southernscouser wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think you're looking at it the wrong way. :undecided

Yeah sure people are reckless with spending then get charged (I was one of them), but when they reclaim, they are only reclaiming what was taken from them. Alot of people (not accusing you) have a mindset that all the claimers are getting money for nothing. They aren't. They are just taking back what was theirs in the first place.


As for is it having an affect then no I personally don't think it is. Banks make ridiculous amounts of profit. Rightly or wrongly they can afford to lose this extra profit.

But my understanding is that the credit crunch is due to the costs that banks have to pay for borrowing from each other aswell as/because of the dodgy US mortgage markets and general US economy.

I think.

Can I just add too, i don't think it's a case of Banks can afford to lose extra profit....It is more a case of why the hell do they need to make these sickening profits in the first place, there are a awful of a lot of people on this site and otherwise who struggle to make ends meet each week then look at this:

"Barclays Director Lands 14.8MILLION......BONUS" (Gaurdian Wed/20th) I mean surely who needs that much money on top of his already well over inflated wages.

This is where all our unfair bank charges are going, right into MR millionaires pocket to use for what,,,,another villa somewhere or maybe a another heli-pad.....

Let's put it this way I bet he doesn't have to sit in the dark cos he has no money to put into the electric meter. Wealth in this country (and most definately others too) is so unfairly distributed you wouldn't believe it.

Mel x

Gemmzie

What can you do though? Can't stop companies making profits, can't redistribute wealth, so what do you do?

tyllwyd

The other thing that I've heard said is that when there is easy credit, the problems are hidden, because people keep borrowing more and more, so they always make their minimum repayments and keep their good credit history. It's like the tide coming in, it's only when the tide turns and the easy credit runs out that you see the nasty big rocks hidden under the surface. I think there are probably a few people in that situation on this forum - and maybe more to come??