BEWARE! THE BANKS ARE OUT TO GET YOU!

[PanBiker]

Too much.

[Stanley]

Thanks for that and I agree with all of you! The addition was confirmed yesterday when Hammond said that the National Debt ids higher than at any time since the 1960s.

[Tripps]

I speak fairly regularly to an old gent who spent most of his working life in Zimbabwe formerly Rhodesia. He said it was a paradise when he was there. He had to come 'home' penniless, when his billions (I think he has actually mentioned quadrillions too), which he had in the bank became literally worthless. He tells me he is the same age as Robert Mugabe.

So having a million in the bank isn't the answer to everything.

[Stanley]

Funny isn't it David that some of us know that and others don't.....
I know I keep harping on about them but I completely fail to understand why the cure for a buggered boiler is a loan at 1300%APR when cheaper options are available.... I also fail; to understand why such usury is allowed..... Is it because if this source of credit was cut off overt levels of poverty would be higher and bad for the government?

[Stanley]

I note that the banks are keeping very quiet on the subject of regulation. Perhaps they have come to terms with the system now that the government seems to have capitulated to the finance sector and relaxed regulation. In addition they are feeling the pinch as low levels of activity and the necessity to pay fines for historic abuses. The road to better profits at the moment seems to be closing branches and shedding jobs....

[Tizer]

...I completely fail to understand why the cure for a buggered boiler is a loan at 1300%APR when cheaper options are available.... I also fail; to understand why such usury is allowed..... Is it because if this source of credit was cut off overt levels of poverty would be higher and bad for the government?

The banks won't lend to those people and they either can't save or won't save a buffer for bad times. The government threw money at banks so they don't feel motivated to take risks lending, especially to those they regard as a bad risk.

[Stanley]

Isn't it a terrible commentary on our society.....

[Stanley]

Still on the subject of credit, see THIS for a report on outlets that sell domestic goods on hire purchase but at quite enormous rates of interest. An example was given this morning of a fridge freezer which, paid for over three years, cost getting on for twice the cash price. Brighthouse charges 99.9%APR..... If I remember right, most of the old drip system payments were about 25% interest but I might be wrong. There are proposals to impose caps on repayments rather like the measures taken against the pay day loan companies.

[Tizer]

Once again, it's an example of the poorest people being hit hardest by greedy money-grabbers. Another example is people unable to afford to buy a house and living in rented property having to pay hundreds of pounds of extra fees to letting agents on top of the first month's rent in advance and a deposit of one month's rent. If they wanted a simple change made to the details of the rental agreement they'd be charged £80 or £100 when all the agent had to do was change a few words on his computer and print it out. At least the government has just put an end to this with new legislation.

A few days ago I wrote on here about banks and card companies abandoning second level verification of online payments and thus denying us the extra security. Now there's an announcement saying "New online payment safeguards 'brilliant news'" (a bit of a garbled headline!). The story goes on: "Two new safeguards to protect people when they pay online or via banking apps have been welcomed as "brilliant news" by a personal finance expert. The changes, announced by the payments industry, will allow consumers to double check they are paying the right person. When money is taken from an account by a direct debit, consumers will also be asked to confirm the payment. The plans are designed help prevent fraud, and stop accidental transfers." Unfortunately it is "due to come into force by 2020 at the latest". So we have three more years of poor security because they're so slow to set it up. It should be a benefit when it eventually appears but I can envisage a problem too.The idea is that when you make a payment or an online transfer you will receive an email message asking you to `Click Here To Verify Payment'. Now what could go wrong with that? It's exactly the sort of scam email you get and when you click you end up downloading malicious software or signing up to giving a criminal all that money that you thought the system was protecting. `Which' magazine has some concerns too. LINK

[Stanley]

Quite right about the poor Tiz and that 'improvement' to the system sounds like a potential nightmare! What was wrong with the password system? Simple. It took time and human intervention to run it so it has to go.....

[Stanley]

See THIS report in the Guardian for news of the state of the economy. RBS has failed the latest round of stress tests conducted by the BofE to assess how banks would perform in a crisis. The Bank warn of dangers ahead as debt rises and global factors impact on our economy. (The price of oil is back up at $50 a barrel as OPEC cuts production having given up their attempt to hold back the shale gas industry in the US). In a discussion I heard last night by 'experts' the view was advanced that perhaps we needed to have a look at the performance of highly paid executives...... That sounds reasonable to me!
Not welcome news for the Tory government, it looks like another blow to Ossie's 'Economic Miracle'.

[Tizer]

RBS is in a vicious spiral downwards. The news about their poor stress results will frighten away customers and they'll spiral even lower. Did you hear the man on the radio making the case for taking a very close look at the ability of the executives?

We are very closely tuned to the price of oil here due to there being no gas supply. We judged last week that it would be wise to get the half-full tank topped up, put in the order, got delivery on Monday and now we know it was the right decision. The man who runs our oil syndicate sent out an email last night saying the price would go up 3p a litre immediately but he found one company that would let folk have the oil at a lower price and set up an emergency delivery for them.

[Stanley]

The market at its finest!

[Tizer]

The Singapore Central Bank has imposed big fines on Standard Chartered Bank and Coutts Bank for money laundering. Coutts is part of RBS. It just shows how we don't hear about all the other nasty tricks that the banks get up to because the journalists think we are all parochial.

[Stanley]

One of the City's primary earners under attack!
I noted the French yesterday crowing about the number of institutions making serious enquires and Due Diligence investigations about moving to Paris......

[Tizer]

It seems like the UK ones are moving to the rest of the EU and American ones are moving to the UK.

[Stanley]

Perhaps they have more money to launder.....

[Tizer]

`How to fight banks that keep your savings prisoner because you want to take ‘too much’ out… '
Advice from Martin Lewis of MoneySavingsExpert.Com that might help people moving house or otherwise dealing with a large lump sum of money: LINK

[plaques]

Italy's Monte dei Paschi bank has said it will try to raise €5bn (£4bn; $5.3bn) from investors by year end as it races to avoid a state rescue.Link All this may seem a long way away and nothing to do with us. Looking more at the detail it looks just like a re-run of the collapse of RBS. The £4bn they are talking about is bad debt that is unlikely ever to be paid off. So they are proposing to offload it into the retail sector, ie: ordinary unsophisticated depositors, who would no doubt have lost their shirts on these investment opportunities. Remember even Joseph Stiglitz thought that RBS should go to the wall and let the bond holders take a hit. The Italian bank will be saved to protect the establishment but also to save the EU from complete disintegration. By the time Brexit is completed there may be no EU to Brexit from.

[Tizer]

The banks in Italy and a number of other European countries have been allowed to sell corporate bonds to ordinary retail customers so the poor folk are not only in danger of losing the money in their accounts but they also lose on the bonds.

[Stanley]

Every reliable commentator I have read says that 2008 will happen again. Only question is how soon. Then the politicians will demand tighter regulation.....

[PanBiker]

Just got notice from the Building Society that my cash ISA Savings Account interest rate is reducing from 0.75% to 0.65%, the good news is that it's tax free. Good job I don't have a lot of money. Happy Christmas.

[Tizer]

The banks have discovered another trick. It's dawned on them that first-time buyers are using `the bank of mum & dad' to help pay their deposit so they've started promoting a special mortgage arrangement to encourage it. Mum & dad pay the deposit into a special account associated with the mortgage and get defined interest rate of X percentage points above the base rate and get the deposit money back when the child re-mortgages in the future. That might sound OK but you can be sure there will be a note hidden deep in the T&Cs that allows the bank to vary at their will that figure of percentage points above the base rate. And mum & dad will be trapped in until the end of the term.

[plaques]

This sounds like a variant to the 'additional' mortgage insurance schemes that were available when I bought our first house. If you didn't have the required 25% deposit any extra was charged at twice the mortgage rate plus the fact that it was the last bit of loan to be repaid. Adding all this up over a typical period of 15 years it became a very expensive bit of money. The scheme you have described appears to shift the 'risk' of any collapse in the housing market resulting in negative equity onto mum & dad. Their's will possibly be the last bit of loan to be repaid but probably the last in line if the property has to be sold at below market value. What happens if mum & dad pop their clogs during the mortgage period is anybody's guess. Another layer of insurance cover and an extra bonus for the lads?

[Stanley]

Whatever, it will be a Cunning Wheeze to extract more money.
Not far off my annual 3% increment on my pension in February. My fairy godmother was looking after me when I ticked that box!