BEWARE! THE BANKS ARE OUT TO GET YOU!

[Tizer]

Leaked information seems to show that an inquiry has confirmed that the Post Office wrongly accused sub-postmasters and mistresses of fraud when the problem was really due to the POs botched introduction of a new computer system. About 150 individuals have had their lives upset by this and I look forward to hearing how the PO is going to put things right...and if it will apologise and sack the ones who caused the failings.

[Stanley]

I read the report in PE yesterday. Very little can be done for the poor victims who were put out of business. You're right, someone should be sacked and there should be compensation but from whom?

[Stanley]

The foreign exchange markets are a mystery. Despite China's report the other day that the pound was sliding it is reported that its worth $1.6 and a Euro is down at 72p. Does this mean that the US and the EU are doing particularly badly?

[Tizer]

It's not just China - the BBC was reporting a slide too! But then one way is bad for exports and the other way is bad for imports, as the businessmen will tell us.

[Whyperion]

I think a while back the pound was about $1.65 and the euro 70p so there has been about a 4% change, as ever I appears that the UK govt has no interest in influencing the balance of payments accounts anymore ( But with higher import costs and cheaper exports there has been a small shift in some manufacturing back to the UK recently , presumably the higher UK wages offsets the slight increase in the price of fuels mainly)

[chinatyke]

And now the UK Government are selling a share of the the national debt in renminbi giving more credence to the view that the Chinese currency will become the World reserve currency replacing the dollar.
Oh dear!

[Stanley]

The pound in my pocket is mysteriously shrinking......

[plaques]

Looking through some old mortgage papers i was amazed that the interest rate I had agreed to 30 years ago was 12.5%. Of course this was at the time that the rampant inflation was coming to an end. (I must have been barmy). It makes you think what will happen when the current quantitative easing has to be paid for. How many people could afford this interest rate now?

[Stanley]

You're right again P! We have been lulled into a sense of false security by the low interest rates, it will have to end soon.....

[Tizer]

...and when it does there's going to be even more trouble. Lots of folk will find they no longer can afford to pay their mortgage and will be looking to re-mortgage or to change to a smaller house or a cheaper part of the country. That's when they'll be shocked to find out how strict the lenders are now and how intrusive are their questions. Some people have already encountered this and find it both intimidating and restrictive - being refused a mortgage because the lender believes you spend too much on hairdressers or in the pub. The amount of detail they want is staggering. Perhaps it should have always been like this, or at least since the de-regulation, but we're not used to it and it will especially shock those who are used to instant credit, no questions asked. Watch this space!

[Stanley]

I agree Peter. I can see why people will find the new regime of evaluation intrusive but then again, the old way of self-certification of income was far too lax. Observers were arguing against this years before the 2008 crash but the sellers always denied it was a problem.

[PanBiker]

I have just bought an item from Ebay, the seller does not use Paypal but prefers cheque, P.O. or BACS. I went to my bank (Yorkshire) at 15.10 this afternoon to ask if they could do a bank transfer of £46.00 from either my instant access savings account or our joint current account. First shock was that at ten past three in the afternoon I had passed the cut off time for today's transactions? Second was that they could not do a simple BACS transfer from either account (both with enough credit) but I could go back tomorrow and they could do a CHAPS transfer. The charge for this would be £24.00 for the privilege. Alternatively I could withdraw the amount in cash and pay it directly into any branch of the suppliers bank (Santander). Nearest branch is 5 miles away in Colne.

Is it me or is it as I believe the reason we are in the deep financial do do's that we are. Aaaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh

[Tizer]

You've got it Ian, spot on! Everything designed to suit them and to screw as much money as possible out of each customer, and ethics can go blow in the wind. And we call banking a `service industry'! Haha! You won't be surprised to hear that today Barclays was fined a record £38,000,000 by the City regulator for failing to keep its clients' assets separate from its own. Even bigger than the JP Morgan fine in 2010. You'd think the Labour Party would be taking advantage of all the bad news about the finance industry...but perhaps not, all the politicians seem to be in thrall to it these days.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29323483

[Stanley]

Dead right Tiz. Ian's problem is typical of a service industry that considers itself more important than the customer, they reckon we can't function without them. Same applies to banks and politicians but for different reasons.... That's why I keep crying out for more regulation and a new political system that functions on principle rather than filthy lucre. What struck me the other day was that PWC passed the accounts that included the phantom quarter of a billion. Now how could that happen?

[Tripps]

I have just bought an item from Ebay, the seller does not use Paypal but prefers cheque, P.O. or BACS. I went to my bank (Yorkshire) at 15.10 this afternoon to ask if they could do a bank transfer of £46.00 from either my instant access savings account or our joint current account. First shock was that at ten past three in the afternoon I had passed the cut off time for today's transactions? Second was that they could not do a simple BACS transfer from either account (both with enough credit) but I could go back tomorrow and they could do a CHAPS transfer. The charge for this would be £24.00 for the privilege. Alternatively I could withdraw the amount in cash and pay it directly into any branch of the suppliers bank (Santander). Nearest branch is 5 miles away in Colne.

Is it me or is it as I believe the reason we are in the deep financial do do's that we are. Aaaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh

Ian - it sounds as if you do not manage your accounts online? I don't think this transaction would be a problem at all if you did. I've been doing so for a few years now, without problems, and a transaction such as you describe would take only a few minutes to set up and execute.
All you need is the sort code and account number of the recipient. Under the 'faster payments' service - the funds are transferred very quickly. I don't think the time of the transaction matters.

Remember - I was the one who refused to used ATM's when they arrived - 'what happens when they give you the wrong money?' . I don't even count it now.
By the look of your smilies - you'd be doing your blood pressure a favour too.

[PanBiker]

It's no real problem Tripps it was more the shut down at 3pm and the cost of a simple few keystrokes. It's an electronic transfer of numbers, I was not asking them for the Pony Express. Sally does the finances in the main which does indeed include internet banking, just never thought of using it. For personal use, I just have an instant access account for the hole in the wall with auto credits into it once per month. It's about a simple as it gets. Most transactions on Ebay are via Paypal which I have never had a problem with although I do know some have hence why the guy I bought the item off wanted cheque or BACS.

It's the first time I have had to write a cheque in over ten years of trading on Ebay. Whichever way you look at it £24.00 charge for a single electronic transaction is a rip off. At the end of the day Paypal is only a front end for a similar service to BACS or CHAPS, the guy could have had the money in his account within the hour but that's up to him. I'm in no hurry to receive the item so I can stand the over inflated wait for cheque clearance while the bank has it's way with my £46.00. As we all know it's all a cunning wheeze to wring every last penny out of us. I think I actually knew what the outcome would before I walked into the bank, it was too simple.

[Stanley]

First time I used a hole in the wall in the early days it swallowed my card. Never used one since. (I couldn't read the screen anyway now....) I still use cheques and won't have anything to do with internet banking. If I want cash I get it from the Co-op when I pay with my debit card. Tht's it, Im defitely a dinosaur in this matter!

[Tizer]

We never use ATMs but withdraw cash in the village Post Office using their electronic gizmo. Put card in machine, enter PIN, postmistress counts out money in front of you, and as a bonus she updates you on the latest local gossip!

Tripps, it would be wise to count your ATM money, Paul Lewis has featured folk who've been short-changed by the machines and had trouble getting the bank to accept their story.

[Stanley]

I heard a quote yesterday from Citibank in a recent report on Tesco. They criticised Tesco for 'aggressive accounting measures'. Now what on earth could they be? I thought the whole essence of accounts and auditing was that they conformed to rigid rules in order to generate trust.
Adding a quarter of a billion to the profit is certainly 'aggressive'!

[Stanley]

I heard a report this morning about the level of global debt in general and European debt in particular and the gist of it is that the levels of debt are higher now than they were in 2008 before the crash. It confirms what I keep saying, that the 'recovery' in UK is based on debt, the very thing that got us in trouble in the first place.
Then there was the Panorama programme last night which focussed on the 7million working families that can't make a living wage and if they find a way of doing extra work to make more money their benefit is cut. One worker said that for every £1 he increased his wage, he lost 76p of benefit. This is a trap.
Did they say that the amount of money paid in benefits each year to supplement wages is £28billion? A staggering sum and when you come to think about it, that's a direct subsidy to the employers who can get away with paying the minimum wage. How did we ever get into this crazy situation?

[Stanley]

See THIS for a report of a banker who has pleaded guilty to rigging LIBOR rates. What angers me is that he can't be named neither can the bank he worked for. Why!? If it was a benefit cheat they would be named and shamed, same should apply to this case. One law for the rich.....
Later at 07:00. See this NEWS about senior bankers jumping ship before regulations come in to make managers accountable in law if conduct has been judged to be reckless. Now what on earth have they to fear.....?

[Stanley]

I watched a frightening programme last night that I had recorded, it was looking at 'home trading'. Ordinary people taking advantage of modern technology playing the market. The only people who consistently make money out of this are the brokers specialising in providing the facilities to make this possible.

[Stanley]

Worth reading THIS REPORT from the FT. Technical stuff but a warning about the flaws in Bank Capitalisation. This is supposed to be the buffer against failure in any sort of a crisis in the markets but the cost of holding this capital is, in itself, a negative factor in the circumstances it is supposed to protect.

[Stanley]

I've been listening to 'market experts' giving their views on why the financial markets are fluctuating so much of late. Basically they are saying that it is nothing to worry about, just normal market reaction to what is seen as bad news, such as Ebola. However one man mentioned the fact that inflation in Bond prices was the main driver and that unlike the real world, the markets were awash with Billions of dollars injected by the Central banks as 'Quantitative Easing'. In other words phantom money. I can't help wondering who is fooling whom! Is this really a sound basis on which to conduct our financial affairs? Or is it exactly the same thing as encouraging private debt to keep consumption up. My thought is how long can this go on? What happens when reality hits the markets?

[Stanley]

I listened to a report on BBC R4 about some of the problems being encountered by people using new ways of accessing their pension funds under the new rules introduced by Osborne. It's quite obviously a minefield, one man with over £100,000 to play with was advised he could draw £17,000 immediately even though he was under 55. It appears that when the revenue catch up with this they can claw back almost half of it in tax because it breaks the rules. Not only that but, along with others, he can't find out where the rest of his money is. Ostensibly it has been invested in 'storage pods' but when the BBC contacted the man who owns the company they could get no satisfactory answers. I thank my lucky stars that when I was arranging my annuity I trusted the company, Pearl, and it looks as though while this was not very adventurous it was safe and my pension continues to increase by 3% every time I have a birthday.