Wednesday, Aug 29, 2007
The 'Waterbed' effect - The banks want their money back!
Telegraph: Credit card firms turn fee losses into charges
Credit card companies are imposing new charges to protect profits after a consumer watchdog forced them to reduce other fees.
Last year, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) ordered credit card providers to halve penalty fees, by setting a maximum charge of £12.
Since then, the consumer group Which? has found that the range of other fees and charges levied on credit cards has "notably increased".
Posted by tyrellcorporation @ 09:31 AM (705 views) Add Comment
17 Comments
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1. Mark said...
our sole purpose in life is to be conned by big companies, thats life.. we are all stupid, we all shop at tescos we all believe that house prices will keep going up and we all pay the silly high fees, taxes etc , what do we do about it? nothing... lets get together and stop all this, before it gets out of hand... vote for mark...the new PM, I will stop tescos, I will lower taxes.. I will cap fees, I will be honest when the economy is in turmoil... I wont BS you..VOTE FOR ME..
2. Pecker said...
I thought it was a bad idea to kill the geese which lay the golden eggs?? I love the bit in the article saying lenders are using "ingenius" ways to make there lost fees back... like increasing the APR!! Genius!!
3. su said...
Wow Mark, what a turnaround! Yesterday cheesed off and today you're ready to take on the whole government! Good on yer! The UK's not sunk yet, just needs a lot more people to speak up and do something about it.
Back to the topic. This is a bit worrying. Not only are they increasing APRs, they're also reintroducing annual fees, not to mention charging customers for not using their cards and even charging customers who forget to register a change of address when they move! My memory is not what it was, if it worsens anymore I think I'll have to cut up all my credit cards! Oh, silly me. If I do that I'll be charged for not using them!
Mark, when you're PM, how about introducing a law making it illegal to charge anyone with a bad memory?
4. mrmickey said...
As long as private banks control the flow of money into the economy we will all be slaves to the banks that's how the system works, they lower interest rates tempting people to take out massive loans then raise interest rates a whip the carpet from under their feet. Most peoples income goes on tax and loan repayments and most of the tax is used to pay off government debt to the banks.
5. su said...
mrmickey. How right you are! Slaves to the banks! At the moment we have the choice to have bank accounts and credit cards or not, but I forsee a day when paper money is done away with and everyone will be forced to sell themselves to the Banking masters. Anyone who doesn't will be unable to buy or sell! Now that is power!
6. Mark said...
yeh we will make it illegal..lol
damn i forgot to pay that million in taxes..lol
7. Ah-so said...
Hardly surprising. Banks have to earn money for their share holders and need to get back a return on capital. Doing away with charges at one end necessarilly means that they will be applied somewhere else. This whole popular campaign, tacitly supported by newspapers and the BBC, to get bank charges done away with, will only transfer costs from the fleckless to the errr feckled (is that a word?).
8. Tickock said...
At the moment we have the choice to have bank accounts and credit cards or not,
Most of us no longer have this choice as wages these days are only paid by bank transfers (and increasingly so are benefit payments), requiring everyone to not only have an account, but to have everything paid into it too. Banks can therefore extract charges, fees & repayments with ease by simply deducting them from your wage before you even get hold of it yourself.
They are increasingly attempting to eliminate cash and replace it with digital currency too (by charging you to withdraw your own money or for not paying by DD etc.) Such a currency, of course requires that money never actually leaves the banking system at all, from the time that you earn it, to the time it is spent and returned to business accounts, it will always be held, controlled, monitored and used by them.
9. Cstanhope707 said...
So now I being a responsible customer have to pay extra charges due to "STUPID" People who could not budget properly and went overdrawn without authority complaining about high overdraft charges. SIMPLE WAY TO AVOID THIS MANAGE your finances better....
10. shipbuilder said...
When the ID card wheeze is introduced (I don't believe that the Torys will scrap it), nothing will be possible without your personal barcode/retina scan/whatever - the next step then (all for convenience and crime-fighting of course) will be it becoming your debit card as well as medical record etc. Depressing , isn't it?
11. su said...
I wonder how long it will be before that day comes. Eventually it will be a mark on everyone's forehead or right hand, according to Revelations 13. I really must go back and study it more. Its getting scary just how much of revelations is coming true.
12. dohousescrashinthewoods said...
Shocking indeed. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is unhappy about the determined push of this government towards totalitarianism.
I am still amazed that they have been able to repeal Habeas corpus - "The writ of habeas corpus has historically been an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state [detention]" - 90 days anyone?
Imagine there is a depression, and imagine that "for safety and security" all citizens are required to have a credit card and keep spending. Now imagine those filthy "financial terrorists" who are attempting to destabilise the UK by not having any debt or attempting to pay in cash, for their own nefarious ends. Naturally the terror laws apply..
Sure it's crazy. How much less crazy than some of the legislation that has been quietly trotted through under cover of a media frenzy over something pointless?
Not convinced? Then let's imagine the current government as essentially benign and a force for good who wouldn't dream of using such unbounded powers on anyone but true terrorists (on which they wold no doubt have compiled dossiers of intelligence; naturally). What if, one day, a corrupt government snuck in by the back door (after all, the Daily Mail et. al seem to ensure healthy suppert for the BNP and there's nothing like a severe recession/hardship for whipping up crowds eager to blame someone). Suddenly we find twisted statements like "all brown people are essentially part of the same terrorist organisation" and "we believe there is a significant security threat posed by black people" - monstrous, but, enshrined in law, no one can prevent detention and harassment of ethnic minorities - sanctioned and agreed to by the public.
Yes, it's a rant, but doesn't it at least make you pause? What happens if these powers were wielded by someone who is not essentially decent and straight? Someone who, in a harsher climate, could sway public opinion. Deprived of those widescreen tellies from Argos that've been keeping them quiet, who knows what an angry, stunted, disenfranchised population could be turned to.
13. su said...
Dohousescrashinthewoods. Have you been reading Revelation 13 as well?
14. mrmickey said...
If you want to see what the near future is going to be like watch "BRAZIL" tonight BBC2" it's a classic although made over 20 years ago the similarities with today are scary.
15. layers said...
su & dhcitw - check out http://signs-of-the-times.org >Keep an open mind, and simply observe what's happening around us as it's f***ing happening people, slowly, slowly, but here it comes....
16. Retiredbanker` said...
Yes, our devilish plot to take over the World is coming nicely to fruition.
We are the masters now and you are our slaves.
Bankers' rule- hahahahahahaha...............
( Dons pin-stripe suit, bowler hat, and marches around waving his umbrella in time with appropiate music; Money, Money ,Money; If I were
a rich man; Look for the silver lining; etc).
17. wiltshire said...
Well hopefully people are going to wake from the age of 'conspicuous consumption' and realise there are far more important things going on than gadgets and conservatories. Things like making sure they're not ripped off by big business, mostly through lethargy. It'll be hard, harder still on those who have so willingly dug their nose into the trough, but every once in a while people need a large dose of reality and it's truly coming this time.
I think serious numbers of people are going to get militant when they realise they've been fooled, cos house equity and pensions are doomed at this rate.