Saving For a Space Ship

After a bit more research I've found these excellent links Organised group to fight charges - www.BankActionGroup.co.uk Forum for group www.BankActionGroup.co.uk/forum Site dedicated to fighting charges allied with above group http://www.bankchargeshell.co.uk/ Money Saving Expert.com advice on subject http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/v...141050760,24632, Similar article & another version of a letter to send to banks re: charge refund http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-ba...77&in_page_id=7

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/men/news...t_the_bank.html In the above article and on todays BBC North west news at 1.30, they had an interview with Brian Mullen a student who took LLoyds bank to court for very large and unfair bank charges over bounced payments. Lloyds did not turn up in court to defend the action, so Brian got a judgement in default, meaning the bank have to pay up. However, they still have not paid up and Brian has just sent in the baliffs. It looks to me like Lloyds did not turn up to avoid a legal precedent being set and non payment may be a related tactic.The BBC stated a precedent had not been passed as it had not beed discussed in court. The banks make an alleged 40% of their profits by bank charges, so the matter is very important to them. From a related article in Feb 06 "Students warned over bank charges" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4722288.stm a bank representative had the cheek to try and justify the charges of around £35-39 as legitmate due to a human decison, whereas it is believed the true cost is approx. 50p. £5 would seem a fair max. fee. I see bank charges as a tax on the poor and have had personal experience of a bank having a 'profit feeding frenzy' of being very inflexible on charges when a person has cash-flow problems. IMO, it's one of the factors that pushes already very stressed debt -laden folks over the edge into depression, despair and possibly bankruptcy or suicide. Its akin to kicking someone when they are down for maximum profit. I have always advised people to set up & use another bank account when banks start behaving in this way with charges. IMO, there my be case for complaining against the use of the phrase 'free banking' as they tag on the line of 'for customers in credit'. It seem a mis-representation when an often poor or disorganised person is charged around £39 up to 3 times a day for going £1 over their limit, to allow this 'free banking'. If the banks are going to behave this way and they bounce a cheque /dd on you. I suggest sending them a draft letter from the link below, stating the alleged overcharging & related legal history. Should they not reply, do an online money claim (small claims court) for £25 http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/onlineservices/index.htm and charge them for your time & expense at a similar rate to what they allege it costs them, ie £500 to £2000, so if they do not reply and you get a judgement in default, they will have to pay this amount or face the baliffs to take goods. This may force them to address the issue. From: http://www.glasgowstudent.net/advice/bankcharges/ "Results of our survey showed that many of you are being charged when a direct debit, standing order or cheque payment is honoured by the bank even although there’s not enough money in the account to cover it. For the letter which covers this situation:" http://www.glasgowstudent.net/files/src_pa...d_bc_letter.doc For those times when the bank refuses to honour the payment, and still charges you anyway, the letter is slightly different : http://www.glasgowstudent.net/files/src_pa...ed_bcletter.doc Forum discussion on this Lloyds story from the litigant himself http://www.bankactiongroup.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1762 Excellent Forum on campaign against bank charges http://www.bankactiongroup.co.uk/forum Mods, I believe this thread is relevant to debt, banks & borrowing, but move it after it has some exposure if you wish.

They have over 14,000 actual (24,000 total) feedback, since year 2000 so appear to be successful.

"The problems with the flat may or may not have been picked up in survey, we're not sure, as hubby-to-be didn't get a survey done in his name when he bought the flat - he just got handed one for the previous buyers. We're not sure if the place is supposed to be worth £25k without the work done, and £40k with the work done, or if it was supposed to be £40k in the first place and even more once it's all finished." Sounds like they did not get their own survey done & the previous owners one missed/ ommitted it

No, you did not miss anything. They've just added details of whats wrong: (quote from other poster) "surely flats are subject to a management company who carry out maintenance/repairs and upkeep on communal areas?" (reply of OP) Nope, not so. I'm not entirely sure what the deal is but we don't have a factor or anything like that. We asked the council and environmental health to see if they could step in and basically arrange it all and bill everyone individually, but they didn't want to know because it's not a big enough risk yet. The council said we could apply for a grant, but everyone in all the flats had to sign for it, and the others refused to do so. The flat was built in 1900, and at some stage there was subsidence. The subsidence has now stopped, but it caused structural damage, which is progressive. The end wall needs to be pinned to stop it falling out onto the street - because our flat is the only one where cracks are showing everyone else says it's not their problem. The wall needs big metal rods through it to pin it to the joists, but the joists are rotten with woodworm. We found out last week that the roof of the whole building needs to come up so they can replace the joists - guess who's paying for that as well? The more I think the more I'd just like rid of it, but we've paid so much money out already, and we'd get nothing back from it in its current state"

I've been regularly visiting the ebay powersellers forum for the last 9 months, and the thread below is the first I've seen with any indepth problems/ details of a property purchase. Perhaps it would be of interest to hpc'ers to see what their thoughts are as I expect this type of story will become more common. as things generally start to unwind. Unfortuneately, the forum is only accessible to powersellers, so if you want to help or contribute drectly you need to be one. "I want a new house. Basically. My old house is just not good enough, in fact there isn't enough words I could post on this forum to tell you everything that is wrong with my old house... So chances are, we are £25k in debt for the old house, which we got bumped on and the lawyer says there's f-all we can do about it - we've also spent another £15k on trying to fix the old house - ending up with a mortgage of about £200 a month and no money at all from my hard work on eBay last year... IF it gets fixed, we should be able to rent it out for minimum £300 a month, but if it isn't fixed, we're looking at getting the price of the land LOL, cos it will be condemned within five years... oh, did I mention that none of the neighbours want to believe that there is anything wrong with the houses, and they aren't willing to pay? We've already stopped one flat from being sold in the block (£42k, the buyer was about to get bumped silly) but I'm suspecting most of the others will be looking at selling just shortly just to get away from paying us... Basically, I'm 21, first flat I'm on the mortgage for, and absolutely terrified that this is going to ruin the rest of my life - if we didn't have his nonsense hanging over our (MY) heads, we could easily afford a lovely 2-3-bed flat/house in an area probably a bit further away than we want to live but nevertheless in an ok area for commuting - in fact, we'd probably get a house that could cut down all travelling altogether, cos I finish uni in May (I hope) and if we get a house in Hamilton like I'd like, he can walk to work at the stall and then there'd be no need for a car (costing a heck of a lot, but I just can't see us giving it up, cos the car's the baby... sob. I can't even think of giving it up without crying) and I can stay at home and work eBay and the web-site and mail-order from home. The above probably made no sense - anyway. First flat. Broken. Rent out - need new mortgage - self-certify? Anyone else out there on a self-cert mortgage? How easy was it to get? Any draw-backs? Any views and opinions appreciated... ----------------- OK... property prices in Hamilton are not any steeper than anywhere else at the mo - If we've got a spare £75k (which we haven't) we'd get a nice 3-bed flat. The problems with the flat may or may not have been picked up in survey, we're not sure, as hubby-to-be didn't get a survey done in his name when he bought the flat - he just got handed one for the previous buyers. We're not sure if the place is supposed to be worth £25k without the work done, and £40k with the work done, or if it was supposed to be £40k in the first place and even more once it's all finished. If we try to off-load it, it won't be worth even £10k - so leaves us with thousands of pounds of mortgage to pay off - I'd rather keep it and let it out and at least get some money back from it. At the moment we're living with hubby-to-be's sister - she has a 3-bed house and no-one to fill it so we're rent free for as long as we need ----------------- Oh, forgot to say - if we could get away with it, I'd like to fix the flat we have, but rent it, as chances are once it's done the neighbours aren't going to like us much as none of them agreed with getting the work done in the first place despite the fact that it was essential maintenance..."

And it won't be the first time, as the files have just been released on what gay ex-Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe was working on after he resigned from the party. http://www.klov.net/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=10636

Ever played 'Tempest 2000' on the pc? it is a superb updated version of the game. It would be nice to have the cabinets, but space is a prob. & there are so many great mame emulators. If you can't be bothered with them there's free online play of classics like Defender & Sinstar at http://www.midwayarcade.com/classic.php who also do great pc/ xbox compilations. I particularly like the taito legends compilations, part 2 of which is released at end of march with my favourites Wild Western http://www.klov.net/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=10436 & Tokio http://www.klov.net/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=10136 I find cheapest games at www.find-games.co.uk Oh, and thanks sledge, some things just have to be corrected

I assume that mental hospitals must reduce house prices in the adjacent vicinity, & new ones suffer from a 'NIMBY' effect when trying to get built. Personally, I would not like to live in such a place & would expect a price reduction in the flat compared to say a warehouse conversion. There's an ex-asylum (cylindrical building) flats block on the Camberwell /Peckham border, which I found it a bit spooky. Maybe with the Maudsley in Camberwell, Sth London down the road being on of the biggest it makes no difference to many. There is an interesting historical list & study of old asylums & mental institutions here http://www.mdx.ac.uk/www/study/4Asylums.htm many of which have now been coverted to flats.

Having lived in Brighton from 1985-91, IMO, it certainly had a large mentally ill percentage, partly due to the plentiful drug scene & seasonally attracted homeless. I remember a long term Brighton resident telling me that pre-1970's, London mental hospitals used to give patients a ' train ticket to Brighton' on release, primarily to get them out of the London area, so it attracted these types. Sound like a bit of an urban myth looking back now. I heard talk of Banbury having a higher than average rating as well. Any pointers on where to find evidence of changes in monthly/ annual mental health statistics? Perhaps the figures on the amount of medication issued would be useful ot see where its going.

Magnum had a Ferrari lower down the range than a Testerossa, a 308 http://www.ferrariclub.com/faq/magnum.html I saw a Ferarri F40 get stuck on a speed hump in Regents park in the early 90's, which was funny. Fred, you're right about 'Tron' the arcade game, http://www.klov.net/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=10204 My particular favourite was the 'Discs of Tron' http://www.klov.net/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=7594 I sold an original Space Invaders screen the other week & the guy who bought it ( a restorer) said the market for arcade cabinets had collapsed recently. Discs of Tron is about £1000 now, so think I'll sell my classic car .

I popped into 'Game Station' the vid games shop today, and witnessed a middle aged man ranting manically at great speed about old computers to a stranger. The poor stranger was doing his best to distance himself without offending the ranter, perhaps as he was afraid of him turning violent. It made me think that I had not seen such an episode on the street for a while, and this visible behaviour must increase as the debt & stress burden bites, particularly at this depresssing time of year. Does anyone have any experience of a visible increase themselves recently? I did a quick google & had a look at www.mind.org.uk but couldn't find a source of measurement of mental illness. Presumably, this would be at least 3 months behind anyway.

Almost time for an hpc party then, now things look like they've hit the skids http://fogiesfollies.com/archives/2005/09/...ked_twister.jpg

What ? Giving them the cold shoulder

http://www.guardian.co.uk/britain/article/....html?gusrc=rss Plans were unveiled today to build an ultra-green housing estate in Brighton using 15,000 old car tyres. The 16-home development would be constructed as a series of so called Earthships - a radical idea that involves using recycled tyres as building materials. The developers, Eathship Biotecture, claim the homes will be so energy efficient they will have no utility bills. Online video demonstrating the process http://www.earthship.co.uk/video/index.htm

What would you call the parody ? 'Can't Move', 'Slight Move' (Down), 'Fright-Mews' 'Rhubarb Muse'

Good one. I was in the main post office in Chester on Saturday, late afternoon. I overheard the manager telling staff that 27 people had signed up for their 0% balance transfer credit card, which was a record amount of people on one day for them. I picked up a leaflet for the card, and on the way out the manager asked if I was interested in signing up. The key part of his sales patter was that 'they were one of the last card providers doing the 0%'

Oh dear! the 'my diary' on http://www.mycarcraftexperience.co.uk details a rough time. Apparently they tried ot close done his website.

Don, got any juicy anecdotes, re: new builds ? The amount of empty new build flats in Chester is amazing, especially around station rd / nr. PO sorting office / Canal side. I noticed big sign & land cleared for 190 riverside ones (yet to be built) next to the race course the other day. Bet they delay those.

Extensive business plan he had there Shame the plumbing courses are having graduates not able to find jobs as too many jumped on the bandwagon.

Any chance of link?

Thanks, but you should not encourage me - Oh go on then - In mumsy mode she's 'Crechety Arsedrop' with her kidergarten mind, but if she gets the hump with the bears or interviewers its 'Flustry AllStropp'. Your not a bad person for wishing labour pain of '1 second for every first time buyer she has conned into buying an over-priced home'. I was thinking more of 1mm of prolapse for every bankrupt or depressed ftb she's conned. So she should end up turned over & inside out several times like the brainwashed muppet recent buyers have been by the VI Lenders & EA's

They are just about to discuss HIP's on C4 12 pm News. Most likely repeated at 7pm. Chances are Miss Arsdrop might make an appearance

A 'Tight Club' would be appropriate, with frugal advice & anecdotes to stop folks being brainwashed & indebted by buying into a hollow consumerist fantasy. The first rule of Tight Club is tell who you like so long as it does not cost anything.