All banking is theft
I overheard this at the bank, the other day:Bank Clerk: Good Morning! How may I help you?
Customer: I'd like to ask about this charge, here.
BC: Ah yes, I see. It seems that you dropped below your credit limit for a while there.
C: It was only three hours. I don't understand how that cost me thriry pounds.
BC: There is the cost of sending a letter...
C: Please. See this mark here? This means that it was printed and sent automatically. So, five pence for an envelope, two for the paper, rather less than one for ink and general wear and tear. Oh yes, I forgot thirty pence fof a stamp. Where is the other twenty-nie and a half pounds going?
BC: I think it is supposed to be a deterant.
C: I see. Presumably this moral code works both ways does it? I will quietly wait for my thirty pounds from the time you accidentally billed me too much?
BC: There are people waiting behind you and I am sure a manager...
C: Am I going to be fined for this, too? Or is this one of those situations like in the film Double Jeopardy? Am I already covered for this? Can I expect to see a line on my next statement saying, "thirty pounds for temerity"?
But seriously, banks do seem to have this kind of twisted view of the world, completely divorcesd from any kind of morality. I once had a friend who was a self-proffessed anarchist (everyone else professed him a hooligan). I never really agreed too much with most of the stuff he did, but I was in complete agreement when he went around writing, "all banking is theft" on all the cash machines in the city.
It seems that at last someone agrees with him. It seems that the costs above were, as suspected, a way of boosting profits. I actually worked at one of the banks mentioned in the passage and I know that they always perform a very tiring balancing act of making record profits whilst dodging a windfall tax. Sickening, eh? Even more so when you realise that some of the people in the country can't pay their debts.
Banks - If you are worried about people not paying their credit card bills on time, maybe you shouldn't be quite so free when you are giving them out. I will elaborate - How can a student possibly be expected to take responsibility for a credit card or overdaft with no fixed income?
posted by Between daisies @ 09:36
8 Comments:
Yeah, I hate banks as a rule.
I hardly ever go overdrawn on this very basis. I get calls from them all the time trying to give me a credit card which I refuse to take.
Exactly. Banks are simply criminal.
There was a time last year when I was without work while studying, and understandably my Credit Card got a bit of a beating.
I got letters in the mail asking me to double my credit limit, until eventually I called the bank and said, "If I'm not able to pay it off now, what makes you think I'll pay off twice as much anytime soon?" ... Needless to say, I stopped getting the letters.
Fucking banks. The last thing that people in debt need is more debt.
Your debt. Give it to me!
I absolutely fucking dread what is waiting for me in the uk - I think i paid everything but if there is something I forgot then it will certainly be making a gimp out of my credit rating.
Douglas Adams had them sorted. He had everything sorted though.
Living off of/on borrowed money isn't an easy way to make progress. I'm reasonably happy to have a mortgage as it cancels any money I may have felt like throwing down the loo by renting.
However, making purchases on credit cards just seems wrong. Maybe it's the old Catholic school education talking, or maybe it's the logical thought process, but unless I can afford to buy it, I tend not to.
I guess at the end of the day it all depends on how you play the game. Without a bank manager who willing to listen to us and take into consideration everything affecting our application for a mortgage, which, as you know, were highly unusual circumstances, we wouldn't be in this position.
Well, that plus having had the foresight of buying a house several years earlier in the piece. Methinks that helped.
Similarly, regarding transactions for money withdrawal, which they charge whether it's over the counter or at the ATM: every bank offers information on the cost involved. One withdrawal a month, where more is probably better than less, negates any multiple withdrawal charges accrued.
I know these are just a couple of issues regarding banks. Still, we have choices.
This comment was brought to you by ANZ, where we go a step further than the rest to tell you that you have choices.
Just bought 100 cheques for $35 (CND, so that's like, 2 pounds, but still), and each time I write one it's another $0.75. So when all is said and done I'll have spent $110 to spend MY money. Fuckers.
Benj - Fuck that!
You know they let you pay your taxes by credit-card. I can't offhand think of a better road to heavy debt, can you? I have it on good authority that Banks here give out loans to help pay their loans. Amazing....
Andy - Your mortgage was being payed by someone else renting for a stretch there, wasn't it. that really is a damn good way of accumulating capital. Alas, in the uk now I think you need to have a different kind of mortgage for that kind of arangement.
Yes, and that's still true. However, it doesn't take into consideration the astronomical price we've been paying over here during our tenure.
BenjiB's cheque experience makes me feel even better about my wife's flair for online banking.
How many pieces of flair do you wear?
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