I am pleased to discover that the Office Of Fair Trading has stated that excessive bank and credit card charges are unfair and illegal. About time too. It’s in excess of Ò£300,000,000.00 per year they estimate. So how many of them will be sent to jail for this theft? Now that really would shake up business and start concentrating minds on honesty & decency in business instead of profits.So will we be expecting automatic refunds of the unfair charges anytime soon? Do pigs fly? Err No, I don’t think so. I can see no logical reason why it shouldn’t happen.
You may well be able to claim unfair charges back though. Anything over a charge of Ò£12.00 is considered unfair according to the OFT. My own view is that any charge at all is unfair if the defaulter is willing to make ammends as soon as possible though it should depend on fairness on both sides. If you regularly default then something needs to be done but since they charge interest on any overlimit amount they already have their additional payment.
You can find out more here Office Of Fair Trading
Here is another very useful site where you can find advice about excessive bank charges and how to go about reclaiming them. Read the Article on this page and you will begin to wonder if we have made any progress at all from the 18th Century. Consumer Action Group
This sounds like the behavior of the mine owners and mill owners from that period. Quite shocking. How can any politician wonder that people are so cynical of them when they ignore such practices and persist with Yah-Boo slanging matches amongst themselves instead of preventing such abuses of power in business. Yes the OFT have finally done something but how long has it taken them? This has been going on for years.

We should have laws that require business to conform with common sense rather than small print Terms and conditions.

Sid

Money Magic: Seven Simple Steps to True Financial Freedom (Quick Reads)

I have only recently discovered blogs but they seem to be an established and growing way of getting the message out there. Whatever the message may be.

My message is that we are all sinking into a swamp of debt and it does bother me. I wonder about the future of our civilization if we continue in the way we are going.

It occured to me this morning that the debt crisis that I believe we are in is similar to the environmental crisis that is, at last, being recognised. I have been interested and concerned about the environment since the early seventies though I’ve never been active in doing anything about it. I have been watchful though. I watched as the early activists were dismissed and ridiculed by the “wise and knowledgeable” leaders of our countries. I have seen scientists claiming it was all nonsensical rubbish and I have seen the world as we know it deteriorate while they danced on.

Finally we see that those “wise ones” have recognised that rather than being wise they were demonstrating their ignorance and closed minds. Of course, they don’t admit to that but they are at last listening and paying attention. It remains to be seen whether it is all too little, too late. Time will tell and the planet will go on either with or without us.

So, assuming that mankind survives, what will be our financial situation? I believe that this is a similar situation to that of the environmental lobby in the 70′s. There are a growing number of voices crying out in the wilderness and more and more figures are supporting the claim that we are all heading for disaster and bankruptcy. Yet, the “wise ones” are telling us we have never had it so good. Certainly, most of us enjoy a lifestyle far beyond anything people could have hoped for even 50 years ago. Most of us have a lifestyle that Kings would have envied hundreds of years ago. The question is, who will pay for it. Will our children and their children still be paying the price?
I hope to be able to encourage people to, at least, stop and think about it. We are borrowing at an unsubstainable rate. We must all start to be more realistic in our aspirations and desires. There may be some people out there who “get off” on being in debt and living on the edge but for the majority debt is a worrying noose around our necks. Excessive use of credit cards leads to debts which causes stress and can destroy relationships so just stop and think before you present your plastic.

Sid

Money Magic: Seven Simple Steps to True Financial Freedom (Quick Reads)