06/23/2009: "Bank charges appeal will be heard today"

the house of lords, will today start hearing the high street bank's appeals against the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) being awarded the right to take action against them, for the level of their bank charges.

the OFT won the right to decide if bank charges were fair or not, the bank's are appealing against this.

make no mistake, the banks have employed a top barrister to fight their corner, but i cannot see how they can win!
legal precident has long been in place regarding a "penalty charge"
if a charge issued by one party against another party does not reflect actual loss only then that charge is classed as a "penalty charge" - this is unenforceable under common law in england and wales.
- the banks have never produced any evidence on how their charges reflect actual loss - this is of course, because they are not actual loss charges, they are profit making.

evidence against the banks is clear:
in hansard (parliament records) it shows that a former leader of the banker's association, has stated that the amount of the cost of bank charges comes from how much money a bank will have to write off over a financial year, this is averaged out over the numbers of customers it estimates will be issued a charge.

the banks are drawing out the argument
the longer they appeal and avoid paying back the charges, the more time they have to raise the funds they will lose, in other areas.
this appeal against the OFT deciding on what is and isnt a fair charge is yet more stalling.

i loathe banks with a passion - they are expensive, they are not held to account by the law of the land (which is in place to protect both the individual and business) they assume they have the power to dictate and interfere in people's lives, for pure profit!

for years we were all told:
* "cash is on the way out" - well they would say that, as then more people would have to use bank accounts = more business for the banks
* "the price of security for banks and business to handle cash is getting more expensive" - today, bank charges raise over Ł2.5 Billion pounds a year for the banks - that is not counting the money the banks make from selling our information on to other companies!
* "using a debit card (where money comes off your balance immediately) is safer for the customer" - how many people have been mugged against how many people have a bank account? - we dont know because they dont want us to know, the numbers of people mugged is miniscule in comparison to the number of people that have been hit with a charge by their bank.
* "using a debit card is more convenient for our customers" - total and utter tosh!
ive lost count of the hours spent writing letters or on the phone getting bank charges reversed!

bank's are ILLEGALLY re using funds in customer's accounts, to increase their profits!
bold claim it maybe, here, have some evidence:
- you have a debit card
- you use a debit card to buy something fopr say Ł20 at a shop
- the sale is authorised by the bank, with an authorisation number, that the funds are in a person's account to cover the purchase.
- the money is removed from the customer's balance, so they cannot draw that money out or buy more things with the same money, as the sale to the shop has been authourised, ie, guaranteed by the bank.

- the next day a direct debit is called for on the customer's account, but there are not enough funds in the account to cover it (as funds have been removed from their balance due to the authorised purchase they made)

- the bank should, refuse the direct debit and issue a charge (that only covers their actual loss) and return it unpaid
- but the bank dont do this simple action - the bank instead reuse the money they authorised for the purchase the day before, to pay the direct debit
why do the banks do this?
- for more profit!
- three days later the shop call on the account for the money the bank authorised, for their payment for the sale they made
- now the bank issues a charge of Ł35 for going into the red without authorisation AND __an additional charge of Ł25 for an "unauthorised card payment"
a non paid direct debit would result in a Ł35 charge - instead the customer has funds reused without permission and the customer is billed for Ł60 of costs - making the bank Ł25 more profit!

the banks can argue until they are blue in the face about "its the system" "its the way things work" - all completely irrelevant!
i dont give a monkey's arse how their systems work, ITS NOT THE CUSTOMER'S RESPONSIBILTY!
wether a computer system does it or a bloke sits at a desk all day with a pencil individually checking millions of accounts - it matters not one bit - its the bank's responsibility to act within the law!

as for the banks telling us "we'll have to charge for bank accounts" well tough!
perhaps people will then start to see banks for what they are.... a money making business who are not interested in helping the people at all.... they are only interested in MAKING PROFITS!