Bank Fees and Fat Bankers

Hi everyone,
I was just watching 'A Current Affair' (strike me down for watching such crap, just happened to be on while I was talking to my folks). They aired a story about all the major banks in Australia making changes to their fee policies. All of the banks will now charge (on top of their monthly account fees) $1AU for every single Electronic withdrawal, $2AU for withdrawals not directly connected to the bank, and $50AU for late mortgage repayments as well as $40AU for over-withdrawing.

The issue of banks charging ever-increasing fees has been an issue for me for many years, especially seeing as the majority of permanent jobs refuse to pay the public any other way than through direct-debit. Now the fees don't worry me too much, the main problem is that owners and exectuives of Bank companies are basically getting fat of the profits from what is now a basic public service. Many years ago, banks couldn't afford to charge fees as they required the business, now that banking is essential for most of the working public, they can basically rip us off any way they want.

I was thinking of an idea (similar to a public superannuation fund) of a 'peoples bank'. That is a non-profit public owned banking organisation that will cater for peoples needs without giving our money to the rich.

I don't know much about the subject so can anyone please fill in the blanks of where I might be wrong and tell me if my idea is viable? Do you have any other ideas to stop corporation owners from profiting off such services?

 

Don't get me started on banks.

With Lloyds bank in the uk you can get a loan within 24 hours. To cash a cheque takes 7 working days. For a company to cash your cheque takes 3 days. What? Basically the banks take your money, gamble with it and then let you have it.

Charges...... My bank charges £38 for an unauthorised direct debit. That is a direct debit that fails if you don't have money in the account. Because they charge you £38 your account goes overdrawn meaning they can charge another £38. (even if you have money in another account, say savings).

This happened to me last week. I thought all my dds came out at the beginning of the month but my wife set up a dd with the RSPCA (animals charity) for £3 and they took the money. I have two accounts, one for paying dds and the other for living off. Now I had plenties of money in my other account but the dd failed. My bank wants to charge me £76 for not paying £3 to an animal charity. Talk about inproportionate charging.

Some of you are thinking your mistake right? Well tell me this, when I make a mistake I have to pay £76 in charges when they make a mistake do I get anything back.

In the last year my bank has paid direct debits to companies it shouldn't have, its supposed to have 24 hour banking but I constantly get the excuse the computers are down. Do I get £76 for that? No I don't.

As for charging customers to use bank machines is a disgrace and should be made illegal. In the early 90s Natwest bank started charging customers for using cash machines. All the other banks followed suit and just 5 years later Natwest have an advert which says "we are the only bank that doesn't charge to use our cash machines" and they removes the charges. (They bloody started it).

Now over here in the UK banks generally have free cash machines but there are other companies called moneybox and cashbox that put cash machines in pubs, supermarkets, petrol stations etc. They charge £1.85 per transaction no matter whether you draw £10 or £300 out. £1.85 off of £10 is 10% for gods sake. They have no limits to how much they can charge.

Now obviously you have a choice pay £1.85 or go to the bank and use the free cash machine. My bank however thought it wise to close the branch in our village. The only cash machine charges £1.85 per transaction in the local shop. My nearest bank machine is 10 miles away and it would cost me more in petrol than using the local shop.

The banks are basically able to remove the cash machines and the maintenance of them and let these nasty little companies come in and rip off their customers. Now the banks don't have to pay for staff or maintenance of machines.

Call centres. Most of the time if I'm calling the call centre its because the bank has made a mistake. You get a person on the phone who is either obstinate or clueless. If you get the clueless one you may as well just hang up and try again. If you get the obstinate one apparently they run the bank because when you ask to speak to their manager they always say "There is no manager or supervisor".

I hate banks....... They steal more money off people than burglers, car thieves etc could ever do.

I hate insurance companies even more. Over here they never pay up. One guy had a life insurance policy and died of cancer. The insurance company wouldn't pay out because he'd failed to declare he had freckles. (which they said led to the cancer). There is no scientific proof that freckles leads to cancer!!!.

What we need to do is give the banks a taste of their own medicine. We could bring them too their knees. If on a set everyone cancelled their direct debits and withdrew all their money out of their accounts and left it out for three or four days the banks would close down.

Aaaaaagh

 

*walks up to gary and gives him a heterosexual hug* I'm sorry brother, i'm sorry.

 

Those fees are pretty comparable to the US.
I was charged 33 dollars for being overdrawn .75
For everyday you do not pay that its another 6.00.

My bank does not charge if I take money out of the machine if its from my account with them but If I use that machine to take money out of my paypal account its 2.50.
So I transfer the money online from my paypal to my bank..takes 2-3 days then take it out for no fee.I sell paintings on auction so Paypal is good for me.

I do not use my bank any longer I keep 10.00 in there and was able to set up the account when they had "free Checking" going on. So I have no monthly fee and no minimum balance....I got Lucky.
But its in a very small town with just one other bank across the street...they have a 200 dollar minimum balance to get no service fees.(duh)

But yes you are correct, more and more companies will require direct deposit...therefore they will have more and more control over your money.
They are kicking around the idea of a National ID card here..and with it will come complete control over your paycheck and your spending.
They will track every purchase and charge whatever they want for every transaction.
All in the name of "convenience"...and people will buy the whole deal.

The idea of a "peoples" bank is a good one..however, it probably would not be insured by the goverment....that little FDIC we see here in the US behind our banks name.
And if you're a little guy here...the big boys will block you out if you're not playing their game.
So it wouldn't work in the US banking industry.

So I keep my banking to a real minimum...I transfer my paypal money..I go pick it up...I bring it home and what I don't spend gets buried in the back yard.....

 

...

 

as regards to australia - st george bank seems reasonable. the few times i ever paid money to them was to replace my lost card, used a 'strange' atm and used one too many cheques in one month. i had to force them to look for for umbrella that i left in the bank once but thats about it. in the mean time i would recommend them, unless they decide to change their policies, in which i'll just change over to bendigo bank. even if everyone switched banks it wouldn't change things anyway, banks can create as much money as they feel necessary out of thin air, whilst having no customers that save with them people will always want to take out loans, which is how banks make their money in the first place.

 

Here in the US, I have two words "Credit Union"

(Kinda like a co-op for banking)

 

Credit unions in Australia are worse than the major banks. Always fucking up and ripping the hell out of people's pockets. How do they work?

 

Its supposed to be like a bank where the depositors are also the shareholders.

I beleive that historicaly, they were more about savings accounts and loans than chequing, but recently (10ish years) they were allowed to do "full service banking", cheques, ATMs and all. I don't know if they have safe deposit boxes.

From my point of view, they work like a bank, but with lower fees. and slightly nicer policies. (If I wrote a cheque to some one (Tom), my old bank would charge Tom if he walked into the bank and cashed my cheque. I don't like my bank ripping off Tom, so I now have a credit union.)

 

$5 monthly fee and about $2 for ATM fees, but being a student means you don't get the monthly fees. So all students worry about is ATM fees and that's only if you use another banks ATM other than who you bank with. Our bank fees about about to rise though. They really are arseholes. They make how much annually? Millions, Billions? And still up the fees.
If i could keep my money safely under my pillow i would.
What i really hate is, when i leave my branch they always say " Thanks for banking with us"I got that from the same woman 3 times in one day once. I feel like smacking her and saying i'm not here because i want to be, you're just not first on the bank of arsehole list! But you're close behind.

 

Don't smack her. She isn't stupid enough to think that you don't remember what she said a few hours ago. The Customer Service manual she has to follow is stupid enough to think that "thanks for banking with us" makes you a happy customer.

 

Ha ha. I have no bank accouts. I don't make enough to make it worth my while. Muahahahahaaaaaa!

 

I think in Australia at least my superannuation trust (Host Plus)is doing personal loans and I think credit cards.I have had too much on my plate to worry about bank fees in the last few years. There are other credit cards from the likes of Virgin and Shell. What About GE Money or are they worse? I have seen HSBC advertised on Hotmail and even get a bit of money for opening an account.

 

I don't believe in credit. It looks like everybody's in the same 'were all getting fucked over' boat. Thanks, it has been really insightful

 

The woman was a neighbour at the time so i doubt she forgot it was me. All the pre programmed speeches made her sem robotic

 

credit unions in australia are a rip off. my original thoughts about how to protect myself from people like the government and the banks was forming something like a kibbutz where i could live in a way that neither allowed myself to be screwed over nor screw anyone else over. this idea didn't really catch on here, infact it doesn't really catch on anywhere. we are doomed to be fucked over - thats the whole idea of credit. a couple of years ago everyone thought they were going somewhere, now they aren't so sure, but if they can fuck some other poor sucker over it will ease their own pain.

 

Heh sounds like a real plan.

What's the interest rate on your backyard if you don't mind me asking?

 

That's O.K., credit doesn't care whether you believe in it or not. Credit believes in you.

 

There may be no interest rate as far as the credit industry goes...however there is also no interest in my money by the tax man.

If it was sitting in the bank earning whatever they deem justified it can be attached to...by the IRS, the student loan people, anyone who decides they may want to bring judgement against my estate...and so on.

I am not interested in playing the credit game....I carry no debt, live as frugally as I can and at the end of the day...I know where my money is...what its doing...and who has control over it.

 

bank fees SUCK ... don't even get me started on my bank ... bunch of corporate whores.