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Are Banks good or Bad?


Magro101
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OK, what points would you like to make from the pro-banks camp?

I cant think of any gestures/actions any bank has taken in the last few years (if not ever) to make them seem anything other than thieves. :confused:

eg the economic crisis was down to greed, and misselling of goods wasnt it? eg repackaging bad debts as good debts.

they'll put more effort in chasing up some poor bugger whose over their overdraft limit by 50 quid, than getting 50 billion back from argentina

they'll only lend to companies making money

etc etc etc

they dont really do anyone any favours do they? yep, i know they're necessary. yep, bla bla bla, but come on. dont make out they're a bunch of santas!

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I'm making a balanced argument too, but you cannot put aside personal circumstances because it goes hand in hand with your point of view.

It's surely unreasonable to say none of your opinion is based on the fact you're employed by a bank?

However, I am forced to use a bank. For personal and business purposes we both know there is no real option nowadays. As it happens I have no real issues with banks of late, but I feel that is more through luck than anything else. Barclays haven't fecked up our personal accounts for a while and our business bank never seem to make mistakes - but then again they only ever contact us to see if they can sell us something.

If you want to see the 'real' impact of banks then you should have a look on the FSB forums. There you'll find people that have posted in tears, because banks that wanted their business through years of good times shafted them during the bad times. Real, real, bad stories. That's what annoys me about them more than anything.

We were fortunate, or adapted, however you want to look at it, and pulled through the worst of it - but I had to stand by and watch a lot of good businesses go down because of a total lack of support from their banks. I'm not saying all could have survived with short-term assistance, but a good number of them could have.

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If you don't want to use a bank then don't nobody is forcing you - put all your money under the mattress! :P

But you are forced to use banks, you wouldn't be able to do many things without a bank account, christ you cant even get wages from some companies without one.

Not to mention you get charged more for everything unless you pay by direct debit.

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Chav - never said banks were saints - I've picked up this thread because people in here started complaining about systems that have been put in place to protect Bank and customer cash. As has been intimated banks are being treated like utility services such as telephone, water, gas etc and when the service isn't as expected then the hammer comes out again.

I'm not going to win any argument here and I realise this but I can assure you everyone felt the pain of the financial crisis - I personally suffered big losses. TBH probably shouldnt have said anything but then thats my nature - I'll leave you guys to get on with it!

Edited by cheechy
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I'm not trying to scupper your opinion or argument Scott, I was just trying to get across why I personally haven't got much sympathy for them or the criticism they get.

I agree you're unlikely to get much quarter on here but please don't let it stop you voicing why you support them - because one thing it has done is resurrected a thread and given it a different point of view.

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Chav - never said banks were saints - I've picked up this thread because people in here started complaining about systems that have been put in place to protect Bank and customer cash. As has been intimated banks are being treated like utility services such as telephone, water, gas etc and when the service isn't as expected then the hammer comes out again.

I'm not going to win any argument here and I realise this but I can assure you everyone felt the pain of the financial crisis - I personally suffered big losses. TBH probably shouldnt have said anything but then thats my nature - I'll leave you guys to get on with it!

Hey dont just disappear and dont give up ffs - give us your opinions etc!

But banks are a utility arent they - which is why they arent allowed to fail. they keep the money moving.

The systems havent been put in place to protect customer cash however - they've be put in place to protect bank cash! Its all about keeping costs of theft to a minimum and insurance premiums down isnt it?

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I'm not trying to scupper your opinion or argument Scott, I was just trying to get across why I personally haven't got much sympathy for them or the criticism they get.

I agree you're unlikely to get much quarter on here but please don't let it stop you voicing why you support them - because one thing it has done is resurrected a thread and given it a different point of view.

Dam. I think we've had the same train of thought about 3 times in 6 years now. :lol:

....Must try to argue with you more again. This is all rather dull! :grin:

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Banks always provoke a strong reaction but generally I think we do pretty well out of them in the UK compared to many other countries who can only dream of the free banking most of us benefit from. In fact recently it has been mentioned that the banks shouldn't be free to get better competition in the market as its so hard to enter personal banking in the UK and make any money.

During the credit crunch and the name is important it was very hard for any institution to borrow money at a reasonable rate at the very time the banks themselves were being told that they had to improve their own capital reserves that they also couldn't use to lend money to people. These two things compounded to severely hamper the money markets for months last year, the banks needed to protect themselves and their ultimate duty to their shareholders who always come first.

The fact that today they still keep getting aftershocks in the form of Greece and Ireland and who knows who is next the problems have still not gone away, in fact some of their own borrowing issues will only become apparent in 2011/2012.

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If it wasn't such a ball ache, I'd change bank accounts every year. They'd soon realise they are there to provide a service like any other industry and would sharpen their attitude. Insurers are at the raw end of exactly that, every year we all get the chance to vote with our feet whether it's home or motor insurance and rightly so. Poor service=lost business. Banks have lost their focus over the years in my opinion and have become obsessed with profit at all costs. Like Northern Rock.

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Banks always provoke a strong reaction but generally I think we do pretty well out of them in the UK compared to many other countries who can only dream of the free banking most of us benefit from.

Hmm, is that correct though - because business banking customers pay for it. The business banking community supports the provision of free personal banking in the country as I understand it. Furthermore, there are a lot more countries providing free personal banking now and the UK isn't an isolated freebie. It never ceases to amaze me how much business banking can cost.

However, the fact is that personal banking isn't free. You trust them with your money. You loan them it. They utilise it but a lot of people have lost a lot of money when they've abused those loans in the past. It looks like you're banking for free - but nothing could be further from the truth. You're a small loans lender to a big corporation who take this piss much of the time.

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Well personally I'd pay for a decent service. However I'd expect the market to open up to more than a few big players.

I reckon 90% of personal bank accounts in the UK are used for:

a) paying in wages once a month

b) paying out said wages throughout the month

You want to to charge me for that privilege? Fine, but open up the market. You'll have HSBC, Barclays, HBOS, RBS etc charging a flat fee of £5/month + 30p per transaction to represent 'the true cost of banking'.

Then Asda will come in with a £4/month flat fee only to be undercut by Tesco @ £3/month so we'll all switch (and earn £100 Quidco :P).

Billions of £s will stop flowing through coffers of Barclays & Co and their cash flow will take a serious pounding. Then see how they feel about offering a shitty service for £15/month with call centres in Yemen.

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Hmm, is that correct though - because business banking customers pay for it. The business banking community supports the provision of free personal banking in the country as I understand it. Furthermore, there are a lot more countries providing free personal banking now and the UK isn't an isolated freebie. It never ceases to amaze me how much business banking can cost.

However, the fact is that personal banking isn't free. You trust them with your money. You loan them it. They utilise it but a lot of people have lost a lot of money when they've abused those loans in the past. It looks like you're banking for free - but nothing could be further from the truth. You're a small loans lender to a big corporation who take this piss much of the time.

The money they have stored from normal personal none savings bank accounts is very small. With the new rules much of this can't be used to earn more money in the same way it was in the recent pass so the above is no longer correct.

UK banks do make money from personal banking but it's a tiny fraction of their profits.

On the cists of personal banking compare the UK to the US as an example and pretty much everything costs more there and is about 5 to 10 years behind some of the way we do things here.

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Possible to change the title of the thread? Seeing as theres a bit of a discussion going on, and I drunkenly named it inappropriately I feel like a **** :roflmao:

Funny enough, my cards being declined whilst trying to finish paying for a holiday! Got until tomorrow to finish the payment or I'll be losing the deposit, so hope they bloody well sort it out later today! :ffs:

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I cannot even put down in words my hate for Santander. Since they took over at A&L, every single fecking day I am sorting out problems with our client's payments. In every case so far, it has been the bank's fault. They are declining DDs as we are putting the request through to the account number and sort code that we have and we are then told that account no longer exists as they have issued new sort codes to some clients without telling us or them. The clients that pay by Standing Order are ringing up to say that the wrong amount has been sent or we are ringing the client to say that the SO hasn't been sent, they ring Santander and the SO is no longer in place.

The money forums are absolutely full of complaints about them, as are the sunday papers. Diana Wright in the Times who helps people with financial institutions says that she has given up with them!

I also think they could come to the government with the begging bowl soon: Their share price has been battered and I wouldn't be surprised that all of their acquisitions have eroded their capital too much......

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I've got most of my main regular accounts with HSBC (savings mostly Nationwide though) and I've no complaints about them. Last year they upgraded me to the Premier service which has some nifty features like being able to open up a savings account anywhere in the world. I missed out on putting money into Australia and making about 5.5% interest in a normal savings account. The exchange is so bad though that it doesn't make it worthwhile.

They also review the investment accounts I hold with them and I never (rarely) have to wait in a queue on the phone to get to talk to someone. I have my mortgage with them too which I was lucky to get a good deal on and I can overpay to my heart's content (which I try and do).

Interestingly I was looking round for a small loan to bolster a car purchase next year and noticed as a Premier member I get a special apr - 6.9 vs. 7.8 to others. I plugged it into a calculator and for the size of loan and period it saves me about £2 a month!! I didn't feel so special or Premier then!

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I've never seen a post saying thanks to a bank in here - maybe I'm wrong but then I've not been around here very much in the last couple of years.....

To be fair to Nationwide they did give me the money back within a couple of weeks without any queries, my frustration was that they didn't notice anything wrong with my card buying airplane tickets in Washington state, then jewelery on the flight at the same time as it was also being used to buy shopping in Tesco in Portsmouth.

Anyway Nationwide are a building society not a bank so this goes no way to addressing your gripe.

:coffee:

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I forgot something. It was 10 years ago.

When Barclays took over The Woolwich they managed to lose £1,762 from my current account - overnight.

I was one of about 40 people they did it to (some lost a few quid, the highest loss was £9k or thereabouts).

We got our money back though, so I should be very grateful to them I guess.

Even though it took them 14 months to do it.

Maybe my angst is a little more understandable now?

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I cannot even put down in words my hate for Santander......

And the Santander head honcho going to Lloyds gives me shivers as in the main my service isnt too bad, but I dread he is goign to bring santander practises with him as it'll destroy the bank, I cannot comment on how much bad I hear about Santander - half of it from employees!!!

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Thank you to HSBC for giving me a bunch of money to buy my house :grin:

Of course I have to pay back a whole bunch more, but beats living in someone else's house/ flat +++

Banks would behave in a much better fashion if we could change the way they are owned. The shareholders model is fundamentally flawed when it comes to providing a service that keeps customers happy.

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Hate loathe and detest banks , even more than that annoying mini Cheryl on X factor. They seem to be totally self serving , my business manager is really now just a salesman with no clue about business who only ever tries to flog me products I dont need often at the detrement of my business. Think since we were all pushed into needing a bank account and towards a cashless society ( so they can be sure we are paying all out tax ) society has become more and more screwed. Much harder to live beyond your means when you got a cash wage packet at the end of the week.

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