Why do we put up with it?

This is a short & familiar tale of general bank ineptitude that I have just heard….

“It has taken half an hour on the phone speaking to four different people and I still haven’t managed to withdraw any money from my Santander ISA.

I started off logging in to the ISA account on line, thinking I could transfer the money electronically. But this facility wasn’t offered. So I clicked on “contact us” to find out who to ask. The only option that looked relevant was General Enquiries so I called them on their 0845 number, which means I pay a small premium over normal calls to talk to my bank about the problem I’m having with their web site.

After entering my security details, I was presented with my balance and asked if I wanted anything else – that would be quite likely since I called the General Enquiry line and not the “What is my account balance line?”

Anyway the very pleasant lady who then answered the phone said I should go to a branch or a cash point. I said it was an on-line account and asked why I couldn’t transfer the money electronically. She said I would need to set up the account I wanted to transfer the money to on the system. I told her that when I went to this option it gave me an error message. So she transferred me to the technical support line who would tell me how to do it and fix my problem.

The tech support person was also very nice and explained that this facility wasn’t provided for ISA’s but that I could make the transfer over the telephone. So she transferred me to someone who could do this. … Continue Reading

30 Billion reasons for savers to fight back

Interest rates have been at rock bottom for savers since March 2009. They started to fall shortly after the Lehman Brothers crash in September 2008. Six months later the Base Rate had been brought down in stages to 0.5%. Savings rates had followed it down to a level on a par with the ones shown below for July 2010.

At the end of July 2010 there was £1.082 trillion of cash savings deposited in the UK. A trillion is a difficult number to grasp, so to put it another way that is £1,082,222 million (yes, a million million) of cash deposits.

… Continue Reading

Will long term good or short term cuts dictate pension policy?

You may not know it, but a battle royal is being played out behind the scenes between the Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions. On one hand, the Treasury is keen to make cost savings wherever and as quickly as possible, whereas the DWP, led by Iain Duncan Smith is keen for Nest to go ahead.

At issue is the future of the proposed nationwide pension scheme, Nest, (the National Employment Savings Trust), which was due to be introduced from 2012 onwards, but in now under review.

Nest would involve around seven million workers in the UK (who are not currently members of company pension schemes) automatically being signed up for pension saving by a process called ‘auto-enrolment.’

… Continue Reading

We trust banks with our money, but can we trust them to treat us fairly?

Banks really do like to push savers round.

I don’t mean in a gentle mocking playground manner, with teasingly average interest rates and cheeky account Ts & Cs.

I’m talking brutal bully-boy behaviour, shoving customers roughly up against the wall to then merrily mug them in blinding daylight.

You can feel the frighteners from just a glance at their money menaces.

First up, theft of your tax-free allowance: some banks pay comedic rates on cash individual savings allowances (ISAs) as low as 0.1%.

Such generosity means you’d need normally need to bag all of….0.125% to earn this. … Continue Reading

It’s about time savers made their complaints heard

Savers can be a timorous bunch.

If you’re earning a miserable 0.1% in your high-street savings bank account – and I’ll wager hundreds of thousands are – who have you complained to?

Exactly.

Big bouquets, at least, go to those who express their disgust and up sticks with a move to a rival bank for a more generous rate.

Brutal brickbats for the rest who silently fume at the miserly rates on offer yet do nothing about it.

But what savers of all hues do share, however, is an aversion to taking their complaints at crummy rates to the very top – to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

Only a ‘handful’ of gripes about piffling savings account interest rates are posted to its door each year – and the majority of those relate in particular to a subsequent poor experience where money earmarked for secure savings ends up being funnelled into an inappropriate investment.

Yet instead of the FOS bearing the brunt of their ire, savers should be bawling out their banks after first having a pop at…themselves.

Savings are generally hard fought for, prised out of taxed salary after all other outgoings. … Continue Reading