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By Julia Kukiewicz Staff Writer
Friday, 27 February 2009
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More news on the bank charges row and who's saying what about regulation.
Banking on the Banks?
FINALLY, some good news for the thousands of us that are still waiting for the final word on unfair bank charges.
The men to thank are Lord Justices Waller and Lloyd and Sir Anthony Clarke who threw the appeal out of court and, crucially, prevented the banks from appealing again, although they could take the next step and appeal to the House of Lords.
The banks now have 28 days to decide what to do, time which it's expected the Office of Fair Trading will take to decide its next move.
Given that several newspapers were reporting broad grins from the OFT representatives at the trial - that next move is likely to be welcomed by consumers.
There's been a freeze on banks returning charges since summer 2007 and 5.6 million template letters to reclaim unfair charges have so far been downloaded from the Money Saving Expert website.
Don't Bank on it.
MEANWHILE, a string of stories this week served to give the OFT a push in the right direction.
An ASDA financial services survey found that 73 % of people think banks are irresponsible when they lend people more money than they can afford to pay back.
The Daily Mail have been on the back of former RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin who has written to the Government to say he refuses to give back any of his £693,000-a-year pension.
The paper describes "widespread outrage" both in and outside of government at the ex-bank chief's largesse. While on the Mail and the Evening Standard’s personal finance website 'This is Money' a poll was claiming that 84% of people think that he should surrender his pension.
Even Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, had an epiphany on Thursday. He claimed that later recommendations by the body would cause "a banking revolution" and admitted that the FSA's past 'light touch' approach had failed. He even advocated banning some overly complex products altogether.
Marc Gander, organiser of one of the campaigns against high bank charges, the Consumer Action Group told the BBC, "fundamentally, I think the banks need to be regulated, just like the utility industries, as they are simply not to be trusted."
It's hard to imagine so many voices calling for regulation before the credit crunch hit.
Credit Where it's Due
THE clamor has even extended to the credit card world, which is no stranger to bad press at the best of times.
However, figures for the last months of 2008 released by APACs this week found that, despite the recession, our love affair with plastic has continued unabated.
The statistics showed that credit card spending reached £94.4 billion in December and consumers made 1.9 billion transactions with debit and credit cards during the last three months of the year - a 7.4% increase on last year.
Taken together, these news stories show that now really is the time to compare credit cards.
A credit card is likely to be the most complex financial product that consumers take out and, as even the humble current account comes under fire, it's important people start looking around and getting the best deals.
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