The robbing bankers

The robbing bankers (with a b) is a phrase commonly used in the past but never more true than post credit crunch. The perception of banks and bankers has always been negative but they are now officially recognised as a load of robbers. Via sub prime mortgages, dubious bank overcharges (their "mistakes" always favour them and not we customers) extortionate interest rate and overdraft charges, chief exec payouts etc etc they have rightly established a reputation as people to avoid as and when possible.

Target - I performed a recent exercize for the benefit of "journalism" to find out first hand what the procedure is to take out a personal loan online. What a foolish move that was as I was not only going to be ripped off but was then bombarded with phone calls, emails, letters from almost every lender offering to loan me money. I am one of those fortunate people that have a clean credit history and no current loans with a regular income. What you might call a Prime target.

Cheap loans! - You might think as I did that a personal secured loan might be c 6% given my "form" but I was quoted 13% by my own bank and then each bank after that was either in the same region or some as much as 15%. This mind you is at a time when lenders can buy money cheaper now than they could in the past. The are paying savers next to nothing to horde your money yet are selling it in loans at rates almost double that of pre-credit crunch.

Loan sharks - Okay I could be stretching things a little by calling bankers "loan sharks" but in effect that is what they are. Mortgage interest rates, personal and business interest rates are still way too expensive as the encircling sharks try to claw back the massive losses they have managed to squander in their vain effort to extort money from the most vulnerable.

Sympathy - They must be joking if they think there is any public sympathy for a band of robbing "people" otherwise known as bankers. It is a toss up if the situation will worsen by the forced appointment of HM Govt as joint owners of the banks. Oh dear what a mess we are in and guess what? We have the Govt and the banking fraternity sorting the mess out. God help us all.

http://www.mortgagewatchdog.co.uk/

Monty Burn

4th April 2009 - Robbers are caught again
Bank scandal - Many national newspapers carried front page stories of the scandal that high street banks are using our money at a cost of 1% interest to them and then charging us up to 21% interest on personal loans.

Rip-off - These stories just confirm the news I broke some days a go that banks are ripping us off big time. My advice once again is to avoid personal loans like the plague and try to save the money to buy what you want the loan for.

Trying to balance the books - The banks are desperate to balance the books and one way is to rip off as many consumers as possible. The irony is it is OUR money the banks are using yet they are charging up to 21% interest which is any language a rip - off and a national scandal. When will these robbing bankers be taken to task?