More Record Bank Profits, Yet They Still Increase Borrowing Costs

Royal Bank of Scotland , despite a £2billion subprime hit announced £10billion profits for 2007.

RBS pre-tax profits were exactly as City forecasts – up 9% at £10.3bn. That puts the eight London-listed banks safely on target for profits totalling a record £41bn in 2007 once HSBC reports its numbers next week.

That’s up £1Billion from last year! So, in the year when the banks are supposed to have suffered dramatic losses and are now charging their customers more and more because of those losses, they still made record profits and increased their margins by incredible amounts. 

In spite of the turmoil in the credit markets, the Northern Rock crisis and huge hits to profits announced by mortgage banks Alliance & Leicester and Brad-ford & Bingley, the biggest banks have proved resilient.

HBOS, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, will also announce an increase in profits and a raised dividend this week. It is expected to announce pretax profits of around £5.8 billion, up about 4% on last year. The full-year dividend will be boosted by a substantial rise in the first half of the year, before market conditions turned for the worse.

So these banks are making record profits, yet they have been using the credit crisis as an excuse to charge more for their loans, mortgages and credit cards. Sounds like profiteering again!

Let’s stop giving these greedy, venal banksters our money. Step out of the sytem. Join us now! 

Is everyone in Britain going broke?

I found an old blog about ‘Broke Britain’ that had been published in The Independent:

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/01/broke-britain-millions-f_n_79117.html

Are we all going broke? And is it our fault?

It’s not an accident, that’s for sure, as people make conscious decisions to buy what they can’t afford. Maybe in part influenced by the insiduous marketing of credit card companies and retailers, however you are still responsible for buying what you can’t afford.

If often happens like this: your monthly living expenses and incidentals add up to X, and your income is Y, and then some friendly pre-approved 0% credit card application lands in your mailbox, a kindly bank offering you a way to skate along and flirt with your own bottom line.

So people get tempted, and spend what they don’t have. That’s absolutely THEIR OWN FAULT.

However, it’s made much worse, and what pushes nearly everyone over the line into a never ending debt spiral is the credit card companies’ and bank’s greed. They peddle legitimized usury. After all, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, or free credit. The banks aren’t helping you to buy that new tv or dress out of the charity of their hearts, they give it to you because they expect return on investment, plus a percentage.  A  BIG percentage.

It’s called ‘lending’. And, the lending industry do rather well out of people who aren’t doing so good. The lending people drive pretty nice cars, live in nice house and have nice bonuses. Do they buy everything in cash, or do they use credit? That remains a mystery, but if I was one of them I would keep my private financial dealings quiet, especially as they’ve got everyone else’s personal finances down to fine art…plus 30%.

If you want to make money, if you want to become financially independent, you ‘ve got to
live like a miser, and invest, invest, invest.

This doesn’t change the fact that it’s immoral as all hell to run these kind of rackets against the public, but until now, no-one was prepared to stand up and stop em….

check out the previous post…….http://letmeeatcake.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/an-american-politican-on-the-side-of-angels/

An American Politican on The Side of Angels!

New York Representative Carolyn Maloney, who serves as Vice Chair of the Joint Economic Committee (Senator Chuck Schumer is Chair), has performed a public service by introducing the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, H.R. 5244. She describes her bill as “comprehensive credit card reform legislation” that ends “abuses that unfairly hurt consumers.”

Comprehensive it does seem to be, and reasonable. The bill prohibits “arbitrary interest rate increases,” requires a notice of any interest rate increase at least 45 days in advance, reserves to cardholders their right to pay off their existing balance at the current interest rate if the rate is increased, requires that cardholders who pay on time will not be “unfairly penalized,” prohibits “due date gimmicks” and “misleading terms,” allows cardholders to set their own limits on their credit, requires that credits and payments be posted “promptly and fairly,” prohibits imposing “excessive fees” on cardholders and prohibits issuing subprime credit cards to people who can’t afford them.

 Finally, someone who in the legislation who is prepared to stand against the banks. Give that woman a medal!

More Record Profits Announced by The Bankers….

LLoyds TSB announced pre-tax profits of £3.9billion for 2007. Britain’s fourth largest bank escaped almost unscathed from the credit crunch, with a writedown of only £280million. Lloyds pretty much stayed away from the sub-prime credit products that gave Barclays a £1.6billion black spot in their 2007 reporting.

LLoyds is Britain’s biggest provider of current accounts, cards and personal loans, so that’s where they make most of that £3.9billion, OFF YOU!

Are you not fed up with bank charges, interest rate fiddles and rank profiteering at YOUR expense? DO you believe you get good value for money from your bank? If you do, then you’re in the minority and I would politely suggest you need some intervention.

What can you do? It seems as though the whole UK infrastructure is set up so having and using a bank account is mandatory. Employers demand a bank account to pay your wages into, service providers such as BT, British Gas, PowerGen etc promote paying by Direct Debit and punish those who don’t pay this way with additional costs. Buying a home or a car or any large purchase makes a having a bank account almost mandatory.

So we are ‘forced’ into using bank services and seem to have little leverage in demanding decent service, even though they are making BILLIONS from OUR money.

There is a way out, start to create a lifestyle that is not bank dependent. Where you can start to use cash for your purchases. Save up to buy for larger items, don’t use credit. Be aware of how, why and when you spend and stop using the cards that it make it seem as though it’s not money we are spending.

(Well it’s not really money but that’s a whole different story).

The best thing you can do is start to save and invest to create an independent financial fund that will support you and your family. This is simple but not easy, it requires discipline to step out of the spend, spend, spend, instant gratification culture we are immersed in. It takes hard work and a long time to create great wealth, but it can be done.

Start investing £250, £100, £50, whatever you can afford and keep adding to your investment fund, you’ll be amazed just how quickly it starts to grow. Learn from the banks, learn how compound interest works to increase your net worth NOT theirs.

Learn with friends, get support from people who have been there and done it and are all working towards financial freedom. They’re doing it, I’m doing it, why not you? Learn more here.   

  

Unlawful Bank Charges- Indefinite Stalling Forecast

We’ve all had it happen to us, you get your bank statement expecting to see money left over at the end of the month, but, what happened? The bank has grabbed maybe £30, £50 or even £200 in unauthorised withdrawals from YOUR account!

I was successful in claiming back around £1700 last year, however now all claims are frozen pending the court case between the Office of Fair Trading and the banks. This could mean an indefinite wait for a result and a refund.

All evidence has been heard, but a verdict is not expected until April or May. Afterall, the judiciary and the government are in the bank’s thrall and they have to balance their obedience to their masters with the widespread public anger and discontent with these thieving and now highly publicized illegal practices.

Experts are predicting that after the verdict has been announced, any decision could face an appeal and could result in a further wait of upto 3 years before a final judgement on the fairness of banks charges. (They’re not, but we all already know that).

There are tens of thousands of complaints being held pending the judgement, and those people are powerless to move the banks as they hide behind the pending court case verdict. 

In the meantime the banks are earning interest on the money they are not paying back, and since they ‘collect’ about £3.5billion in unauthorised overdraft fees every year,  that’s about £10million a day! - a lot of interest generating the banks even more profit.

The banking industry is the most corrupt, greedy, venal, immoral profiteering industry sector. They make billions out of a scam where they provide debt, deal in debt and create more debt ensuring the majority of the populace scrape a living paying back ‘loans’, ‘mortgages’, and interest on ‘contracts’ that are actually illegal.

Educate yourself about the banking scam, examine the original fraud and get yourself out of this decadent, destructive system as soon as you possibly can. You can do it with support from other like minded people when you join The Ultimate Entrepreneur, and learn how to gain economic freedom.

Alls Fair in War and Bank Accounts

The banks seem to think that all’s fair in war and bank accounts, and you’re their enemy!

To lure you in, they’re now marketing 8.5% interest rates on in-credit current accounts, however lurking in the small print are loads of hidden charges and restrictions that may wipe out any benefits and leave you worse off.

Many of us are seduced by the headline interest rate, but you only get the benefit if you stay in the black. But since most people spend 28 days out of 30 in their overdraft, there’s no point. That’s because the high interest rate accounts also have more peripheral interest rates: high daily rates for overdrafts, punishingly high interest rates on unauthorised overdrafts.

There’s also usually a cap on the amount on which you can get the high interest rate, around £2,500, so our friends the banks aren’t giving too much away!

If you use an overdraft at all, then a high interest rate in-credit account is worthless to you, but then the banks already knew that. Add to that, the appalling customer service that you have to suffer and you have to ask yourself why you bother.

Learn how to operate outside of the banking monopoly, create wealth, cancel debts and prosper. Join us at the Ultimate Entrepreneur to learn how.

Banks Share Information to ‘Weed Out’ Unprofitable Customers

Banks and credit card companies are starting to share even more information these days, in a bid to identify prudent borrowers, so they can turn away ‘unprofitable’ customers.

The banks are planning to identify those customers who clear their balances every month, or who constantly switch to 0% deals. After all, these people don’t make the banks any money, so why would they want them as customers?

This will ultimately mean that more and more people are denied credit, as the banks integrate their records, supposedly to help them better judge risk.

Most credit card providers have already tightened their lending criteria,  they have also started to charge ‘inactivity fees’ and interest rates are raised at will. Some people have had their credit limits cut without explanation, others have already had their cards cancelled by their credit card company.

The fact that companies supposedly ‘in competition’ with each other are collaborating to such a degree is alarming and suggests that a banking cartel is in operation. This becomes even more worrying as 4 out of 5 of us all bank with the ‘Big 5 banks, as I revealed yesterday.

We seem to be held in thrall to these banks and they use our own habits against us, punishing us for not making them enough money.

again, I urge you to take the logical step of opting out of the system, cancel you debt, bank overseas and create your welath with off shore invetsments. Leave nothing for these vultures to pick over. Learn how with us at the Ultimate Entrepreneur, join us now. 

Surprising Results from a Which? Money Survey – Banks offer poor customer service!

Now, I’m not really surprised by the results Which? Money revealed, I think you’d have had to have been marooned for 50 years on a desert island to have been surprised by these results.

Which? Money have found that fewer than half of the customers who banks with Barclays, Halifax/Bank of Scotland, HSBC, LloydsTSB, and Natwest/RBS are satisfied with the service they receive.

Yet four out of five people in the UK bank with one of the ‘Big 5′ banks. Are we really so lazy or so uncaring of our own financial management that we will mindlessly continue our custom with whatever bank we happen to be with and tolerate their shoddy service and blatantly ripping us off?

We have had the proof waved in our faces so often that the banks could care less about customer service. They continually find new ways to take our money without legitimate reason, they withhold interest rate cuts when we’re borrowers, they instigate rate cuts when we’re savers. They change terms and conditions at will so they can apply punitive penalty charges on our accounts.

When will the British public wake up and stop allowing this industry to take them for a ride?

If you’re ready to take control of your financial well being and are ready to be responsible for your finances both now and in the future, if you want to become prosperous and economically independent, then check out the Ultimate Entrepreneur and join with us to create your wealth, cancel you debt and take control of YOUR money!

Bank Makes Record Profits (even during credit freeze) and Still Wants to Axe Jobs!!!

Wow, you really have to hand it to those poor banker chaps. In the middle of a credit freeze, when they are losing £millions and £millions on bad debts they created to fuel the housing and credit bubble, they still manage to make record profits.

And yet it’s still not enough, that’s £7.1 billion that’s not enough.  Costs have to be cut to allow Barclays to make even more profit for it’s masters. So jobs have to go. Barclays shut 280 local branches throughout the UK last year, so they could now be leaving a high street close to you!

Why should you trust the Ultimate Entrepreneur?

There’s so many business opportunities both on and offline. I am sure you have been approached or even been a member of many, so what makes The Ultimate Entrepreneur different?

Well, firstly consider the person who told you about TUE and the financial education the programme includes. Are they a person of integrity, honesty and good character? If someone tries to ’sell’ you anything, that’s usually when to be wary, but if they simply tell you of this fantastic opportunity and all of its benefits, you’d be okay with that, even if you didn’t want to buy, right?

Has the person who introduced to TUE explained the banking scam, and opened your eyes to the lack of freedom and control we have in our own lives today? Without wishing to be branded conspiracy theorists, most TUE members are passionate about spreading the word on the personal freedoms that have been eroded, and the lack of control all of us now experience in our society.

Has your introducer told you of their experiences with TUE and the benefits it’s brought to them , whether it be cancellation of credit card debt, mortgage cancellation, great investment advice, off shore banking income and the total support given by club members and directors to each other?

Have you examined the website and done further research to eliminate any doubts you may have that this incredible programme is for real, and the best opportunity to gain your financial freedom and prosperity?

There is no pushing with TUE, we allow you to examine the business opportunity, we share with you what this programme has done for us and for others. Then we leave you to make up your own mind.

However, I must say, if you don’t join TUE, I question your sanity