The world has certainly gone mad when it comes to financial matters. While huge organisations are losing millions every day and governments are giving away money to keep these badly managed businesses afloat, the institutions that deal with the ordinary man, or woman in the street are running scared. They are coming down excessively hard on people who are already struggling to make ends meet.
This isn’t restricted to UK, or US. It is happening everywhere as these examples illustrate.
A man is Austria was recently taken to court for the equivalent of 32p (about 60c). The action was for an unpaid refuse collection bill. He had received a bill for £635.35 and had failed to pay the amount after the decimal points.
Bailiffs arrived at his home demanding payment and insisting on an extra £5 for fees. This is so ludicrous when the original debt was 32p. Think of all the court time and administration required to get a ruling on it.
A woman from UK went 8p into the red with her bank account at Lloyds TSB. She received a demand for £166.55 in charges to get her account back in order. She couldn’t pay it all at once, so the next month she received a demand for £515.18.
She had no way of paying that but paid £250 off it. However, it made no difference, she received another demand for £818.15 are the fees mounted up.
Apparently the bank has now agreed to talk to her about it but this is the way they calculate penalties for unauthorised overdrafts. They are supposedly within their rights to do so.
However, it puzzles me. This way of doing things is not confined to Lloyds. How can they charge such huge penalties to so many people and still lose money?
Information Source: Money Hospital
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This is an interesting topic. Two of my children got bank charges paid back to them, they challenged the banks and were refunded their money. It does seem incredible that the banks should struggle when they are doing the sort of thing you have reported.
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