In the world of superheroes, Batman, Spidey and Superman always save the day.  And even if we want to include the females in this sacred group – SuperGirl won her battles fair and square.

So it’s good to see that justice can win the day, even in the real world!

Loosing their latest battle, the bulging banks are throwing their toys out of their pram as they panic over the OFT decision, confirming millions of pounds in bank fees are to be returned to the consumer.

Calculators will be working overtime as banks panic about the effect on their industry this will have, and to counteract the situation, they’re already creating brand new accounts to dazzle us with, which on further investigation have hidden costs.  If blinded by the freebies and missing the small print, it seems sign ups to these accounts may be the solution to all their problems – rather than paying us back out of their own pocket, they can use ours.

I suspect that in reaction (the words “knee” and “jerk” come to mind) to loosing the bank charges battle, these new accounts which offer daily overdraft charges and monthly maintenance fees will help us, help them, raise the monies needed to pay us back our bank charges.  How kind of us, I know. ;)

BBC’s money reporter, Louise Greenwood, claims both Halifax Bank of Scotland and Alliance and Leicester have launched attractive current accounts offering cash bonuses of up to £100 for setting up or using the account – a very attractive carrot to dangle for those feeling more than the “pinch”.

But as the saying goes, what looks too good to be true…is too good to be true.  Mistaking the consumer for Dumb and Dumber, the banks think they can dazzle us with cash rewards for signing up with them and then hammer us with daily overdraft charges without us even noticing!  Or getting us to use pay monthly accounts which offer benefits we may never use! Is that the best they can come up with? Do they really think we won’t make the connection between the end of free banking and the newly introduced fees?

It seems, that as the banks loose one battle, they start another…never knowing when to stand down and make peace with the consumer so we can work together to create a stronger relationship with a win/win result.
Have they never watched the movies we all love to see?  Do they not know what happens in each and everyone of them?  The people always win over the corporates…the heroes always beat the villains and justice wins every time.

Don’t they ever learn that in true superhero style, the goodie always wins? is a post from: ClearDebt Blog a leading UK IVA licensed insolvency services company. ©2010, All Rights Reserved.

In our younger years we’re brought up on many make beliefs – the tooth fairy, the bogeyman and my favourite of all – the money tree.
In fact, whenever my moneybox lacked that confident rattle, I would seek out my wellies and head to the far end of the garden in search of “The Tree”, but alas, to this very day, I still haven’t found it.

In the midst of the recession, I can’t help but question whether certain personalities of parliament, along with the many still surviving the banking industry are looking for their money tree?  And as the global moneybox continues to empty, I choose to highlight a few key issues.
Fact 1: Over 1 million consumers celebrate the chance to reclaim bank charges of up to £1 billion!
Last week saw the Court of Appeal reject the banks’ case that these fees were part of the “core” agreement with customers.  Stop!! Despite this win, I wouldn’t celebrate just yet! Momentum may be high now, but I suspect it’ll soon peater out as the case is drawn out over the year via the House of Lords.  The banks will, of course, appeal this decision and try to overturn this ruling as they hold on with dear life to the £2.6 billion (of your money) these charges produce each year.
Fact 2: Lloyds Banking Group confirmed that HBOS, which it absorbed in January, made a pre-tax loss of £10.8bn in 2008.
43% of this bank is funded by the public.  With this in mind, should we be asking “when” rather than “if”, we’ll get our say in how our funds are used with the banks we rescue?  With the nation full of panic, redundancy and debt, shouldn’t we be allowed to choose where our tax payments go and how they’re used…after all, is that not the meaning of democracy?  Or is that purely for voting in the Euro and inner city congestion charges?

Fact 3: Lloyds TSB announced 80% losses as shares fall 22%;
Despite losses for the general public who bought their shares in good faith and still struggle to pay their bills and mortgages, Sir Fred Goodwin, Former RBS Chairman enjoys his £693,000 pension. And, at the same time, the UK’s Financial Services Authority currently debates whether bankers should now be receiving higher salaries to compensate for the reduction, if not deletion of bonuses.  Lucky them!!
It seems the credit crunch only applies to those not in the banking industry?!  Do the bankers have their very own money tree at the bottom of the garden?
As they carry on spending their way into further debt to either resuscitate a dying brand or pad out a profit line and salary bracket, I wonder….what do they know that we don’t? …Now, where are my wellies?

All things make believe is a post from: ClearDebt Blog a leading UK IVA licensed insolvency services company. ©2010, All Rights Reserved.