Is It The Time To Put RBS Down?
RBS looks like it will be facing large fines from both the UK and US authorities according to this report on the BBC web site. The report starts with this paragraph.
Any fines by US authorities on Royal Bank of Scotland over the Libor scandal should be met by bankers not taxpayers, Chancellor George Osborne has insisted.
But even if it finds this the money to pay the fine from bankers bonuses, the saga of this worthless company just goes on. They still don’t seem to have managed to get rid of the 316 branches, that they tried to offload to Santander.
If the bank were to be put into administration, customers would do the thing, that they should be doing now and that is move their accounts to another bank.
I do wonder how many people still bank with RBS or its subsidiaries?
At the moment the bank is just a zombie, whose only use for most of us is to get cash out of their cash machines.
Would anybody except the employees miss it, if it was put down? I doubt it. But I suspect most of the good employees have already left the bank.
Fraudsters Are Targeting Wonga Customers
I have never used Wonga and I never will, but I received this e-mail supposedly from them this morning.
Customer Satisfaction Survey 2013
At Wonga.com, we sincerely value your opinions.
As part of our continuous improvement process, we’re conducting a survey to benchmark the opinions of our customers.We will use the resulting information to better serve the needs of our customers.
We kindly ask you to take part in our quick and easy 3 questions customer survey. In return, we won’t charge you ANY INTEREST on your next loan application!
Here is how you proceed:
• Download your personal survey attached to this email.
• Select the desired answers on your survey.
• Log in to your Wonga.com account to validate your survey.
We thank you in advance for your time and effort in making Wonga the best payday lender in the United Kingdom.Sincerely,
Wonga.com Customer Service
Message ID:
I wasn’t sure if it was phishing spam or something from the company, which has used one of my e-mail addresses.
So I did what you should always do with this type of message and used Google to search for “Wonga 2013 2013 customer satisfaction survey”
I found this page. So it’s a phish and of course fraudulent!
In some ways it’s rather ironic, that a rather dodgy company in my view, is being used as a hook by criminals to get mugs for their frauds.
What No Zopa!
Or any other peer-to-peer lending site for that matter, are mentioned in the best fifty web sites to save money in The Times.
After all, both lenders and borrowers get a better deal here.
Or perhaps, I’m reading the figures upside down.
Am I Mean To Myself In Small Ways?
My left humerus hasn’t been in the best of sorts the last couple of weeks. But it’s always been like that in the cold, ever since the school bully broke it. After Southgate I took the train up to Oakwood station and could see the park, through which I used to walk every day to get physiotherapy on my arm, in the three months or so after it mended.
I always used to walk, rather than take the two buses, as it was in some ways easier. And of course, I got to keep the bus fare! What I used to spend it on, I can’t remember! But it was probably bits for my Meccano.
In some thmgs, I waste money, but at other times, I’m quite the opposite. It must be my careful Jewish and Huguenot genes!
Peer-to-Peer Lending In Estonia
My Zopa alert found this article from a website called European Voice.
It gives this view on Estonian banking.
Banking is the economy’s biggest weakness. It offers stingy, fee-ridden savings products and over-priced loans with nasty hidden costs. Intermediaries gain colossal profits, especially when they are greedy and reckless. When things go wrong, as they inevitably do, the taxpayer picks up the bill. Apart from that, it works fine.
It then goes on to show how things are changing through a company called Isepankur.
The writer has in fact invested some of his savings, by loaning to Estonian borrowers. This is his experience so far.
My net average return (like most Isepankur lenders) is about 17%. I have so far lent €1,570 to about 50 borrowers, in amounts ranging from €5 to €25. I have received €60 back in repaid capital and €24 in interest. I also got €0.06 in ‘penalties’ (my share in a small fine levied on a borrower called ‘Lillekas’ who paid a few days late).
I don’t think it will be many years, before the peer-to-peer lenders are available in many countries.
Who’d be a retail banker?
Credit Card Transactions
Yesterday, I used my credit cards, twice. I used my Visa card to buy a present in Selfridges and also bought my supper in Marks and Spencer using my John Lewis Partnership card.
Checking my on-line accounts this morning, neither of the transactions have been added. Why not?
In these days of instance pin checking and information, surely the information, should be in my statement, immediately I’ve used the card!
After all, it would be a big security check, for users.
On the other hand, where your partner has a card on your account, it could be major source of friction in a relationship.
How Do You Choose An On-Line Bank Account?
If I want to choose a piece of software to say edit images, it is a fairly easy process.
I can usually try the software before I buy it and all of the charges are there in words of a couple of syllables.
If say, I want to use some form of system, to store those pictures on-line, it’s something very similar. Usually, I would try it for a few days, and if I didn’t like it, I could go and try another.
But what would Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC et al, say if I said, I’d like to try their on-line banking for a few days, to see if I liked their interface? I doubt they would be amused. Or even take me seriously!
I did try to get a pointer by typing “which on-line bank account has the best interface” into Google and all I got was adverts for on-line banking. But no serious study!
Someone should do one. I would, but I’m certain that the banks would wonder why I wanted accounts with all of them.
In other ways, the customer, who should be king, loses out all round.
Supporting Aston Villa Is Much More Stressful Than Being Governor Of The Bank Of England
This is a quote from Mervyn King, in an article in the New Statesman.
I think he ducked the match at Villa Park yesterday, as he was making a speech in Belfast.
Tips For New Zopa Users
When you start using Zopa, you’re obviously going to go down a few blind alleys or do things wrong.
Here’s a few tips.
I always keep a record of the interest rates I have set and how much money, I lend out on particular days. Thus, if I find that money is sticking and not being lent, I can drop my rates slightly to see the effect. Zopa’s information helps in this way, but your own records are invaluable. I keep my records in Excel, but there is nothing wrong with an old-fashioned notebook or as my mate, Brian, would say, the back of an old envelope or fag packet. But then he was a real accountant!
I’d also check the minimum amount you are prepared to lend to each borrower. My limit is £100 and I’ve generally found that to be good and fairly safe.
I also don’t have AutoLend switched on. I just transfer the money to the offer, when it comes in. I have in the past found that sometimes having a few hundred pounds in Zopa is faster to get into my bill paying account, than waiting for my pension to come in. With money, timing is everything!
Make sure you have Rapid Return switched on, so that you can accept loans, that other lenders want to cash in. I’ve got seventy loans that way and not one has gone belly up on me. You may not pick up many loans that way, but they’ll generally be good ones.
Doing A Favour For A Friend
Last night, I renewed my friend’s domain name, as I’d originally registered it and it’s easier for me to do.
He then needed to pay me twenty four pounds, so late last night, he sent me a direct transfer to my bank account.
it was duly there this morning, when I checked my bank account.
But all the statement said, was that it was a credit of the requisite amount, labelled as just a credit.
As it was, I obviously knew what it was, so there was no problem. But surely in this day and age of good computer systems, that the banks could add a bit more detail to the statement, as soon as the money arrives.
The banks could actually use fully annotated statements as a marketing and selling point for their services.
But they don’t! No wonder people don’t like banks.
What a wunch of bankers!
The Anonymous Widower 