We have with the HSBC: Joint Current Account Current Acct in my name Mortgage Credit Card (1 each, separate accounts) My previous workplace Pension Pot Additionally our Business also runs 2 Current Accounts with them and have done for about 15 years without ever requiring an overdraft. For nearly 10 years we had had a Premier Account due to the size of our mortgage, but last Summer they decided that we no longer qualified for such account meaning that we lost things like Annual Travel Insurance, nice coffee and the staff would no longer bow and scrape when we visited one of their branches. However I wasn't too concerned as I thought they were a decent bunch and had always been okay with us ... until I get home the other night and open a Statement to discover that they had charged me £21.00 interest charges plus £75 for going over my o/d limit by £100 for 24hrs. Additionally it suddenly dawned on me that the outstanding balance on the C/C was no longer being charged 9.9%APR but 19.9% APR! After a few minutes arguing on the telephone they did refund the £75, but it has shaken the confidence that I had in them as my Banker, to the point that I will move everything over a period of time. Now for a while I had been thinking about cashing in the 25% of my Pension Pot to clear down as many of the debts that I have as possible so that I can chop up my C/C's. I requested an up-to-date statement earlier this Month of my Pension only to be told after chasing them that they have scheduled this for response 15 days later, and so effectively "shut up, sit there and wait for us to be bothered to do this for you". Now I suspect that in the last 12 months my Pension Pot may have suffered somewhat, and to be honest I am nervous about the possible drop. I now have such an attitude against the Banks that I am thinking of withdrawing the 25% of the Pension, moving the balance of the Pot somewhere out of their reach, closing my account and removing myself from the joint account, closing my C/C account and then tell them that I will offer to pay off the balance of my C/C less a %age equivalent to what they have lost out of my Pension Pot. I am also of a mind to challenge over the C/C anyhow because of the hike in Interest Charges on the basis that I hadn't made the purchases based on an interest rate, or anything resembling the rate, that they have now moved me to. The small print of the C/C T's & C's will allow them to alter the rate, but the manner and scale of the change could possibly be viewed as an unfair interpretation of those Terms. What does anyone else think about all of this?

Yeah right - go on then pick the holes in my reply. You started the fight - now finish it. But you can't because your argument was just pure prejudice and nothing more. You may have raised my hackles a little with your stupid comments, but you have also failed to see any of the balance in my reply. I wonder why? Is it because you aren't looking? Again! as previously pointed out by Rob S .... hmmmm

Rob S

PKea I never said that motorcyclists do anything untoward - of course there are those that will. The point I was making was that the training they go through makes them more aware of what is happening around them for their own safety. We see every ripple, rut, hole, diesel spill, smooth tarmac, overbanding, badly placed manhole cover etc because they are potentially life threatening to us. We also see what you are upto as drivers, and sometimes it scares the crap out of us. I would suggest that you open your eyes on more than one account: 1) Read the post before letting your prejudices and venom out 2) If bikers are as bad as you suggest then why do Dept. of Transport figures show that in only 38% of accidents involving a bike and a car was the rider at fault. 3) Get on a bike and find out for yourself pal. I ride and drive. I see bad examples of both. But strangely I have yet to see an incident when a bike has put the life of a car driver at risk just because of poor observance (although I am sure you can correct me on that) 4) The majority of us bikers have already weighed up the pro's and cons of a move before you are even aware of us because you are too bloody dozy or fiddling with your CD/Radio, using the phone, eating/drinking or just plain bored out of your brains from sitting in queues of traffic 5) 17yr olds on Scooters are someone's sons and daughters. They have just found a little freedom for the fiirst time in their lives. They may seem reckless to you. They are inexperienced and young - cut them a little slack you curmudgeonly windbag. You too were once young - try and remember what it was like. I guess what gets your rag is that we bikers do not have to sit in those queues like you! And guess what? We smile more because of that - just that you can't see it! Ha ha ha .... Try being nice for once and let the biker through - he ain't holding you up, it's all the other drivers around you that are doing that. I acknowledge with a wave or 'thumbs up' every driver who moves across for me at anytime, so I ask you all to keep doing that for those of us bikers who do acknowledge your kindness - I am sorry to say that not all bikers do, but that's because they are humans not just because they are bikers. I lose count of the car drivers who also refuse to acknowledge any courtesy shown to them by me in a car. Oh and for your information PKea, filtering is not illegal per se. A Court determined that not long ago when they found a driver guilty of causing a bikers death by turning right without signalling and paying due care. Now go and stay warm and dry in your tin box with airbags, heating, crumple zones, ABS, EBD, Traction Control, heated mirrors, windscreen wipers etc instead of living for the sheer enjoyment of it. Oh, and bye bye - see you when you get there! Eventually!!

Filthy Monkey I would have called the Police - if they refused to attend then I would have made such a song and dance that they would have had to attend due to a disturbance! I would have resorted to taking goods from their store without paying leaving them a note at the time saying that I would pay for them or return them once my vehicle had been released without charge. I know this pushes the boundaries but that's me I'm afraid. Jigpig Have you still got any receipts or statements showing purchases for that day? Contact the Customer Services dept at Sainsbury's and TK Maxx and make a nuisance of yourself politely. Ask them why their Car Park Attendants are doing such a bad job of checking that it took them all that time to discover that your car appeared to have stayed way beyond their permitted time. Ask them how they would overcome this to avoid this situation arising. If they say that it is 2hrs daily then check that their signs say that. If not there is no contract (not that there was one in the 1st place!). Stand your ground - write to Sainsburys/TKMaxx saying that as a genuine customer you object to being treated in such a fashion. Tell them that under no circumstance do you feel obligated to pay this charge. Ask them to declare how the charge can be deemed to be a fair and appropriate estimate of their loss when there is no charge to park to begin with. The space that the car was taking up - even if it did stay there for longer than requested - would not have provided them with any revenue even had it been removed. Unfair Contract Law and all that. Copy in the Parking Company on all correspondence. Let them take you to Court - 1) they won't, and 2) if they do they will have an impossible job proving their case in Court, which is what they will have to do to make it stick.

I agree we do all makes mistakes from time to time - but there is something different between, say, making a turn where we shouldn't have done due to poor signposting, being lost, unfamiliar territory or whatever and running a Red Light through either recklessness or lack of attention. Having said that I do hope that 1) you can get it sorted, and 2) that you do learn from it. I know this is going off at a tangent a little but if it was due to lack of attention rather that just pure recklessness can I urge you to get yourself on a scooter or motorcycle and get a licence for that. It's not that I want you out of a car but if you want to bring everything into sharper relief and get to understand just what a danger some people are in cars then there is no better training to be had. Besides that it makes you a better driver through the need for observation & awareness at all times. And before you say "I wouldn't ride a motorcycle, it's too dangerous", then just think about why it's considered dangerous. It's the blind and inconsiderate idiots in cars most of the time! In spite of that it's also more fun and quicker for getting around cities on - most of the time it's also Congestion Charge/Toll Free and usually offers Free Parking. Good luck.

As PatDavies said .... especially if he was driving with your knowledge or presence. How irresponsible can someone get? I would do a deal wth your boyfriend - you take the points and he pays your fine and increase in Insurance Premiums! Assuming you declare it (which you need to by the way otherwise your Insurance will be as good as Null & Void) Hopefully you will both then learn from this!

Is the owner paying for parking his/her car there are they paying for parking a particular car there. What would happen if I came back within the allotted time but in my wifes car not my own? Hmmm....

Briefly reading through that thread seems to indicate that the size of 'penalty' does carry some relevance. It also tells me that this is a vaguely grey area where some interpretation could swing the argument, although I personally am confident about facing up to PPC's and the like.

Is the damage to one wheel on each side of the car, or both on one side? If the damage is to both of the nearside wheels then it will be a lttle more difficult to argue. The wheel that is most commonly damaged is the front nearside one where drivers 'kerb' the wheel whilst parking - it is the 1st wheel I look at when assessing a vehicle. If the damage is to both front wheels or both rear wheels then I would suggest that it would be easier to prove the case I suspect, especially if the damage was consistent. I would ask the Recovery Company to bring the vehicle that towed the vehicle away along to any Hearing - I assume they keep those records. If not then I would question their Duty of Care policy. This would ascertain how the damage was likely to have been caused.

Then please answer this simple question: If this is all so unlawful how are they able to do so with the full knowledge of the Gov't and the connivance of the DVLA? I suspect that what is questionable is the amount of 'penalty' (word used advisedly) and whether or not that can be deemed to be a reasonable cost. Just as the costs that a Solicitor is trying to charge me which I deem to be unreasonable i.e. charging for taking a phone call to inform him that there is a cheque in the post to them! True! If someone has used a Blue Badge to obtain Free Parking under false pretences then that is a breach of the Contract that the user entered into when using the parking facility. What I said about 'pay on departure' was to draw a distinction between those operators who provide such a facility (the more honest I suspect) and others who will seek to find an excuse to levy a 'penalty' (again for want of a better expression, hence the small 'p' which is why I used it in my previous post ... sigh). If you want to believe that I am on the side of these operators then carry on believing that - try looking in some other posts to see the success I have recently enjoyed. But I will make no excuse for regular abusers who make life more difficult for the rest of us. What should be outlawed are the Parking Ticket Machines that cannot give out change. In this day and age that is unacceptable - the worst culprits being Local Authorities.

No, and if you re-read my post (and previous ones) rather than looking for an argument, you would see that I am saying that if there was a constant stream of patrons trying to avoid paying the Car Parking charges in the first place then they would have the excuse to raise their charges. That's just common business sense. Penalty Charges are something different entirely. And what I am saying there is that if there is an obvious abuse of the facility then it is entirely justifiable for a penalty of some sort to be levied - how much is reasonable is not necessarily for me to say. Of course it is always better when you pay for the time you have spent there on departure. That way there is very little scope for the operator to levy a penalty charge. Are you trying to defend someone who has knowingly used a Blue Badge inappropriately? Isn't that as bad as defending someone who parks in a Disabled Space without a permit just because they are lazy and inconsiderate? Doesn't that sort of abuse not give the operators all of the ammunition that they want to impose higher Parking Charges and penalties? I am not arguing for the operators - I am arguing against those that unwittingly help them in their cause. The regular abusers, of whom there are many! Try and spot the difference.

I have some sympathies with your sentiments particularly with regards to on-street parking, but we all have responsibilities and obligations to each other. We all want to use city/town centres and there really is only so much space to go around. If a Car Park operator wants to charge me to keep my car/motorcycle secure whilst I go off and enjoy myself then who am I to argue. Whether they do keep it safe and secure is dependant on the location and the operator but in essence I am happy to pay a reasonable Parking Charge for the peace of mind it brings me. I just don't see why someone else should jeopardise that by abusing the situation.

Zamzara - it is an abuse no matter how you term it. Every time someone like this abuses the facility on offer the more opportunity is given to the Car Park operator to increase their charges. You and I pay for that! It's why goods in shops are priced as they are - the margin is calculated to recover the loss on theft. I am in the Finance Industry and the rates that any finance company charges are based on the likelihood of Bad Debt occurring on their lending to clients. All of the 'good' customers pay for the debts of the 'bad' customers. That is a fact of life. It why companies like 'YES Car Credit' charge a high rate of interest - they are lending to customers with a High Risk of bad debt. Car with a YES sticker in the back window=driver has a bad credit history! There is no other reason for going to them in the first instance. So when someone gets away without paying for their parking everyone else pays for it. Doesn't sound quite so appealing now does it?

I know that this is a different issue, but particularly in the instance of Speeding Tickets DO NOT ASK for the photographic evidence. Use the PACE letter instead. This relies on the fact that under British Law you must have been read your rights before being asked to Plead on a given offence. You provide on a seperate sheet the details of the driver, and attach it to the NIP whilst also telling them that they are not allowed to use the information you have provided in Court. You do nothing with the NIP. They may try and bully you, but just write back telling them once again that you have already dealt with the matter referring them to your letter dated XX-YY-ZZ. If you decide to plead Not Guilty then the prosecution must provide their evidence to the Defence 7 days before the Trial Date. If they don't, and you would be surprised at how may do not, then that evidence is inadmissable in Court. This includes the Photographs. If you ask for them and they send them you have stuffed that up right away. In the case of Red Light jumping most of the above probably holds true also. But as someone else has already said - DON'T JUMP RED LIGHTS! If you did and you don't remember then PAY MORE ATTENTION WHEN DRIVING please. It may be me coming through on Green! And BTW - if you feel bad about being "buggered" on this occasion just consider how someone's family would now be feeling had you killed a son/daughter/husband/wife by your actions. £60 and 3 Points isn't much when weighed up against that, is it? Sounds more like the cost of a half-decent night out and a bit of inconvenience to me.