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| | | | | | | | Notices | PLEASE HELP US TO KEEP THIS SITE RUNNING Every pound donated to this site helps us to keep on helping others. Click Here to Donate | PayDay loans An essential way of making ends meet? - or just another expensive way climbing onto the spiral of debt?
The British Cheque Cashers Association says that it receives very few complaints from borrowers. | 
29th September 2009, 20:44
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#12261 (permalink)
| | Royalties Account Holder |  Re: The great interest rate rip off
 Economy shrank less than expected in second quarter
Brtain's economy contracted by less than estimated, underlining hopes that the UK may pull out of recession imminently.  O2 braced for flood of iPhone returns as price war looms
O2 is braced for calls from customers seeking to return recently-purchased iPhones to benefit from a price war with Orange and Vodafone.  Dairy Crest closes final salary pension scheme
The outlook for final-salary pensions in the UK worsened yesterday after Dairy Crest confirmed it was closing its scheme to existing members.  BA's new luxury, all-business New York flight to take off
British Airways is defying the aviation gloom to launch a luxury, all-business class transatlantic service to New York from London City Airport today.  Mandelson to extend vehicle scrappage scheme
Britain's embattled manufacturing industry has welcomed the £100m extension to the car scrappage scheme.  Merkel's Depression fears
The era of cosy consensus in German politics is over. The Chancellor will have to give ground to pro-business Right, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.  Buffett's support helps make China's richest man
Wang Chuanfu, a manufacturer of electric cars, has become China's richest man after his fledgling company was backed by Warren Buffett. More Business News Japan deflation fears grow as prices fall at record pace China seeks a sixth of Nigeria's oil reserves Sir Allen Stanford to be moved to new jail Independent publisher INM reaches deal with bondholders Negative equity retreats 
The value of the average British home has risen by £10,501 since March. Goodbye to the 0pc mortgage Should you borrow from a pawnbroker? The best ways to buy foreign currency How to survive a tax grilling Cashback websites: each family missing out on £123 a year More pubs could close due to debt and falling earnings 
Pub owners are facing cash-flow problems in the next few years, credit-rating agency Moody's warns. Bank of England has no plans to lower rate on reserves 
The pound strengthened on Tuesday after the Bank of England told economists that it had no immediate intention of lowering the rate on banks' reserves. Recession-hit households saving most cash for six years
__________________
If DEBT is the problem REPAYMENT is the solution
Debt revenue doesn't equal tax revenue
I will pay for my own stupidity but not for the stupidity of others.
Remember, profits are privatised, losses are socialised.
That's the 21-century Free Market.
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29th September 2009, 20:55
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#12262 (permalink)
| | Royalties Account Holder
Your bank owes you an awful lot more money than you realise See here
Cagger since
: May 2007
Posts: 14,308
| Re: The great interest rate rip off
Iceland says NO to Debt-Slavery - Wikileaks Quote:
By Notsilvia Night (The Peoples Voice)[1]
Here in Iceland people say, that if the country´s government agrees to give in to British and Dutch blackmail to pay the debts of the private internet-subsidiary Ice-Save of the private bank Landsbanki, we all will become Ice-Slaves. So public opinion is forcing the parliament to refuse unconditional debt-payments. According to a new agreement payments are only to be made conditional as a percentage of economic growth.
Already a large group of international banks have come together to sue Iceland for full and unconditional payments. Joseph Tirado, from the British law-firm Norton Rose said that a large group of banks will be part of this law-suit. He did not want to give the names of those institutions neither would he say in what court the case would be heard. EU officials and others are threatening Iceland with international isolation.
Michael Hudson, economic professor, researcher and economic adviser to the Icelandic government calls the Parliament´s agreement a quantum leap, which might, if it succeeds to be implemented, change the world’s financial environment. He explains in his article The Specter of Debt Revolt Is Haunting Europe -Why Iceland and Latvia Won’t (and Can’t) Pay for the Kleptocrats’ Ripoffs | | |
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29th September 2009, 21:14
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#12265 (permalink)
| | Royalties Account Holder | Re: The great interest rate rip off
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/bu...1&ref=business Quote:
Acknowledging that they greatly underestimated the problems plaguing the nation’s banking system, federal officials proposed a plan on Tuesday to replenish the fund that protects bank depositors.
They also announced that the fund, which began the year with more than $34 billion on hand but has been battered by bank collapses, would fall into deficit this week.
The plan proposed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation would, in effect, have the nation’s banks collectively lend money to the insurance fund by requiring the banks to prepay this year the annual assessments that they would otherwise have been due through 2012.
If adopted, the plan would raise $45 billion from the banks to replenish the fund, which is suffering severe problems with both its capital and liquidity.
Officials said that the plan would be less expensive than a direct loan from the banks — an idea that many banks supported — because no interest would have to be paid and because the plan would not be voluntary. In addition, the banks would face an increase in their annual assessments beginning in 2011 of 3 cents for every $100 in deposits. The healthiest banks now pay 12 cents to 16 cents on every $100.
Created during the 1930s to restore confidence and arrest a wave of bank runs that contributed to the Great Depression, the insurance fund now stands behind some $4.8 trillion in deposits. It is financed by the industry and backed by the United States. Officials have the ability to borrow $100 billion from the Treasury immediately, and up to $500 billion with the approval of the Treasury secretary and the Federal Reserve.
The plan proposed by the deposit insurance agency was a partial victory for industry executives and lobbyists, who fought against the idea of levying another special assessment on the banks. Last May, an additional 5 cents was collected for every $100 in deposits as a special assessment on top of the regular premiums.
The plan proposed by the deposit insurance agency was a partial victory for industry executives and lobbyists who fought against the idea of another special assessment imposed on the banks. Last May, the government imposed a special assessment of 5 cents for every $100 in deposits on top of the regular premiums.
The prepayment option also offers a significant bookkeeping benefit to the industry. If the plan is ultimately approved, banks will be able to list the prepayment as an asset on their books, and not charge it against earnings until the time when the payment would normally have been due.
“The decision to not impose any additional assessment for 2009 but rather to require institutions to prepay assessments over the course of three years, while accounting for such expense on a quarterly basis is a positive alternative to rebuilding the deposit insurance fund while not impacting an institution’s earnings,” said Steve Bartlett, president of the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents 100 of the nation’s largest financial services companies.
| Does this mean that FDIC will be liable for interest on these loans??? If they are prepaying how can it be a loan?
Although love the opening paragraph the best of the best underestimated the banking crisis. | |
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29th September 2009, 21:18
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#12266 (permalink)
| | Royalties Account Holder | Re: The great interest rate rip off
Fed May Need Aggression in Reversing Actions, Warsh Says in WSJ - Bloomberg.com Quote:
Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh said the U.S. central bank may need to be as aggressive in reversing its actions to revive the economy and financial markets as policy makers were in starting them. “If ‘whatever it takes’ was appropriate to arrest the panic, the refrain might turn out to be equally necessary at a stage during the recovery to ensure the Federal Reserve’s institutional credibility,” Warsh said in an opinion piece published late yesterday on the Wall Street Journal’s Web site.
The message from Warsh, 39, one of Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s top advisers during the financial crisis, stresses that the Fed may start to raise interest rates before it’s obvious that it is necessary. Just two days ago, the Fed unanimously decided to keep its benchmark rate near zero and repeat that rates will stay low for an “extended period.”
“Market participants and policy makers alike should steer clear of ironclad policy prescriptions,” Warsh said. “Nonetheless, I would hazard the view that prudent risk management indicates that policy likely will need to begin normalization before it is obvious that it is necessary, possibly with greater force than is customary, and taking proper account of the policies being instituted by other authorities.”
The Fed has already begun cutting back some of its emergency aid to financial firms as part of its so-called exit strategy from a $1 trillion credit expansion.
| More at the link. | |
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29th September 2009, 21:20
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#12267 (permalink)
| | Royalties Account Holder | Re: The great interest rate rip off
FDIC Proposes Banks Prepay Deposit Fees Through 2012 (Update2) - Bloomberg.com Quote:
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposed asking banks to prepay three years of premiums to replenish reserves dented by a rash of bank failures that the agency said will cost $100 billion through 2013.
The insurance fund will run a deficit as of tomorrow after 120 banks failed in the past two years, the agency said today. Half the costs from seized banks have been incurred already and prepaying the fees will raise $45 billion, the FDIC said. The agency rejected options for a second special fee or borrowing from the Treasury Department.
“What we are proposing to do is to tap the ample liquidity of the banking industry to improve our own liquidity position without borrowing from the Treasury,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said at a Washington board meeting. The agency raised its five- year loss estimate by 43 percent.
The agency is required by law to rebuild the fund when the reserve ratio, or the balance divided by insured deposits, falls below 1.15 percent. It was 0.22 percent on June 30. The fund, drained by 95 bank failures this year, had $10.4 billion at the end of the second quarter. The fund will erase its deficit by 2012, the staff said.
The proposal approved by the board requires banks to pay premiums for the fourth quarter and next three years on Dec. 30.
The board backed prepayments over alternatives such as borrowing taxpayer dollars from the Treasury, charging the banking industry a special fee in addition to levies they already pay and borrowing directly from the banks.
John Dugan, the head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said he was pleased the agency proposal didn’t impose another special assessment this year and next year.
Assessment Opposition
“For banks that were already feeling the effects of a weak economy, special assessments could only make them weaker,” said Dugan, a member of the five-person FDIC board.
Under the proposal, the FDIC wouldn’t impose another special assessment this year. The agency would raise assessments by 3 basis points in 2011.
The FDIC will seek public comment until Oct. 28 and then make a decision on its approach.
The FDIC raised its projected fund losses, from $70 billion in May, because the assets and number of failed and “problem” banks have increased, said Arthur Murton, director of the FDIC’s division of insurance and research. Bank failures will peak this year and 2010, he said.
The banking industry lobbied against a special fee that would be added to the regular annual premium, telling the FDIC and Congress such a levy would hurt their ability to raise capital. The industry welcomed the FDIC’s proposed approach.
| Bloombergs take on it. | |
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30th September 2009, 20:16
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#12271 (permalink)
| | Royalties Account Holder | Re: The great interest rate rip off
Politics is returning to type new Simon Carr: Equality. Social justice. Elimination of poverty. Insane law-making. The core vote strategy is back. It worked brilliantly for Labour last time, but then it was Iain Duncan Smith doing it. John Lewis to close branch call centres
The company is to close its network of 25 branch call centres and replace them with two new sites next year. David Prosser: Is the Bank's QE gamble paying off? Outlook: Your "open meeting" is my "crisis summit", as the Bank of England has discovered after inviting 50 leading economists into Threadneedle Street for a chat about the progress of its quantitative easing initiative. Britain's £320m gift to its car manufacturing rivals
Ministers launched the car scrappage scheme to rescue the British motor industry, yet relatively little is going to UK manufacturing, says Sean O'Grady | |
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30th September 2009, 20:29
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#12273 (permalink)
| | Royalties Account Holder | Re: The great interest rate rip off
Judge quashes woman's £8,000 credit card debt in 'landmark ruling' on mis-selling of payment protection insurance | Mail Online Quote:
A woman has won a landmark legal victory after a judge wrote off her £8,000 credit card debt because she had wrongly been sold payment protection insurance (PPI).
A county court judge ruled that Lynne Thorius, 49, from South Shields, was charged thousands of pounds by MBNA for an insurance policy she had never asked for.
The ruling could open the floodgates for millions of pounds worth of similar claims against banks and building societies.
It is estimated that around 40 million PPI policies have been sold in Britain in the last six years alone, making this the second biggest selling insurance product on the market.
Carl Wright, of claims management company Cartal Client Review, who successfully defended Lynne, said today that the ruling is a legal first.
'This is the first time that a judge has ruled on this point and will have a massive impact,' he said.
'Consumers now have the authority of the court to bring a claim in such a way that banks and credit card companies will be unable to defend it.
'MBNA acted in a disgusting manner. They harassed this woman at all hours of the day and night to force her to pay for something she never even asked for.
'Now Lynne has won, the floodgates could open for millions of other people. This is a massive victory.
'It will change the way banks lend money and issue credit cards. We went to court because we knew we had a strong case.
'But MBNA thought their case was watertight. When we got to court our legal argument absolutely white-washed them, and their case against Lynne was thrown out.'
'This is a landmark decision for all Cartal Clients and a demonstration of the strengths of legal argument used by Cartel.'
The mother-of-three applied for the card - which was branded Sunderland ASC but financed by MBNA - in July 2002.
She ticked the box which said 'no thank you' to payment protection insurance on the application form, but despite this, the policy was initiated with a £20-a-month charge.
The card had a limit of £1,500 and Mrs Thorius, a cleaning supervisor, used it 'here and there' to pay bills and buy gifts.
But the credit limit was gradually extended and before she knew it, Lynne was nearly £7,000 in debt.
She said: 'I didn't particularly want a credit card and I certainly didn't want PPI. That alone was costing me a fair few pounds a month.
'When I noticed it on the statement, I rang them and told them I didn't want it. They said I wouldn't have got the card if I didn't tick the 'yes' box.
'When I tried to explain that I hadn't, they just wouldn't listen.'
Mrs Thorius, whose PPI charge was gradually increased to £30, even tried to make a claim on the policy when her work hours were cut, but MBNA turned her down.
With her debt soaring and with seemingly no way out, Mrs Thorius contacted the claims management company in December 2008, while MBNA launched a separate action against her, suing for arrears totalling £8,686.90.
The bank even threatened a charging order to repossess her house, even though her debt was unsecured.
In a nine-hour hearing at Newcastle-upon-Tyne County Court, Deputy District Judge Jacqueline Smart ruled that the PPI policy had been unfairly imposed.
She also threw out MBNA's case against Mrs Thorius because they earned commission on the PPI they 'sold' her.
It is the first time a judge has ruled such an arrangement to be in breech of the Unfair Relationships and Unfair Consumer Credit Act Section 78, according to Cartel.
| If the courts back this decision there's going to be carnage for the banks, as I suspect that they have never calculated the courts saying that the debt is unenforceable.
Looks like the debt timebomb could have an interesting twist. | |
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30th September 2009, 21:09
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#12275 (permalink)
| | Royalties Account Holder | Re: The great interest rate rip off
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/bu...1&ref=business Quote: The chief credit officer of Moody’s Investors Service told Congress on Wednesday that a former analyst’s accusations of inflated ratings and conflicts of interest at the firm were groundless.
The executive, Richard M. Cantor, testified that Moody’s reviewed the complaints by the analyst, Eric Kolchinsky, who was suspended from his job, and found them to be “unsupported.”
Mr. Kolchinsky has refused to cooperate with Moody’s inquiry into the matter, Mr. Cantor said.
In his testimony on Wednesday, Mr. Kolchinsky told lawmakers that he believed Moody’s violated securities laws by issuing credit ratings the firm knew to be inaccurate.
“They still went forward and issued the rating,” he told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The panel’s chairman, Representative Edolphus Towns, Democrat of New York, said the accusations, if true, “indicate troubling behavior” in the credit rating industry.
Another former Moody’s employee, who was responsible for compliance, warned federal regulators in March about what he said were deficiencies in the firm’s monitoring of municipal bonds.
The employee, Scott McCleskey, who was a senior vice president for compliance at Moody’s until he left a year ago, wrote a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing the firm of a ”lack of meaningful surveillance of municipal securities, contrary to statements by Moody’s to the public and to Congress.”
Mr. McCleskey told the S.E.C. that he became aware that Moody’s did ”virtually no surveillance” on public finance securities, the debt issued by states, counties, towns and school districts.
When he raised concerns to managers, he said, “My guidance was, to put it politely, ignored.” In fact, at one point last year he and others were told in a meeting that they were forbidden to mention the issue in any e-mail messages or other written form, Mr. McCleskey said.
| He was hardly likely to admit they where pulling a fast one was here.
Of course they are impeccable, nothing has turned into a giant turd. | |
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30th September 2009, 21:13
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#12276 (permalink)
| | Royalties Account Holder | Re: The great interest rate rip off
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/bu...l?ref=business Quote:
The closing of a big General Motors truck plant this week is another sign that America’s love affair with pickup trucks is fading fast.
Sales of pickups have declined sharply this year, more than the drop in overall vehicle sales, which are at their lowest in 25 years.
In 2004, for example, auto companies sold nearly 2.5 million pickups in the United States, many of which were used as everyday transportation, not just as work trucks or to haul trailers.
This year, the industry likely will sell only about a million trucks.
The downturn in pickup sales is putting new pressure on the finances of automakers, which for years earned significant profit from trucks.
In Pontiac, G.M. is shutting down the 3.4-million-square-foot truck plant that has been a fixture for 37 years in this industrial city about 20 miles north of Detroit.
Some of the production will be handled by a third shift at an assembly plant in Indiana. For the 1,100 workers who will lose their jobs in Pontiac, the closing represents the end of an era when G.M. could not build gas-guzzling pickups fast enough to meet consumer demand.
One worker, Garey Knop, said that rising gas prices last year and the weak economy combined to kill the pickup boom.
“Four-dollar gas put the nail into it,” said Mr. Knop, a pipefitter who has worked at the Pontiac plant the last 12 years. “I drive 110 miles a day, and I wouldn’t drive one of these trucks.”
Both the Ford Motor Company and Chrysler have also closed pickup plants in recent years in an effort to bring production more in line with demand.
But the precipitous decline in pickup sales has been greater than many auto executives had expected.
When pickup sales were at their peak in 2004, the segment accounted for nearly 15 percent of all new vehicles sold. This year, pickup sales represent about 10 percent of the overall market.
| Jesus the entire US business model is flawed, I'd hate having to drive 110 miles a day!!! | |
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1st October 2009, 16:58
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#12277 (permalink)
| | Royalties Account Holder | Re: The great interest rate rip off
IMF says world recession is over, expects global growth above 3pc next year - Telegraph Quote:
The world recession is now over and the global economy is expanding again, the International Monetary Fund said as it raised its growth forecast for the global economy back above the 3pc mark next year.
The IMF used its key World Economic Outlook to say that the biggest slump in global output - indeed, the first outright annual fall in worldwide gross domestic product since the Second World War - had now come to an end.
However, it warned that the recovery would be sluggish and far from painless - particularly for the developed world and the UK.
Britain will shrink by 4.4pc this year, the Fund said, cutting its previous forecast by 0.2 percentage points.
The contraction is significantly greater than the 3.5pc predicted by Alistair Darling in this year’s Budget and is also greater than the average contraction of 3.4pc among industrialised economies.
But in a boost for the Government, the Fund also upgraded its forecast for next year, saying the UK would grow by 0.9pc, rather than the 0.2pc it previously slated. This nevertheless remains below the Treasury’s own forecast for 1.25pc output growth.
The WEO said that across the world, economic output would fall this year by 1.1pc before bouncing back to 3.1pc next year.
The report said: “The triggers for this rebound are strong public policies across advanced and emerging economies that, together with measures deployed by the IMF at the international level, have allayed concerns about systemic financial collapse, supported demand, and all but eliminated fears of a global depression. These fears had contributed to the steepest drop in global activity and trade since World War II.”
However, it adds: “Complacency must be avoided. Despite these advances, the pace of recovery is expected to be slow and, for quite some time, insufficient to decrease unemployment.”
The report said that the UK labour market, in particular, will suffer as the recession starts to weigh on activity. It said that the unemployment rate would climb to the highest level since the early 1990s, leaping from levels of just over 5pc in 2007 to 9.3pc by next year.
| It's a happy clappy news day, rejoice in the jobless recovery. | |
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1st October 2009, 16:59
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#12278 (permalink)
| | Royalties Account Holder | Re: The great interest rate rip off
Britain to make 'stronger' exit from recession - Times Online Quote:
Britain's emergence from recession in 2010 will be stronger than previously thought, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The IMF now expects the economy will expand by 0.9 per cent, ahead of the 0.2 per cent growth in GDP it estimated three months ago.
The IMF lifted forecasts across the board due to the impact of action by several governments as well as signs of firmer house prices, recovering consumer confidence and a pick-up in world trade.
The UK will lag behind the 1.3 per cent growth expected for the US although it will perform more strongly than the Eurozone, where the IMF predicts a 0.3 per cent rise in output. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, recently said it is highly likely the world’s biggest economy has already emerged from recession, though he cautioned that recovery will be slow. Yesterday, new figures revealed that US GDP fell by 0.7 per cent in the second quarter, lower than the 1 per cent previously reported and was also better than the 1.2 per cent contraction which Wall Street had expected.
| Gordon will be pleased, more ramping just what we need.
It appears that you can solve a debt crisis with more debt. | |
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1st October 2009, 17:01
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#12279 (permalink)
| | Royalties Account Holder | Re: The great interest rate rip off
Banks to tighten lending criteria on loans and reduce credit card limits - Telegraph Quote:
Banks are expected to tighten their lending criteria on loans and credit cards amid signs of economic recovery, a report by the Bank of England suggests.
It comes as more lenders said they had reduced the availability of mortgages rather than increased it during the past three months following a “deterioration” in the cost and access to wholesale funds.
It comes despite billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being pumped into some of Britain's biggest banks.
The Bank’s Credit Conditions Survey suggested lenders will place stricter limits on those they give money to and reduce credit card holders’ limits in the run up to Christmas.
It also warned that more people would default on their loans as the profit margins made by lenders on credit cards and unsecured loans had risen.
It comes despite signs of recovery in the economy with house prices and number of mortgages approved rising from the low levels seen during the height of the credit crunch.
Oliver Gilmartin, a senior economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said: “The survey is yet to signal any significant improvements in the availability of credit to households.”
The banks said there had been a reduction in the availability of mortgages during the past quarter, but this is expected to improve over the next three months as the billions of pounds pumped into economy begins to filter through to consumers.
Howard Archer, an economist at Global Insight said: “While latest hard data still indicates muted lending to corporates and households, the Bank of England survey at least boosts hopes that Quantitative Easing and other policy measures undertaken by both the central bank and the government to boost bank lending are starting to feed through to have a beneficial impact.
| The credit based economy appears in deep trouble, if banks don't want to lend and people don't want to borrow consumption is going to be depressed for a long time. | |
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1st October 2009, 20:08
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#12280 (permalink)
| | Royalties Account Holder | Re: The great interest rate rip off
SFO demands prosecution of BAE new
The Prime Minister and the Attorney General are expected to clear the way for a full scale criminal prosecution against BAE Systems in one of the biggest corruption cases to ever reach the British courts. David Prosser: Why M&S investors are watching ITV Outlook Still no word from Marks & Spencer on a replacement for Sir Stuart Rose, with the retailer yesterday remaining tight-lipped on the subject as it unveiled relatively impressive second quarter figures. We are no closer to knowing who M&S will appoint as chief executive once Sir Stuart steps back into a pure chairman's role next July. QE policy is having an impact, says Miles
Monetary Policy Committee member addresses criticism | |
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