BEWARE! THE BANKS ARE OUT TO GET YOU!

[Tizer]

I've just read through Ian's troubles with his car insurance company. Unfortunately the companies now routinely raise the premium for any customer who informs them of an incident with their car, regardless of whether or not there's a claim or damage. Just the fact of phoning them and asking for advise will cost you heavily in the future. This has been going on for some years now, even though people like Paul Lewis have criticised it. I think that even a Parliamentary Committee criticised it too. The companies argue that anyone who has an incident with their car is a greater risk to them than one who doesn't. They'll probably be telling us next that anyone with the first name Ian is a greater risk than one with the name Stanley!

[PanBiker]

The report on the Cue database shows me as driver of the vehicle although I was sat in the house when the event happened. I think they actually make the rules up as they see fit. As in another post, Norwich Union (now Aviva) bent the laws of physics and had my stationary vehicle (with handbrake on) travelling sideways into another vehicle which had frontal damage. The car that actually drove into me was less than a year old, mine seven years old at the time. I reckon the driver would be paying a lot more premium than I was, we were both insured by the same firm and they found in the other drivers favour.

[Stanley]

Anyone called Ian is obviously a wrong un!

[PanBiker]

It sometimes make me wonder. I can't be all that bad, Ian and all the other derivatives Yan, Jan, Johan and countless others are all derivative of John which is regarded as "Grace of God". They had better watch out!

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

See THIS for a report that could well have been included in Public Service cuts or Politics. It says that the UK economy is broken and flags up the glaring deficiencies in it under this government.
HERE'S another version of the report, the thing that struck me was "the longest period of wage stagnation for 150 years'. In another report, since 1860. I keep warning that the Tories want to take us back to 19th century laisser faire, how much more evidence is needed before the country wakes up!

[Stanley]

Read THIS Guardian report on the leaked FCA report on the activities of RBS when dealing with businesses they deemed to be 'in trouble'. According to the leak last week 92% of them were mistreated in some way, some of them being driven into liquidation and the hands of the vultures.
Of course it should be published! This is all part of the continual policy of, wherever possible, burying bad news.
On another front, it looks as though the seemingly endless stream of liquidity into the economy as 'QE', a form of subsidy and devaluation, is going to cease. The financial industry has got used to this and fears withdrawal symptoms.... This on top of all the other challenges....

[Stanley]

See THIS news item about the listing of Aramco, the Saudi government-owned oil company, on the London exchange. The suspicion is that in her recent visit to Saudi May struck a sweetheart deal with the Saudis on this listing and arms sales. PE also notes that the Red Arrows, though threatened with extinction, are touring the Middle East to 'fly the flag'. This is the murky world we will have to inhabit if the Brexiteers get their way and we become the world's premier money laundry..... The Tories weren't joking when they threatened the EU with economic aggression.

[Stanley]

Over the last few days there has been a lot of puffery about RBS on the anniversary of their failure. Noticeable that most of it comes from the new company Virgin Money and the tone is all positive. I suspect that this is a big PR effort. Noticeable that nothing has been said about the culpability of the managers who were running the bank. The Lords of the Universe are still well protected!

[Tizer]

We knew something like this would happen. How do the banks get away with it? Remember what I've written before about them dropping `second-level security'. They do it to try and make payments even easier but at the expense of security. They know it will lead to trouble but they walk right into it. It beggars belief.

`Forget your Pin? Don't worry, banks are letting payments through without it ' LINK
"Banks are quietly waiving the requirement for customers to enter a correct Pin number for certain transactions, Telegraph Money has learned. If the wrong number is repeatedly entered the transactions are still being allowed, sometimes with the requirement of the customer's signature. Banks say they are dropping the Pin security requirement "to spare customers inconvenience." It coincides with the soaring popularity of contactless transactions, prompting suggestions that consumers are forgetting their Pins because they use them less frequently."

The latest from the Telegraph says 16 million people are at risk:
"Three bank card providers are accused of putting customers at risk of fraud after it emerged that they are allowing shoppers to make card payments without PINs. A Daily Telegraph investigation found cardholders with Barclays, American Express and Co-op Bank are able to make payments with just a signature if they do not know their PIN. The three card providers have a total combined customer base of at least 16 million people in the UK. Customers of other banks will have their accounts frozen if they enter their PIN incorrectly three times while trying to make a purchase. Freezing accounts in this way is standard industry procedure and is used by all other major High Street banks as a counter-fraud measure."

[Stanley]

Glad to see my bank isn't on your list Tiz. Mind you, they appear to have dropped the requirement for the correct password in verifying online card transactions. I suppose it all eases load on their creaking IT systems.... Anything to make the running of the bank more economical. Who cares about customer security? Is there nobody regulating standards at all?
It has reached the point now where we all have to accept that every time we use our card it is a gamble. By the way, I refuse to use the 'touch' system. Too bloody easy!

[Tizer]

Contactless transactions in shops are going to lead to more trouble. Many people don't ask for a receipt when they use their contactless card which means they don't have a record of how much they paid, where and when. For a start they can't then track as easily how much they've spent on the card. Second, if they have problems with the product or service they won't have details of time, place, amount etc to use in negotiation with the retailer, bank and and card company.

Another couple of current examples of my constant stream of mega foul-ups in large organisations are the Equifax crisis:
`US launches criminal probe into Equifax breach'
"The US Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation of the Equifax data breach that exposed personal information including Social Security numbers belonging to 143 million Americans." (FT). It has also affected many Britons.

...And Ryanair:
`Ryanair faces 20m euro compensation bill over cancellations'
"Ryanair could face up to 20 million euros (£18 million) in compensation claims after cancelling thousands of flights due to a shortage of pilots, it has warned. The budget airline plans to cancel 40-50 flights every day for the next six weeks, after it admitted it had "messed up" the planning of pilot holidays. An internal memo seen by the BBC suggests the pilot shortage could continue until the end of the year." (BBC)

On a smaller and more personal scale: My problems with my broadband provider continue. I can now only get a speed of 24Mbps at my suburban house compared with 38 when I lived out in the sticks. I'm trying to contact Plusnet but they're having `staffing problems'. When I tried to use the online chat service it had a queue of 55 people waiting before me!

[Stanley]

And then there's car leasing and the pensions scam..... I was reading yesterday that 'by mistake' a file of UK information was stored in the US. It struck me that the plethora a credit checkers that has sprung up is probably paying Equifax for their information, they can't all have invested in the necessary systems and Big Data.
Do you remember when Barclay's introduced us to 'your flexible friend'? The little chap grew up to be a monster!

[Tizer]

It's reported that Equifax holds information on every adult in the UK, as well as in lots of other countries around the world. Apparently organisations like insurance companies routinely pass customers' details to them.

[Stanley]

That doesn't surprise me Tiz. We have no inkling of the scale of big data. Janet was right.......

[Tizer]

Now we find that Equifax staff have been directing their worried customers to a spoof web site by mistake!

[Stanley]

That reinforces my theory about our world being controlled by incompetent idiots.....

[Stanley]

I see that the financial sector has started making noises about needing a decision on Brexit in the next few months. If they don't get some certainty they say they will have to leave London. It's an old 'crying wolf' story I know but this time there may be something in it.
See THIS BBC report that Moody has lowered the UK credit rating again due to uncertainty over Brexit and the weakness of the government after the disastrous election which has left them with very little control over the economy, as evidenced by the recent alterations to the public service pay cap. More evidence that the 'economic miracle' might not be quite as good as the government would like you to believe. The government says that Moody's haven't taken into account the latest Brexit position. I think that perhaps they have!

[Tizer]

See THIS BBC report that Moody has lowered the UK credit rating again due to uncertainty over Brexit and the weakness of the government after the disastrous election which has left them with very little control over the economy...

I'm surprised the credit rating agencies hadn't done this earlier.

[Stanley]

Evidently some of them did. I saw a later report that Moody's had been a bit slow on the uptake.
I hadn't realised that Edward du Cann had died and found THIS in the Guardian. Well worth a read if you ever ponder about the forces that shape politics in general and the Tories in particular. Remember also that one of Thatcher's first acts on becoming PM was to instigate the lifting of all currency export controls which threw the door open for the speculators in the City and du Cann definitely qualified as one of them. All right, it's all history now but don't imagine for one second that these undercurrents have gone away, they are more active now than ever. At the same time Thatcher was a fan of Reaganomics and this loosening of regulations was the start of off-shore banking and the tax avoidance industry.

[Tizer]

I'm known for criticising organisations and now I've got another one on the list - the Student Loans Company (SLC). For example the Telegraph says:
`HM Revenue & Customs has blamed the Student Loans Company’s technology for antiquated processes that cause thousands of graduates to overpay their student loans. Speaking at a Treasury Select Committee meeting in Westminster, Jon Thompson, chief executive and permanent secretary of HMRC, said the SLC did not have the ability to receive up to date information from the taxman. This summer figures released under a Freedom of Information request from accountants RSM to the Student Loans Company showed that in 2015-16, the latest year for which figures are available, 86,000 student loan customers paid off £51m more than they owed.'

I have to emphasise that last phrase: `86,000 student loan customers paid off £51 million more than they owed.' Why does the government let SLC get away with it? If we cast our minds back a few years we'll remember that farmers were not receiving their subsidies; another example of failure in an organisation. At present we also have Barclays freezing the accounts of some people who depend on day trading for their living. They've done nothing wrong - it's just a cock-up at the bank. Management of organisations seems to have reached a crisis level yet the bosses still get fabulous salaries and bonuses, even when the failures are obvious and the shares are falling in value. Look at Ryanair, yet another example.

[Stanley]

Dead right Tiz! Don't forget the growing doubts about the roll out of Universal Credit. It has built into it a minimum six week delay in cash flow to the recipient which is triggering mass eviction notices where it has been trialled. It hits the poorest worst because they have no savings or access to alternative credit, even loans at 1300% APR. There is a provision for emergency funding but the reports suggest that many of the worst hit are not told that it is available. Could it be that my 'General Incompetence Theory' has some merit?
Meanwhile Mark Carney give a strong hint that an interest rate rise is on the cards this month or next. He says that this is because of 'the present course of the economy' and this will be interpreted by the Tories as a sign that it is stronger when the inconvenient truth is that the real reason is the rise in inflation following the effective devaluation of the pound against the dollar. We are told that the increase in outgoings to the 'average mortgage customer' will be 'only £15 per month'. Nobody is average... This could be the straw that breaks the camel's back for many families who are already relying on expensive credit to survive. Remember also that the headline rate of inflation is illusory for those whose expenditure is solely on essentials like food, utilities and transport which have increased by much more than the official rate. Factor in also the changes to the credit market like car purchase, this is not good news!

[Tizer]

Tesco executives in court for `cooking the books' and also accused of bullying other staff to accept their devious ways. Not too surprising then to hear:
`Tesco has said it made a mistake when it described chicken sold under its Willow Farm brand as “reared exclusively” for the supermarket chain, after undercover footage of a processing plant showed packs of drumsticks returned by Lidl being repackaged as Willow Farm products.' Guardian

[Stanley]

I'd missed that Tiz. It reinforces all my reservations about the food processors. Tesco can wrap the truth up in as many layers of obfuscation and market speak as they like but the primary aim of the chain and its suppliers, the food processors, is to make as much profit as possible. Using a fictitious farm is quite simply a lie.

[plaques]

Its all about branding. Establish a name through advertising and promotion and then become an empty shell that sells all the crap made by companies we have never heard of to maximize their profits. When they get caught out its always " good god we didn't know that was going on" The supplier then changes its name and its business as usual. Just think what will happen when we ditch all the EU regulations round food products.