Showing posts with label banks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label banks. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Mmm

Image result for asb securities

Mmm, now it appears I don't get the live data from www.asbsecurties.co.nz unless I buy shares now.

I have it in front of me now only because of a purchase I made yesterday.

My question is do you get this data free or do you have to pay?

It almost is the last straw for me on top of numerous outs of ASB's website.

This really seems unfair because I purchase currently around 6 times a year and I recall some 2 weeks ago that they would be moving to this new system because of the horrendous cost of the data but they gave me no choice as to what it was I wanted to do.

I might have wanted to buy the data when they switched over a few days ago.

Now they have me sniffing around at other opportunities and writing stuff like this.

Do you have some suggestions?



More Banking Madness @ Shareinvestor

Westpac: I'm Thinking of Returning






Sunday, January 8, 2017

Westpac: Credit Where Credit is Due

Related image

Previously I have had many bad banking experiences.

Now I must avail you to a positive message,

One that has almost left me speechless,

The bank concerned was Westpac Banking Group Ltd [WBC.NZX] .

I didn't previously have a very good opinion of them. I probably still don't.

This happened after many months of tooing and frooing over interest charges and fees on my credit card.

This card was my first credit card and i got it back in 1995 when I graduated from Auckland Uni and it had a picture of the University on it and $1000 in credit.

Fast forward 21 years and I just happen to take up the offer of having my limit extended to $10,000 and for the interest free period extended to 1 year.

What do you know last month a got my bill and attached to it was 2 forms of interest charged.

When i queried it (after going through about 5 people)i got a friendly chap Ike Harris on the line and he told me that Westpac came to their credit card accounts in a different way to other banks - I've had these before, they were for way more money and they didn't cost a cent)

Anyway Ike told me that if you purchased something during the month you would accrue interest, i knew this from before but because of my stroke i forgot about it at the time i made the purchase.

That was OK, I was prepared for this.

What i didn't know is that it wasn't only for THAT month, the interest would continue to accrue for the entire period of the $10,000 loan.

I told Ike that i had free credit cards before and i wasn't charged in this way.

Well Ike said we are different.

Much discussion in my broken English followed as to the seriousness or otherwise of the way they charged their credit cards.

Anyway.

This is what Ike did:

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

Please find attached the information requested when we spoke today.

-a balance transfer of $10,000.00 was completed on 07/03/2016 at 0.00% pa for 12 months

-from that date transactions occurred on the account and were subject to interest charges

-as at today, there is still $1,115.42 of charges subject to interest. We have added these charges onto the balance transfer of $10,000.00 which will also be at the rate of 0.00% pa until the balance transfer expires in March 2017

-interest will begin to accrue on these amounts after 07/03/2017 if they are not paid in full

-you may see a small amount of interest on your next statement as we are part way through this month. I will reverse these charges as they appear


True to his word the interest was reversed and all associated charges dropped.

Ike was a brilliant young man who should be working to help out people because he was patient.

Have you had similar stories with ''free'' credit cards?








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                  c Share Investor 2017



Monday, March 18, 2013

Cyprus: Bailout Deepens but Can it Affect US

News of a forced bailout of Cypriot banks should come as good news to us over here.

Savers will be forced to pries open their accounts to the tune of 10%, ok if you are sniveling leftie who has contributed to the collapse but this leaves out the vast numbers of unemployed, students, teachers etc who also contributed.

This would best be avoided through an overall tax of 10% on individuals incomes for 2-3 years. That, way no individual could avoid it unless they were unemployed the full 3 years.

Of course this is bad news and unfair on all those who paid their own way, and continue to but life is unfair, I guess.

But the real consequences for us is that the same thing could happen here. Under our own Open Bank Resolution ,(RBS) (Brought to you by Leighton Smith and my mate at The Lost Soul blog)


" The OBR policy is designed to ensure that first losses are borne by the bank’s existing shareholders. In addition, a portion of depositors’ and other unsecured creditors’ funds will be frozen to bear any remaining losses. To the extent that these funds are not required to cover losses as more detailed assessment of the position of the bank is completed, these funds will be released to depositors. At a high level, this outcome replicates the outcome that would apply in the event that a failed bank was liquidated. The primary advantage of the OBR scheme, however, is that depositors would have access to a large proportion of their balances throughout the process. This contrasts with what would happen under a normal liquidation, where depositors might not have access to any of their funds for a significant period."


NO, no no.

Most people who put their money into bank accounts the buck stops at their accounts they are not, and do not participate in the banks profits, or in this case the banks (sort of - they are govts that are intervening on their own (govts) losses) losses.

In this case it is clearly wrong headed to do, would cause panic and would clearly be an election loser.

Will it happen here?

In theory yes but our banks are among the safest in the world  (read the august 2012 PWC report ) but should they really need to they have free pass.

That should worry us all.


Banks @ Share Investor




Sunday, June 13, 2010

ASB Bank: Customer "Service"

You might recall my ups and downs over trying to negotiate new terms for our ASB Bank home loan earlier last year. Well, ups and downs of another kind have got me ruminating again. It appears that the prostitute that indirectly stole $2.5 million from the bank has negotiated a deal with the bank to presumably pay back some of the money she stole.

So let me get this right. First she doesn't have to pay back the entire $2.5 million and she is allowed to negotiate with the bank.

My bank wouldn't even entertain the idea of negotiation and they were going to charge me a fee if I changed the terms of the loan.

I wonder to myself if she is an ASB customer.

Gives new meaning to the word screwed from both sides.

This comes on top of an incident this morning over the phone with ASB where I was refused part of a term deposit up for renewal today because part of the deposit was being used as security for something else. There was a hold on the whole amount that I asked to be removed last Thursday and it has not been done, according to ASB Bank staff at the call centre - "but Darren you can call back on Monday and we might be able to do something then."

So I cant even use my own money when I want to now.

Screwed again.


More Banking Madness @ Share Investor


Bryce the Banker: The Final Insult
Banks not participating in Recession

Bank Guarantees: Time for banks to return the favour
The Return of Bryce
Banking Madness!


Discuss this topic @ Share Investor Forum




c Share Investor 2010