Credit cards – Easy cash that’s hard to pay back.

“Slight was the thing I bought,
Small was the debt I thought,
Poor was the loan at best –
God! but the interest!”

       Paul Laurence Dunbar

You might have noticed just recently how hard it is to get a phone number on big corporation’s websites like Sky or BT. They hide it very well, preferring you to fix your own problems by way of a online chat or e-mail or some other way of registering your complaint or query. Call centres are undoubtedly expensive, it means humans have to be employed and that’s an expense the shareholders could have. If you are old or uninitiated in the ways of the computer, you have become disconnected from your provider, and they seemed so nice and friendly in the advert!

Government as a rule does not interfere with business. The food industry has been poisoning us for years but regulating them would mean lower profits and where would the first cuts be – jobs of course. The betting industry is now rampant and whose interest really does that serve? I can only think the lobbyists are lining the politicians’ pockets handsomely to let these mobsters try and squeeze every hard-earned penny out of a working man’s pay packet before it even gets home. Unless there is a popular campaign that government think might attract a few votes, even the most unethical business practice continues unabated. What’s that you say Starbucks, Google et al haven’t paid anywhere near the tax they should have in this country well I think you’ll find, like Jimmy Carr, they haven’t actually done anything contrary to the letter of the law. The spirit of the law, now that’s a different thing.

We don’t have a car, motorcycle or ship-building industry in this country any more but we are damn good at financial services. Have you ever been financially serviced!? I have banked with Lloyds for over 40 years, I should change but untying yourself from all the administrative tentacles is time consuming and prevents you doing it and they know it. Do you think that loyalty is somehow repaid – No way. It’s naive to think nowadays that any customer loyalty exists at all other than the knowledge that you’re more likely to come back in the future than some other smuck. I wanted to borrow about £3000 just recently. Lloyds don’t do loans for under £1000, there’s the reason why QuickQuid, Wonga etc exist. For loans between £1000 and £4000 the APR is 20%, for loans between £5000 and £7000 it decreases to about 10% and then settles to 6.4% for £7500+. I think that’s disgusting that our banks which are supposed to serve us solely exist to encourage us to borrow more and even penalise us for settling early. So I turn to the great offers to be had from Credit card loans at the moment – 0% for 18 months. It’s a brilliant way of getting a short term loan for virtually nothing but you have to remain vigilant. Look how hard they make it to change your payment per month. Remember you only pay interest if you don’t pay a minimum amount or if circumstances dictate you go over the duration of the 0% offer.

I am trying to open an online credit card account which might help me regulate the terms of the loan.

Firstly, I have a 10 digit ID number which you can’t change.

(OK admittedly the computer can remember it by checking box)

Press continue

I have a unique image (elephant) and phrase combination (Bizarre)  to choose. It will be shown on this page to indicate that I am on the genuine Online Banking site. This is set up by me along with the 3 security questions:

Where were you born?

What was the name of your first school?

What is your mother’s middle name?    All three chosen from a choice of 6/7

Next I have to enter the 6th 9th and 3rd characters of my password sent in Letter 1 of the login details, That’ll be 84381329

and then…. the 4th 2nd and 5th numbers of the 5 digit security number sent in Letter 2 of the Login details. That’ll be 16354

Give up yet?

Then I’m compelled to change the supplied password and security number to one of my choice. The restrictions on what the password and security number are unusually tough.

I’m through at last. I choose Set up/amend direct debit

It seems to be easy until I learn that all amendments to my account will only be sanctioned if I relay a 3 digit number which has been sent to me by text. (the text was sent the next day without any 3 digit number included!) I comply only to find the online programme goes on to refuse many times my request to either increase my direct debit monthly amount or let me pay off the full balance. My fustration and this deliberate avoidance is not a one-off, hence this rant!

I take to ringing now. On the 28th of March, I pass through the usual several menus of the telephone call centre exchange. My first minimum payment of £6.75 went through on 25th March and I want now to increase it considerably to say £250!. In other words I want to do what they don’t want me to do and that is to firstly pay way over the minimum payment so as to definitely not incur interest on the sum I owe and furthermore make sure I give myself every chance to pay off my debt early.

I ask if I can pay off the entire balance, an option clearly given on the online account. No comes back the answer, you must contact your bank to do that.

Can I increase my payment to £250 then – Yes you can but that will only come into operation on the 25th May!!  So much for instant access and being able to have instant effect on my financial affairs. Them are the rules and we know why they’re like that don’t we?

I know I must expect pain if I want to benefit from a 0% offer, but I can afford to take on the big banks and corporations in terms of money, time and technology know-how. What about those who can’t and hence will pay over the odds? The financial service brigade know what they’re doing in playing the big numbers probability game. That is to sting that inevitable proportion of clients who they know will be either too busy/confused or not as determined as I will be to keep an eye on what is happening. – Bastards!

Credit cards – Easy cash that’s hard to pay back.

March 29, 2014