Barclays going at it again. Account on credit, and returned cheques

I don’t normally insult or use swear words, but I think Barclays deserve to be called Bastayrds out loud.
The reason is no other than the fact that the Bastayrds did it again. A while ago I had a go for their twisted ways of playing the hours in a day and poor product knowledge at [...]

On Spain looking down the tunnel, is that the exit or just a train coming?

I am sorry, I know I am a voluntary expat, but Spain is just the land of the joke. Yesterday three things happened that made me corroborate as a right idea leaving the Peninsula.
1. The financial health The FT informs us that “Spain acts to help lenders”. Is this the same [...]

On the British People’s Bank of Halifax hiking credit card rates

I have a mortgage and a credit card I pay religiously every month to the British People’s Bank of Halifax and to my surprise I received today an ugly piece of marketing literature. It didn’t even come in an envelope, so I almost discarded it, but close inspection made me realise that the content of [...]

On how not to run a bank, don’t trust Barclays online banking to work every day

There was a time when if your competition made a fool of themselves, you would storm in and get their customers. Market mistakes translated into a drop in market share.
But that was in the old days, my friend. We have reached such a level of mediocrity, that not only businesses don’t learn from their own [...]

On Barclays customer services trying to mend bridges? There are no bridges to be mended, just apologise and refund your fees

A few weeks ago I wrote what was then the latest of my bank problems (On Barclays profiteering…)
That very day, I tried to send them my complaint using their disastrous online form. For some reason I couldn’t work out (probably the length of my letter?) I couldn’t send it, so I just wrote that, that [...]

On Barclays profiteering from honest customers using their 24/7 rule and the ‘returned payment’ chain

Hobbes, seriously, the banking system in the UK get away with so much that once they put themselves in the spotlight as brainless individuals of dubious IQ as they have, we should move to regulators (SEC? FSA? even worse hollow heads than the bankers themselves), and then get rid of this politicians who, against public [...]

On learning something once and for all, bankers wouldn’t make it as bricklayers, Madoff’s $50bn lesson to the mortals of the world

Hobbes, in June last year we bumped into one of my girlfriend’s friend and her husband.
Me, an amateur entrepreneur (if that is possible) trying to make ends meet.
Him, a successful London-NYC currency trader friends with movie stars, up and coming successful Spanish tennis players, and hooked on luxury hotels, cars and vacations.

On enemies, assassins, terrorists and the manipulation of minds and words

Hobbes, see, I am a bit angry today. I just realised that Spanish flags fly at half mast in official buildings in London. And I am not upset and incensed because of meaningless drapes dancing to the winter winds, but because of what I don’t get.
Following on my Spanish series, and as the story goes, [...]

On governments guaranteeing savings to avert panic, what’s at the end of the road?

Hobbes, we seem to be in another space race. But this time around fuelled by the EU’s free capital movement.
FT.com reports that the German government has joined Ireland’s in fully guaranteeing the savers deposits in national banks (€400bn for the Irish). For the layman, that means that the average German taxpayer will guarantee through their [...]

On JP Morgan selling its soul to the Fed, now job hunting for ex-Bear Stearns

Hobbes, a funny story came out of the transmogrifier. After JPMorgan bought for a pittance ill-fated Bear Stearns thanks to the Fed’s support, now London’s Financial Times reports that JP’s chairman and chief executive, Jamie Dimon,
has personally written to more than 30 clients, rivals and vendors to ask them to consider former Bear staff.
This must [...]