On banks paying interest to people with mortgages or how NOT to run a banking operation: The answer

So it finally happened. This morning I received the letter from Birmingham Midshires answering the million dollar question: What happens when the Bank of England takes the base interest rate down to 0.5% or below and you are paying them 0.5% or higher below BoE base rate?
Well, since the bank’s decision back in March 5, [...]

On HSBC fighting ferociously against online banking convenience

Hobbes, I guess by now you must know I try to keep my paws away from the planned incompetence and limitations of nowadays branch banking.
In a number of occasions I have denounced how by planned sheer incompetence banks are pushing us towards online and telephone banking while making online and telephone more and more difficult [...]

On banks paying interest to people with mortgages or how NOT to run a banking operation (II)

And the rate is now down to 1%.
0.44% to go before I start asking my bank “where is my money!!“

On Pret-a-Manger running out of fresh ideas. Are private equity firm Bridgepoint and Goldman Sachs squeezing the customer?

Hobbes, they say that the first step is always to recognise the problem. OK Hobbes, I agree, I have an addiction. Well, more than one, but this one is cheese-related.
I am a keen Pret a Manger victim, and the guilty sin is their Posh Cheddar & Pickle Artisan Baguette. I have gone through many tantrums [...]

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 drivers loosing concentration or Council’s credit crunch short-term solution to empty coffers

Today on my daily commute to work (South Bucks to Central London) I have noticed a novelty to my rather dull drive.
Today, the 20-odd miles have turned into a journey of anthropological and public finances discovery. In 25 minutes I have seen 7 drivers pulled (or being pulled) over by police.
I am pretty sure that [...]

On Argentinians being the first ones to be ripped-off by their own government, who will be next?

Hobbes, forget the Falklands (Malvinas in Spanish), it seems that the Argentinian government has finally decided to follow the master and improve on it.
When you thought outrageous that Chancellor Gordon Brown (now British Premier) dipped into the private pension pot to cover current government expenses, last month President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced that she [...]

On doing yourself an expensive favour, avoid the new BlackBerry Bold

Hobbes, I had it already with the new BlackBerry Bold 9000.
I have had crackberries for the last 3 years, always getting the last model (what’s life without those little caprices?) and this is the first time I had to regret the change and go back to my 8310 (or 8300, it doesn’t matter if I [...]

On the dusk of investment banks, who needs a violin in outer space? [Note: air and therefore sound doesn't travel in outer space]

Hobbes, the financial mess we are going through resembles a bad remake of Agatha Christie’s “And then there were none” (Ten Little Indians for the non-PC).
Last winter we had a breed of maverick investment banks in the world. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Merril Lynch, and Lehman Brothers and their Chihuahua Bear Stearns were alive and [...]

On Bradford & Bingley and TPG shopping around for bargains

I woke up this morning, train run, and back to base and it is raining in the London’s green belt. What a gray morning Hobbes! I updated my MS Money, and everything seems alright. So far, we are staying afloat.
Close look at the morning markets and banks are going back up in the UK after [...]