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Abuse of Bank Charges, is this Legalised Robbery? |
I have a client who at this time of year has
financial problems. There is nothing new in
that, if the truth be told, the majority of us
are all slightly short at this time of year.
Christmas after all is the one time of the year
where the majority of us are driven to heights
of financial excess that very few of us can
afford and the more than a few of us find
difficult to get out of.
Enter stage left, the Finance Houses and Banks,
offering us deals left right and centre to help
us smooth our way out of debt into even more
debt (if the truth and the small print be
known).
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My particular client had problems with his
mortgage and had been trying to get some sense
out of the client’s services dept of his
Mortgage Company when he reviewed his own
monthly bank statement. His Mortgage payment had
defaulted this month and he had spoken to his
Mortgage Company and explained that he would be
forwarding this months instalment by way of
cheque once the transfer of some other funds had
been completed.
This was accepted and everything seemed fine
until a few days later he received several
letters reminding that the Finance House would
be attempting to collect his mortgage payment
ten days later. Could he also make sure that
there were sufficient funds in his account to
facilitate this (despite having been told
several days previous to this of his proposed
methods for clearing his arrears and having
accepted these proposals) as if there weren’t he
would incur late payment charges and also
charges from his own bank as well.
So at the end of the day when this attempt at
collection had failed my client was now left
with double the set of his own bank charges
being debited to his account but also a double
set of charges being levied by his Mortgage
Company. There is something rather sick and
perverted in a Society and Industry that makes
the majority of its profits from those who are
least able to afford them. My client had very
little in the way of funds at the outset of the
incident and through no fault of his own he has
even less available to his disposal now!
The moral of the story? Read carefully, the fine
print of any agreement before you sign it
(usually hidden deep in pages eleven or thirteen
of most documents in the smallest font size that
the printers can get away with) and if you feel
that you will have problems meeting any of your
payments you are obligated to meet, get in touch
with your creditors as soon as possible and make
sure that you have “crystal clear” agreements
(preferably confirmed in writing) as to how you
propose to deal with any rescheduling of any of
your debts.
This will help you avoid the “debt spiralling”
occurring that some find difficult to avoid and
making an already difficult situation worse.
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