Mums Finance

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There is nothing more infuriating than to see your bank balance being reduced through the bank helping itself to your money in the name of bank charges. Even if you do not have an overdraft, maybe you were refused one, it is strange how you instantly get treated to one when the bank robs your account.

And then you get charged because they took money that you did not have!

I have been in this position several times but now there is a way to fight back. You may have heard already that there is a process for reclaiming those unfair charges but have you actually done anything about it?…probably not and I’ll bet it is because you assume it is too time consuming and the banks are bigger and stronger than yourself.

Not anymore. You can start organising your refunds and reclaims here and also here. This is people power in action guys so don’t let them get away with it any longer.

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I cannot believe that there are still so many people who reply to those scam emails - you know the one’s - those that come from PayPal and various individuals purporting to be the son/daughter/heir of a squillionaire Nigerian banker from the Ivory Coast. I mean, just how stupid can you be!

I receive emails from banks I do not even have accounts with asking me to verify my details. And whoever is running that PayPal scam must be onto a good thing somewhere because they still keep coming even though I delete every single one of them; obviously some fools are falling for their please verify your details by following this link line.

We accommodation owners get more than our fair share of them and here is a classic:

I am DR. Robert Maxwell from Kerala Forest Reserch Institue, India. I want to book a 2 double rooms in a hotel/gite/camp for the 4 persons from my Department arriving from my India to yor country for a reserch programmes from July 15-August 31st 2008. Kindly get back to me with your rates and the tol cost for the 4 delegats who woll stay the duration.

Names of Guets

1. DR Robert Maxwell
2. Dr. R.V Varma
3. Dr.Jose Kallarackal
4. Mr Mammen Chundmannil

Kindly get to me if you have those availablility. Also to please calculate total cost including all the taxes so that we can get our sponsors to make you a big cheque to you.

These always come from Yahoo addresses, the grammar is appalling, the spelling atrocious and the ‘delegates’ are always doctors. The booking is always for a long period. They always want to pay by cheque whereby, if you are stupid enough to follow this through, they send you a cheque for several thousand more than is needed. They then request a refund from you by which time their cheque has been bounced and you have sent them their refund.

You have no idea how many people have fallen for this scam but it only takes a bit of thinking through. One thing though is to never reply to them; once you do that they have your details and you are sunk. Having said that though there are plenty more to take their place - just remember - delete, delete, delete.

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The Abbey Bank is to stop offering any further 100% mortgages after today and I am wondering what kind of effect this will now have on those young homebuyers who found this a way of getting into their own home.

These 100% mortgage offers are something I have always been rather wary of. In Australia they were unheard of simply due to the fact that the banks wanted to see that you have made the committment to save the deposit. Granted, they financed mortgages up to 95% but you still had to put up that 5% deposit yourself - and not only that you had to prove you had saved the deposit. Once upon a time they would accept it if Mum and Dad had gifted a few thousand to you for your home deposit but a few years back it became a condition that the deposit had to be put together through a savings record.

Fair enough; if a bank is going to lend you several hundred thousand to buy a house the one thing that shows them you have the committment to meet the repayments is your past savings record. But this new action by the Abbey is going to hit a section of the population who were unable to save enough for a deposit or relied on parents to guarantee the mortgage.

Nationwide is set to stop funding mortgages of £1 million, Woolwich and Alliance & Leicester are hiking up their loans charges - I would hate to be a first homebuyer right now. The dwindling market is markedly affecting the practice of shopping around for deals with the result of people are locking themselves in 2 and 5 year fixed terms.  I would still advise to secure an appointment with a mortgage broker and let an expert do the work if you are looking for a fresh deal; although I reckon those guys have their work cut out for them right now.

Popularity: 14% [?]