I have a feeling the banks will become a regular topic of my future posts, simply because there is so much that frustrates me when it comes to the banks.

Do you remember when we used to get a yellow envelope (pay packet) on a Thursday ?

This pay packet came with “CASH” inside of it. Now all we get is a print out of what we earned and our pay is deposited into our bank accounts….. we have no choice in the matter these days, your and my money goes into a bank account first and we get charged to get our money out!

Apart from the fact that many of us will have experienced a technical delay or an employer oversight which meant our pay didn’t go in when it was supposed to and hence we are forced to wait another day or two before we can access our money. My biggest frustration with this whole system is the simple fact that we get charged a monthly “account fee” and we often get charged an extra fee for “over the counter transactions” and on top of all of that we get charged a fee of $2.00 (or thereabouts) to access our money through an ATM which is owned by a competing bank.

Let me summarise what has happened to us consumers over the years

• We lost our yellow pay packet
• We were forced to open & use a bank account
• We loose a few bucks each month in account fees
• We pay extra to deal with a human (over the counter transactions)
• We are charged to access our money via other ATM’s
• WE HAVE LOST CONTROL OVER OUR MONEY!

As far as l am concerned, we have been manipulated by the banks into thinking that this is all “fine and dandy”….. many of us will “hunt & search” for an ATM which is owned by our bank so we can avoid the $2.00 fee, but why are we forced to run around the shopping mall to find our banks ATM ? after all the ATM’s have simply reduced the need for banks to hire more staff… in fact the ATM’s have enabled the banks to make staff cut backs.

While the banks are “cutting their costs” they are “increasing customer fees and charges”……. I guess this is why banks are making record profits each financial year.

Just on the banks making record profits………. where do their “profits” come from ? Well the answer is simple it is from YOU & ME !

So when you next hear a bank has made a record profit, it simply means they have found ways of

• Cutting back staff,
• Moving jobs offshore
• Charging customers more fees

(Meanwhile the CEO’s are paid obscene amounts of money)

I have had a gut-full of  the banks screwing us for an extra dollar here and another dollar there…… but what can l do ? my voice ain’t going to make them re-think the way they treat us all.

I guess that is part of the motivation behind this blog, l hope there will be plenty of people who find this site (and l am sure most will relate to this post) and rather than do nothing, please post your reply and keep in touch with us here. It may take a while, but if we can get a large group of people talking about this and other injustices we may be able to take things to the next level and force change!