UK Late Payments Industry Off The Hook
Nov 18th, 2007 by Eats Wombats
There’s a fine article in Wired on how you can have your genome sequenced for $1,000. Clearly, it’ll be $100 before too much longer.
The rate of change of progress in the genomics business is reminiscent of that in electronics and magnetic storage, but so far new knowledge hasn’t resulted in many tangible benefits, which is why Intel’s former CEO Andy Grove was critical of the pace of medical research recently. (Good response here).
Now, if you read the Wired article, it seems we’re going to be able to do social networking with people with the same genes. That is, if you have the gene for social networking in the first place.
What if you are colonized by some genomes that influence how yours works? This won’t show up in your DNA, but in your hologenome, which isn’t really yours. You may belong to it.
For all we know, we may have people around us who look like us and have the same DNA but who are… different.
Would you be surprised if bankers turn out to have different hologenomes?
I received a cheque in the mail last week for some euros. I sent it to my bank asking it to open a euro account and deposit it. They called after a week and said they had the cheque and were obliged to let me know that it would take up to six weeks to clear.
A few hours later I chanced upon this in an economics text
After the so-called “big bang” deregulation in 1979 London became an increasingly important center of international finance as it became possible to send money around the world in seconds at the push of a button.
Only a few days ago, as it happens, the government seems to have decided that the banking industry was doing such a great job that it wound up the Office of Fair Trading’s Payment Systems Task Force.
Banks conveniently losing cheques sent for desposit, for days and even weeks, has been a dinner party staple for as long as I can remember — and I have personal experience of a large sum “going missing” for a week some years ago — but the government has decided that everything is fine.
Even though it can take six weeks to turn some euros into pounds.
But actually it wasn’t the government, it was the Treasury, which means that the Chancellor of the Exchequer endorsed a decision likely made by Gordon Brown. It seems as if a bone has been thrown to the industry… in return for what?
Mmm, just like the Euro was meant to make moving money easier - a friend’s French bank tried to charge 35Euros for depositing a cheque for 100Euros drawn from an Italian bank. Meanwhile mine will accept a sterling cheque and convert it for less than 10Euros. Our UK bank charges £25 for the same service. However, as far as ease of use goes, UK wins hands down, trust, however is a different matter.
Well, as someone who has routinely used four currencies to pay for a family meal in Belgium on the way back to Holland from France (the restaurants were always entirely happy, possibly making more on the money than the food) I have enjoyed the abolition of money changing hassle in the rest of the euro zone.
And for business it makes life a lot easier too, not having to hedge currency risk. But the greed and recalcitrance of banks is unspeakable.
I am just looking to move euros to a euro account from one european capital to another, and with both banks having premises in the same small area!
How close are you to said premises? A mate of mine, in a similar situation with banks saying the transfer was oh so complicated hence so costly, had a days stopover in London, went to the ATM of the first bank involved, took out the cash then deposited it in the other one. OK she got charged commission on foreign exchange by bank No1 but a heck of a lot cheaper. She then had the tongue in cheek to write to both banks, tell them just how complex the transaction had been and suggested she charge them for the airfare! Obviously they didn’t cough, but she did get reduced charges for the rest of the year.
That banks bend the laws to their own convenience and do not in general give the customer as good a deal as they should was kind of the point of my first comment, though I’m not very good at phrasing things succinctly.
Alas, the premises concerned are on an island I have yet to visit. I have banked there for most of the last 20 years.
Am now organizing a wire transfer, which will, no doubt, be absurdly expensive. My brother advised a variation on the technique you suggested but it would involve getting on a plane.
The OFT yesterday found that UK bank charges were not justified, which will cause them some pain, which is good! Now if they could just get the banks to compensate people for their helping themselves to unauthorized loans disquised as routine service…
I was in a bank once when a teller told a customer that he couldn’t withdraw more than X in one day. “You’re forgetting: it’s my money” he said. “It’s our policy” she replied. “Fine” he answered, “in that close please close my account and give me the balance in cash.” The manager was summoned, but his mind was made up. He took his business elsewhere.