Nasty shock for card users

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Earlier this year the Government’s Office of Fair Trading ordered the credit-card companies to reduce their default charges. These charges, imposed on customers who fail to make the minimum monthly repayment on their card account, were as much as £30.

The OFT ordered them to be slashed to no more than £12.

The companies agreed. The charges were cut.

But as this act of charity towards unreliable customers landed them with a multi-million pound black hole, how were the banks to make up the loss?

Today comes the answer. Taking a leaf from the Government’s own financial management, the banks have imposed their version of a stealth tax.

In order to make life easier for bad customers, they are penalising the good ones.

Little by little, interest rates have been raised by all 19 credit-card providers, in one case by a whopping 12 per cent for customers using their cards to withdraw cash.

Moneyfacts, the financial information provider, warns that in the long-term some customers could be “in for a nasty surprise.”

But it’s not really a surprise. Whenever government intervenes in the private sector, costs rise and it tends to be the innocent that suffer.

Just as responsible and hard-working families subsidise a feckless, feral underclass, so those who pay their bills promptly are now subsidising those who can’t be bothered to meet their own obligations.

And it could get worse. The fear today is that these hikes in card rates may mark the beginning of the end of all free banking.

There are times, and this is one of them, when competition, freedom of choice and the free market are all we need. Well-meaning politicians must learn to keep their fingers out.

Endearing friend in twilight years

You’re never alone with a donkey. Something in the size, shape and temperament of this patient, hard-working little companion has endeared it to mankind over thousands of years.

From the donkeys of the Gospel stories to Winnie the Pooh’s long-suffering companion Eeyore, donkeys have eased our burden and made life happier.

So no wonder a donkey called Alvis is proving a hit with the elderly residents of a care centre in Kidderminster.

Officially, Alvis is said to “stimulate patients both mentally and physically.”

But it goes deeper than that. At a time of life when old companions have died and new ones may be few, Alvis is exactly what Roy Rogers had in mind in the old song.

He’s a four-legged friend - and they never let you down.

 

Popular stories:

This article posted on September 26, 2006 at 9:30 pm.
Thousands of fantastic holidays to choose from!
Grand Theatre
Top Places to Eat