retro

monopoly or big brother
by bigusdikus » Thu Aug 20, 2009 11:06 am

20 years ago, the company i worked for was taken over(monopolised)and the one major change which the management insisted on was all monies to be paid into your bank account. deep down i was excited about this, on the outside of course, i was opposed, erosion of my civil liberty, and all that cra p.this would mean cash cards, bank loans, overdrafts, mortgages. the benefits were immense. still, on reflection, it saddened me that i would no longer be able to open that brown envelope on a friday. it also concerned some of the older crew, who's wives had no idea of how much their hubbies earned, and never had, things where about to hit the fan. there were of course genuine guys who did not want to have to travel to town to pick up their pay, and had a fear of technology(cash points)

the yorkshire
this was my first bank, and my god could i twist them around my little finger. as far as i was concerned, i was taking home £200 + a week at 21 and they needed me, more than i needed them. i genuinely believe, i got most of the girls/ladies/women to bend the rules in my favour at some time, some mothered me, some were more interested. i did always go in with a smile and a bit of banter. after being made redundant, my account went £46 into the red, and then the charges, at last count, just before it swallowed my card, i was £93OD . i had attempted to reason with them, alas, it was out of their hands

tsb aka tough sh1t baby
got a mortgage got over draught ...got lots of uncompromising bank charges. their was no talking to these people,e.g. dear mr rutter, you were 27p over you agreed limit(for 12 hours)therefor we are charging you £25 wtf wtf wtf. no bullsh1t, in 2 years they must have had £2k in charges, i had the last laugh(always do)

lloyds aka the black horse
my third bank, after my last two, i decided to tread more carefully, the bird who opened my account had asked if i had been a good boy, at previous banks, i melted in her gorgeous green eyes and came clean, donna, darlin, its my 1st account i do have a building society account, will that help? now how about a £5k loan? i need a new car, give it a few months neil and i'm sure i can accommodate you neil . and she almost did(keeping it clean)heard a rumour, TSB and lloyds were about to merge, what would this mean, were would i stand, the panic button had been pressed. i had left owing the TSB about £7.5k, it would have been more if i could have got away with it, imho they robbed me blind, i got them back. however, at this time i had saved/won/amassed a small fortune, £5.5k plus donna was on for another £5k and that meant i could buy an house and a new car, out right, happy days

sh1t hits fan
when the two companies merged, promises were made, customer amnesties etc, not so, donna became lets say, aloof, my loan was turned down, my home was suddenly under attack, from TSB debt collectors. how the fec they found me i will never know, to this day i am baffled. for the hard of hearing, i'll spell it out, donna gave me up. a letter telling me they would accept £5.5k as final settlement for my debt(just the same amount i had saved in lloyds)or the court beckoned.reluctantly ..... i payed up

monopolies are alive and well, and are taking over the planet. right or wrong, the banks got me back, you can see i used the above as a tame example. petrol is controlled by the goverment and the oil barons.heres the trick they played on you all, 2 years ago, it was 60-70p per liter, we are all happy paying £1 now though, and we think ourselves lucky. they scared us sh1tless when we thought it was gonna hit £1.50pl, now we just tip our caps and thank our lucky stars, its so cheap
how much do we pay for a tin of beans, this is the joint decision(imo) of asda,morrison,tesco and so on. they know we gotta eat

how long will it be, before their is one bank, one petrol supplier, one supermarket, one choice.
i remember the days, when i had the chance of opening accounts at 20+ different banks in one town, i also remember 70 or more independent petrol stations dotted around my town, every now and the, we would try a different place to shop for food, not anymore. just try and open a casino in blackpool, the boys from the G will be paying you A VISIT. look at the pain DTD had. small business is gone.

these are not facts, merely my personal observations, would like to here what you think, hope this is not to contentious, even as i type i can feel the claws being sharpened