G'Day From Downunder

I'm going to tell you this time why I absolutely hate banks and their deceiving methods of taking advantage of the vulnerable and not so vulnerable.

Let's start with credit cards (and finish with them too). Some banks are charging up to and even over 20% interest when the whole world is going backwards faster that a scud missile.

Almost everyone on the planet is losing money hand over fist and yet the banks are running flashy TV commercials showing you how to have a good time on credit.

Here in Australia it's the Spring Carnival, a major horse racing season. The TV commercials are showing us young ladies shopping for new fashion items to impress at the races.

This is not a time to be reckless with credit not that any time is.

When will those idiots realise that the world is only about a baby step from financial disaster, the worst seen since the Great Depression in the early 1930s?

Talk about putting a 'Fox in charge of the Chicken Coop' is about as near an analogy as I can think of.

Is there no end to the greed of banks? Of course not, even as the ship is sinking they are still throwing out lead-filled lifebuoys to the struggling swimmers gasping for breath.

Credit cards are without doubt one of the sure ways to run yourself into debt and if, and I mean if, not used wisely can send you bankrupt and in some cases to an early grave.

Ask yourself why do banks give you a credit card instead of a bank loan?

They could consolidate your credit card debt and convert it to a bank loan at the lesser interest rate.

I said they could but why would they when they get a much higher interest rate from the credit card?

It's just like a sponge soaking up water or as the old saying goes 'Money for Jam'.

Well it's not rocket science is it? Last year bank interest in Australia was about 8.5% and a credit card between 12.5% and 21.5%.

So again let me ask you why do you think the bank wants you to have a credit card?

Do you remember years ago when you went shopping or to the pub with your twenty dollar bill and when it was spent you went home?

Well, of course, now you don't have to go home you can go on spending what you don't have and when you reach your limit the bank will increase your limit and when you use that up you can get another credit card to pay back the first and when the second one is full to the limit you just get another and so on and on until you are drowning in debt; it's what I call the addictive drug of the future.

The banks may be crying crocodile tears at the moment but they know they have you by the short and curlies for now and into the future.

I urge you to teach your children and grandchildren the real value of a dollar and that numbers on paper are real dollars.

Teach them that if they have a dollar and make a dollar then spend a dollar they still have a dollar!

Furthermore as long as they have a dollar they can make another dollar.

They need to know the difference between earning interest on their money and paying interest on borrowed money.

In a good market the difference between the two can vary between 25% and 50%. Think about it!

Banks want you to use your credit card. They encourage you to live a life you can't afford. That's what makes them billions in profits.

Banks don't want you to have cash in your pocket only a credit card.

As I said earlier if you have cash in your pocket and then spend it you go home, but if you have a credit card you can party all night and tomorrow night and not worry about it until next month's statement arrives then pay only the minimum off the bill.

If these remarks are making you uncomfortable and strike a chord with your lifestyle, the bank absolutely loves people like you because you give them the lifestyle they like.

The banks love dealing in invisible money. In lots of cases here in Australia the home loan is with the same bank as the car loan, the check account and the credit card.

The husbands' and wives' salaries are electronically payed into the bank with no physical cash changing hands, all electronic transactions.

Then the monthly debit accounts are paid by the bank, i.e. health care, insurances, car payments, gas and electricity bills and so on, on which they charge fees like wounded bulls.

Now if the bank is not giving you good service, and most don't, it's very difficult to move from one bank to another because all your accounts are bundled up and in most cases too difficult to unravel.

I have no objections to banks making a profit, or to them charging fees but exorbitant fees and ludicrous interest rates on credit cards are obscene at any time but especially in this current climate.

Not alone are they getting away with charging those outrageous interest rates but the case of some of the US banks their bad husbandry has meant that they can't even manage to survive.

As I said in my last article I have met some eggheads in my day but this current lot beats the biscuit.

Come on guys get off the grass and get into the real world.

It's time to hang up your $3000 suits, don some sweat pants and mix it in the real world.

The people that make this world go round are the people who clock in to work every morning and clock out at night, the people who have been supporting your lifestyle while you have been wrecking theirs!

I started off by saying "I hate banks" and I do because they say they are there to serve and assist you and I don't believe that for one moment and never did.

They are self serving incentive and profit driven, supposedly for their shareholders and look at the mess they got themselves into.

They make a cartload of monkeys look intelligent... now look what they made me do... I insulted the poor monkeys!!

Come on you banking guys I challenge you to stand up and be saviours instead of villains.

Prove me wrong and make me eat my own words. Let's see what you are made of when the chips are down.

This is a time for understanding, compassion and good leadership; this is a time when America needs its best. Ask yourself, are you one?

As an Irish Australian am I entitled to mount this attack? You bet!

No financial institutions throughout the world are free of guilt but the behaviour of American institutions in particular has led the whole world to the brink of disaster.

We may well go over the brink. Many will suffer unemployment, bankruptcy, lost homes, hungry children and more. And will the greedy "fat cats" who brought this about suffer themselves? Unlikely!

You may now understand why I hate banks and credit cards.

Until I talk to you again be good to those who love you and slainte from Downunder!