Thursday, May 31, 2007

What kind of bank charges £20 for going less than £30 overdrawn for 2 days whilst waiting for an incoming payment (from a known payer) to clear?

What kind of bank charges an additional £30 because a regular standing order had to be paid before the aforementioned incoming money had cleared.


So my account with this bank, who, by the way, I've banked with for over 20 years, is £50 down for the sake of less than £30 for 2 days!!!!! - ARGH!!! I suffered the same kind of disrespect around a year ago under similar circumstances and wrote to Abbey asking for a refund of the charges. They agreed to refund, but 'only as a goodwill gesture'! What about my goodwill gesture of staying with an increasingly unfriendly, inconvenient, unethical bank for so long?!!!

Why do banks operate like this - surely they make enough money out of us through the interest charged? Surely my 'loyalty' illustrated by having banked with them through good and bad times since I was a teenager should mean something?

I understand the bank issuing penalties for going over overdraft limits but £50 for 2 days?! Why not have a scale of loyalty whereby the longer one has been with a bank, the less charges one incurs for irregular activity? Or just have reasonable charges worked out by working days overdrawn?

Sigh! Abbey sucks! I can't wait to be able to CLOSE MY ACCOUNT and NEVER bank with them again! Thoroughly UNRECOMMENDED!

Seems I'm not the only one that thinks Abbey's charges are unfair - This is Money and Consumer Action Group

.......and so on and so on

Friday, May 11, 2007

Lovely Bones the movie?

Great news - Peter Jackson is to make a screen adaptation of Alice Seabold's awesome novel Lovely Bones. If you've not read it I would highly recommend doing so, particularly now, before the film is made and released.

"DreamWorks nets Jackson DreamWorks SKG has won a week-long Hollywood bidding war for Peter Jackson's latest film. Jackson made his screen adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones available on the open market last week, generating interest from major studios Sony, Universal, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks. DreamWorks reportedly won the right to finance the film due to Jackson's relationship with its founder - Steven Spielberg. DreamWorks also has a successful history in promoting similarly "risky" adult dramas, with its Oscar-winning tragicomedy American Beauty grossing US $353 million worldwide. The Lovely Bones is about a 14-year-old girl who watches her family from heaven after her brutal rape and murder. Jackson will begin filming in Pennsylvania (where Sebold's novel is set) in October; special effects will be shot at his Wellington studio"
From NZEdge

Whilst I have every faith the movie will be amazing I am also a great believer in reading the book before watching the movie. Having your own images conjured whilst reading the book in mind whilst watching the movie is pretty cool as you can compare both interpretations and when both your interpretation and that of the directors and/or producers collide it's just awesome - gives a sense of universal belonging or connection I often think.
On the other hand, reading the book after having seen the movie version is often disappointing as it is difficult to compare the book format when you already have a visual image that may or may not correlate with what you are reading... ...that's my humble opinion anyway :p

.......and so on and so on