How to beat Santander 123 cut threat and negative rates

It’s a well-known fact that everyone who works for a bank is a sociopath and thief who doesn’t sleep at night, not because they have a conscience, but because they’re vampires (ugly ones) feeding off the goodwill of the living.

Ok, it’s not a fact. But the way some of them behave it’s not difficult to think bad things.

This week, we expose Lloyds Bank as liars, look at just how sneaky NatWest has become with its charges and how Santander lured in millions of savers with a deal that’s suddenly proving that it was too good to be true after all.

If you’ve had a letter from Lloyds bank apologising for having to drop its interest rates because of market pressures, this is not true. Simon Lambert has checked the company accounts.

Lloyds has also this week announced the closure of branches and thousands of job losses. It blames Brexit. Really? Might it not be the rise of digital banking and the pointlessness of branches that are either shut when you need them or full of angry customers in long queues waiting to discuss the rubbish service, terrible accounts or the bank’s long history of mis-selling?

NatWest charges business customers 66p for every £100 they deposit in their accounts IN CASH, (see paragraph one), along with other sneak-based atrocities. The bankers at this one might go down in history as being first to introduce negative interest rates to the UK.

And the big one…

Santander looks set to diddle its 123 account holders out of much-needed cash by slashing the interest rate on balances up to £20,000 – shortly after increasing the monthly fee by a blood curdling 150%. Is this true and if it is what’s the best way to deal with it if you’re a customer?

Elsewhere, savings rates are now so low that an account offering an execrable 1.3% was closed after four days because it was so popular.

This might be the end of banking as we know it.

It’s certainly the end of saving.

In other news, credit card debt is a massive problem. Around five million cardholders will need more than 10 years to clear their debts. More than a million will never clear it. This affects the whole economy.

Also starring Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost, it’s actually a fun show. Listen now.