(.Published Date: 27 February 2010)
"LLOYDS' 6,000-strong army of Halifax staff in Calderdale will all get bonuses worth hundreds of pounds – despite the bank running up a massive £6.3 billion loss.
An employee on £25,000 a year can expect up to £1,000, providing performance targets are met.
The bank is 41 per cent owned by the taxpayer after its takeover of HBOS.
Yet hours after announcing huge losses for the second year in a row, a spokesman revealed rank- and-file staff would be rewarded again this year".
Now,let me tell you a story................
A lady that I know was telling me about a situation that she has found herself in recently involving the Halifax Bank.
She receives about £150 per month in family allowance, and this is paid directly into her Halifax current account.She had a very modest £25 overdraft set up for those times when there is too much month left at the end of the money, and everything was going fine.
Imagine her surprise then when she received a letter from the Halifax bank advising her that because she had exceeded her £25 overdraft by £2.70 (yes, 2 pounds and seventy pence!), they were going to charge her....£5 per day until she took it down to within the pre-arranged figure of £25!. Even after she gets the figure down to £25 she is still going to be charged £1 per day until the overdraft is cleared completely.
Now I understand that the banks are a business, and I also understand that customers are made aware of possible charges, but £5 per day seems a little excessive for a £2.70 "oversight".
The bottom line of this story is that this lady is now facing a £55 bank charge in April....one third of her family allowance is going to be swallowed up by those lovely people at the Halifax.
What makes it more despicable is the fact that this is a company who have recently been bailed out of financial ruin by the humble taxpayers of the UK because THEY could not control their own finances and were responsible in part for the recent melt down of the finances of the country, and now it appears that they have found a very nice way of thanking those same tax payers by slamming them with excessively unfair charges. Also noteworthy is the fact that (by pure coincidence of course!) this is the same bank that is making a big noise about the fact that they will "reward" people who pay in £1000 per month by giving them...yes, you guessed it...£5!.
Surely this is indeed then what could be termed as a "Reverse Robin Hood" policy,taking from the poorer souls in our society and using these ill gotten gains to line the pockets of the better off,not to mention giving their staff generous bonuses!.
"Get a little extra help with the Halifax"...I somehow don't think so.
"If money is the root of all evil,then surely the banks must be the metaphorical "tree" that they are attached too......and they probably have a "branch" near you!"
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