Est.2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

Bank Fees and YOU!

← Back

Your message to the BLOGMASTER was sent

CONTACT THE BLOGMASTER ONLY

The following was submitted by a member of the BU family who requested to not mention their name – David, blogmaster

“Rather than justice for all, we are evolving into a system of justice for those who can afford it. We have banks that are not only too big to fail, but too big to be held accountable.”  – Joseph E. Stiglitz

Recently I received a statement from the Bank with charges deducted, exceeding far more than the interest deposited. I do not recall receiving notice that changes were being made. This account was rarely used, only to update when necessary.

Speaking to friends and neighbours re: same, I found this puzzling that money deposited for a “Rainy Day” is being siphoned off in the dead of the night. Some affected are pensioners who are considered members of a vulnerable segment of society. When the bank was asked to explain, here are a few of the explanations given by staff members:

  1. A pensioners with a Barbados pension is exempted once they submit the necessary certified form.
  2. We are following a directive from senior management.
  3. A message to the effect to take your business somewhere else.

Are Bajans now having to pay for the misdeeds of previous governments? Why has the government through its agent the Central Bank of Barbados allowed banks to charge high rates for borrowing and pay ridiculously low interest to customers with added fees to inflate charges to ordinary bank accounts. Is the Central Bank interested at all in curbing the excessive behaviour by banks in Barbados? Should ordinary Barbadians accept what we are told and do nothing about it?

What do our brothers and sisters think about this money grab known through the ages as greed?

Here is my opinion on the matter:

The Banks are using OUR money to lend US our own money and have the audacity to charge us high fees while using our hard own money. Are our relatives living in other jurisdictions aware of this rip-off?

For as long as I have become aware Barbadians have been encouraged to set aside a percentage of earnings to guard for a rainy day. This was always praised by successive governments as a worthy behaviour. Today we now see a transformation of what is expected. To compound the problem for ordinary Barbadians, investing in government bonds is not an option given current challenges. Also tax breaks given to both ordinary and middleclass were removed.

What are ordinary Barbadians to do now if they want to plan good lives for themselves and family?

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

113 responses to “Bank Fees and YOU!”

  1. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    Wasn’t it a tradeoff by the Central Bank so it could get Barbadians to buy up government bonds which had a higher interest payment to the holder than the commercial banks were offering? It is basically a rip-off on the down side: On the up side it may encourage black Barbadians who have money to invest in new business ventures: do like the whites and Asians.

  2. GreenMonkey Avatar
    GreenMonkey

    97 % OWNED – MONETARY REFORM DOCUMENTARY

    When money drives almost all activity on the planet, it’s essential that we understand it. Yet simple questions often get overlooked – questions like: where does money come from? Who creates it? Who decides how it gets used? And what does that mean for the millions of ordinary people who suffer when money and finance breaks down?

    97% Owned is a documentary that reveals how money is at the root of our current social and economic crisis. Featuring frank interviews and commentary from economists, campaigners and former bankers, it exposes the privatised, debt-based monetary system that gives banks the power to create money, shape the economy, cause crises and push house prices out of reach. Fact-based and clearly explained, in just 60 minutes it shows how the power to create money is the piece of the puzzle that economists were missing when they failed to predict the crisis.

    The films’ title was taken from the finding that commercial Bank’s created the vast majority of money, 97%, when they create loans. For what purpose and how much is created shapes the size of the banking sector, the countries economic growth and the well being of our society.

    Video at link:
    https://positivemoney.org/videos/97-owned-monetary-reform-documentary/

  3. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David

    We are afraid that there is a dearth of citizen information about ‘modern’ banking and finance.

    Indeed, high fees are not the greatest risk depositors face.

    That greatest risk is a bail-in.

    And a bail-in represents circumstances where a bank decides to take all of the customers’ deposits to cover its own costs of operation.

    So extortionist fees just happen to be at the lower end of these official financial crimes perpetrated on a daily basis by banks and other financial institutions.

    Customers should see these irrational fees as lite bail-ins.

    Customers also, as uninformed as they are, hundreds of years after the introduction of fractional reverse banking continue to presume that a bank takes in 10,000 from depositors and lends up to 10,000 to borrowers.

    That was never the equation on which banking, and indeed modern banking, was built.

    Fractional reserve banking mean that banks can create, out of thin air, up to tens times as much as deposited to onlend to borrowers.

    In the example above 100,000 in total to onlend.

    Our advice to ourselves would be to withdraw as much as possible, over time, and invest in real gold, not paper gold, not any gold substitutes. Of course, we will have issue of transportability, exchange and storage and the like.

    But big trouble is around the corner, as we have earlier predicted.

  4. David Avatar
    David

    @Pachamama

    Your comments begs the question what is the role of the regulator and government in Barbados?

  5. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David

    You think Barbados too much. In order to understanding what’s happening in Barbados. What is going to happen, you have to see what’s already happened elsewhere.

    Enter the situation in Greece!

    Greece represented a petri dish for the social experimentation to introduce the irrational fees you are now seeing in Barbados, elsewhere.

    You must come to know that the minute men and women we have in ‘control’ are limited to taking dictation from the international banking and finance criminal cartel.

  6. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    @ Pachamama

    I came across an article which listed the countries with the largest reserves of gold. America far outdistanced all other countries in the amount of gold it has. The Americans seem to know something that others don’t.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    You know the drill, we play the dumb blogmaster at times.

    fyi…

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/13/oil-tankers-blasts-reports-gulf-of-oman-us-navy

  8. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Robert Lucas

    This is a mixed story.

    Most of the gold the Americans purport to have does NOT exit.

    Some is paper gold which high street banks trade everyday but if you ask for yours you can never get it.

    Another piece of this is that after Britton Woods they forced many countries to export their own gold to America, allegedly for ‘safe keeping’, some of which was never returned, the rest may not be as well.

    And other explanations.

    We generally do not believe the Americans have the level of gold advertised. Remember these are the people who reneged on the gold standard for the lack of gold holdings.

    The Americans are the people who destroy any country which intends to resort to gold as a medium of exchange.

    A country which invades nations which trade oil in currencies other than the US dollar.

    The seriousness we see in the gold markers are the increasing levels being bought by Russia, China and India. These are far more important that what the Americans are feinting. Indeed, they are selling treasuries and buying real gold.

    Look at it this way. If there were a gold standard the American military-congressional-industrial-complex could not be. Could not spend a trillion dollars every year on militarism. Could not print 6 trillion for the recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan etc.

    We don’t believe the Americans!

  9. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David

    A false flag operation by Mossad.

    Not the first in recent times.

  10. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Where is the regulator?

  11. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    @ Pachamama
    Thanks for your enlightening comments.

  12. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Ha, Ha keep asking for a regulator, one may actually appear one day, once we get rid of the CORRUPT BLP GOVERNMENT.

  13. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    This is why BU is so much fun. The blogmaster posts a column from an anonymous party about bank fees ( a subject of which there is more than passing interests to many bajans) within 6 comments the blogmaster posts a comment about the ME which can only serve to derail the subject of his article and we read about “false flag” operation which will trigger FC to recycle columns and cartoons about the great emancipator of our times.

    Looka here, for those concerned about bank fees close your accounts and head over to Bitt.com it is a pretty accommodating outfit and your donations can only serve to revive the corporation , remember this advice is worth what you paid for it so stop the quibbling.

  14. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Sargeant

    If you can’t see the critical connections between these, well you are ……………..
    …

  15. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Why would the average person still hold a bank account? I don’t.

  16. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    There are better ways to store your money than in banks , do ur research…stop allowing the …

    Banks to tief it..

    Bank lawyers setting you up to empty ya accounts..

    ,,..bar association lawyers…the older, more corrupt ones in politics and corruption who believe they own the island and people and CAN TIEF AT WILL..are famous forr this…tiefing money out of accounts.

    The government to tief it….cause all they know to do IS TIEF from their own people…

    If ya put ya money in the Barbados Cartel’s hands….THEY WILL TIEF IT.

    STOP ALLOWING THIEVES ACCESS TO UR MONEY.

    Rawdone needs to go out and find a real job…he is too damn idle and mischevious.

  17. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Dr. Lucas
    We talk about citizens going into business as if they are going to an afternoon at the beach !
    It’s the same myth about people being retrenched starting their own businesses. Where is the capital ? What business they are starting? Where is the business plan etc.
    What we are seeing is an upsurge in “traditional business” such as food vendors etc. While this is admirable, many within that sector , will tell you it is saturated at this time.
    Another myth is the millions ordinary citizens have in the banking system. Most blacks people savings are enough to see them through a tough period normally called a rainy day. I don’t think there are many with 2 and 300 thousand sitting in the banks.
    The old money held by the minority is not being withdrawn to open any businesses and we already know how the banks treat black entrepreneurs.
    BTW having a business does not automatically create wealth when you have to eat drink and pay bills out of it and have no inheritance or family money to fall back on if times get hard.

  18. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “BTW having a business does not automatically create wealth when you have to eat drink and pay bills out of it and have no inheritance or family money to fall back on if times get hard.”

    Or no treasury and pension fund….TO TIEF FROM…generation after generation.

    That money that belongs to THE MAJORITY POPULATION…and not the minority criminals….black people are never given access to it…not by the hundreds of millions like the minority thieves are…

  19. Freedom Crier Avatar
    Freedom Crier

    WE ARE CORRECT TO QUESTION THE HIGH LEVEL OF BANKING FEES…

    Fractional banking has been going on since Banking was invented. That is why a RUN on the Banks is Always Dangerous…. They want us to believe they are Solid that is why they have so much Marble on the outside and on the Inside of their Buildings.

    Some of the Concerns about the Gold are Legitimate, but Our Government has a Strange Position when it comes to Gold.

    If you Exchange Money for Gold it is just another Monetary Instrument but the Government wants to Charge VAT on your own money. Go Figure!!!

    https://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-those-who-are-able-to-see-beyond-the-shadows-and-lies-of-their-culture-will-never-be-plato-76-8-0865.jpg

  20. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    Very Good. We are now beginning to understand the real problem.

    @ Hal

    Did you ask for a regulator? The regulator needs to learn/know what he/she has to regulate.

  21. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    William Skinner June 13, 2019 9:43 AM

    The old money held by the minority is not being withdrawn to open any businesses and we already know how the banks treat black entrepreneurs. And we also know who gets the big government contracts. We also know how the established or large enterprises crowd out fledgling or small enterprises.

    The banks are quick to lend us money for conspicuous consumption and the others the money for business ventures. Who doan know dat just want to perpetuate the myth of black laziness and dependency. But we can take some of the blame for not joining our resources together in co-operatives and thereby overcoming. A properly governed co-operative set up can thrive.

  22. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    This is what Barbadians are best known for……. complaining………. ye they refuse to take any action against what they are complaining about.

    If customers are of the opinion bank fees are too high or they are not satisfied with the services offered, why not withdraw and deposit their funds on a credit union?

    Let the banks deal specifically with current accounts for businesses.

    I recall in May 2016, after the Royal Bank of Trinidad & Tobago in St. Vincent & the Grenadines announced an EC$25 monthly service fee, Vincentians formed long lines outside the bank the following, indicating a willingness to withdraw their funds.

    The ECCB raised concerns about the fees that some commercial banks across the currency union have levelled on accounts, but noted that, unfortunately, it does not have the legislative authority to regulate these fees.

    Herein lies the difference……… Barbadians prefer to complain, while trying to find all types of silly excuses to keep their money in the bank.

  23. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    ************ outside the bank the following day…………..

  24. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Donna
    The latest lie now being told on poor black people is that they have depended on the “welfare state” for too long.
    They are going further and now claiming that the black middle class has been greedy and don’t contribute to national growth.
    Every lame excuse is being used to blame the majority citizens for the failure of the decadent duopoly.
    As the crisis deepens and the collective failure becomes more profound expect more blame and more lies to be used to protect their political and corporate masters.
    That is the real purpose of the cool aid. Give them enough to drink and they will turn on their brothers and sisters who seek to speak the truth.
    Imagine black people who built this country and continue to work for less than minimum wage are being told that there are lazy and when they are retrenched and can’t afford bus fare that they should go and open businesses.
    They are expected to be Boxers from the cradle to the grave. Welcome to animal farm.
    More to come

    Duopoly Rules

  25. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    @ William Skinner June 13, 2019 9:43 AM

    You have stated some facts that can’t be denied. I experienced that when I had my company. Your comments reminded me of that experience, Certain interest groups can ensure that companies with a shortage of working capital (most black companies suffer a shortage of working capital) end up busted. If the cash position is okay, attacks are made to ensure raw materials are difficult to obtained. The politicians and black civil servants all seem to kow-tow to those who are pulling the strings. I was particularly aware of the fact that blacks in positions, work to keep black businesses in check. The moral from my personal experience in business is that your fellow black man/woman is the biggest obstacle and that to prevail, a lot of greasing of palms has to be done

  26. GreenMonkey Avatar
    GreenMonkey

    Another documentary from German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (in English) starts off by looking at the plight of today’s German pensioners who have much the same concern as expressed in the original post – where are the low risk investments we can use to protect our money where it will not be subject to being eaten away through extremely low interest rates/high banking fees, or potentially be negatively impacted in a downturn in the business cycle or a stock market decline?

    One pensioner in the video is advised by his own bank’s financial adviser that he should invest in stocks and property bonds, i.e. riskier types of investments pensioners in their “golden” years have traditionally been told should be avoided or at least minimized.

    ‘The Money Deluge’ (How the rich get richer – money in the world economy) | DW Documentary

    For years, the world’s central banks have been pursuing a policy of cheap money. The first and foremost is the ECB (European Central Bank), which buys bad stocks and bonds to save banks, tries to fuel economic growth and props up states that are in debt. But what relieves state budgets to the tune of hundreds of billions annoys savers: interest rates are close to zero.

    The fiscal policies of the central banks are causing an uncontrolled global deluge of money. Experts are warning of new bubbles. In real estate, for example: it’s not just in German cities that prices are shooting up. In London, a one-bed apartment can easily cost more than a million Euro. More and more money is moving away from the real economy and into the speculative field. Highly complex financial bets are taking place in the global casino – gambling without checks and balances. The winners are set from the start: in Germany and around the world, the rich just get richer. Professor Max Otte says: “This flood of money has caused a dangerous redistribution. Those who have, get more.” But with low interest rates, any money in savings accounts just melts away. Those with debts can be happy. But big companies that want to swallow up others are also happy: they can borrow cheap money for their acquisitions. Coupled with the liberalization of the financial markets, money deals have become detached from the real economy. But it’s not just the banks that need a constant source of new, cheap money today. So do states. They need it to keep a grip on their mountains of debt. It’s a kind of snowball system. What happens to our money? Is a new crisis looming? The film ‘The Money Deluge’ casts a new and surprising light on our money in these times of zero interest rates.

    https://youtu.be/t6m49vNjEGs

  27. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    Get your money out of the TIEFING BANKS IN BARBADOS..

    https://www.facebook.com/jackie.stewart.965/videos/1049325458610326/?t=0

  28. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    “Every lame excuse is being used to blame the majority citizens for the failure of the decadent duopoly”

    let them keep at it…even better, we are even more driven to take down ALL AH THEM, THEIR MASSA minority CRIMINALS AND THEIR CARTEL…all ah dem GOTTA GO..

  29. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Betchya, 90% of the Banks customers haven’t noticed, or if they have, have opted for the response of “do nothing”. The money is “safer” here than anywhere else?
    Almost zero deposit rates, with growing fees equals negative rates, common in several places today.
    The Banks want out. In the meantime, they will bleed all those desirous of donating their blood. They cannot earn revenue in the traditional ways, so they will create revenue via higher or newer fees and charges.
    Now go back and re-read what Dr W told us.

  30. David Avatar
    David

    @Notthern Observer

    Your point is on point.

  31. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Vincent,

    The regulator s the eyes and ears of the customer. Where s/he?

  32. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    “Are Bajans now having to pay for the misdeeds of previous governments?”

    The question answers itself. Those who vote for s*** at the ballot box get exactly what they voted for. Of course, the international capital market must make the islanders bleed for it. I believe that means responsibility for one’s own actions.

    We do not need irresponsible crybabies, but citizens who vote the right way.

  33. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David

    See wha ah tell yuh!

    The Christian-Zionist, Mike Pompeo, blames Iran without even an investigation.

    They want to fight a war against Iran for Israel and their Saudi and UAE vassals.

    Iran has defeated the Americans and their Zionist satellite umpteen times. Recently, in Syria as well.

    The regime in Washington is a fully paid subsidiary of the international Zionists.

    They should know better than to threaten Iran.

    Their pressure campaign and financial war moves to the UN this afternoon. Russia will veto!

  34. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Bank fees will truly increase when Boris Johnson, a total jackass, assumes the primeministership in Britain, UK.

    The kakistocrats are gaining power everywhere.

    Something big is coming down the pike in world affairs

    When we see all assholes in power everywhere!

  35. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    It is truth you a tell! Assholes all over.

  36. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    NO at 12:58 PM

    You do seem to have a low opinion of Bajans,do you not? Let me assure you that every one who can afford a bank account is literate and numerate. The ledger fees are another of those Hobson’s choices that are being created daily for the middle and working classes in this country.
    No need to read anybody. Let things evolve. From where I stand they are following the script. I hope we enjoy the consequences.

  37. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    @Donna at 9:09 a.m.

    I’ve stored my money in my children’s heads.

    Is that a good place to put it?

  38. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Hal at 2 :14 PM

    If there is a regulator ,s/he is both blind and deaf. Or he /she has a new set of customers. I am sure you know their names.

  39. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Donna

    Still can’t understand how Boris Johnson could win the first poll for PM (ship)

    We are approaching a point where a nuclear weapon will have to go off in a world capital

    Killing 5 million people for Whitey to come to their senses.

    We already have a leading asshole like Trump.

    Then we have Orbak, Hungary

    Then Salvini in Italy

    Bolsonaro in Brazil

    Johnson for England

    Many more

    Are the peoples of the world mad as hell too?

    How many more of these can we take before the shiiiite hits the fan?

    Where is the British bull dog ethos from WW2?

    .

  40. David Avatar
    David

    @Vincent

    Dr. Lucas reminded us in the first comment what could be playing out. Some of us live in lahlah land.

  41. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Simple Simon at3:13 PM

    You are on the ball again. Like you, my children’s education is the primary place that I have invested my money. So far it is paying satisfactory dividends. I will keep my fingers crossed.

  42. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    @Northern Observer at 12:58 p.m.

    Please don’t equate the bank’s relationships with their customers to that of a sick person needing blood and a blood donor.

    Blood donors give voluntarily for a good cause.

    Banks are more like vampires, and the customers unfortunate victims.

  43. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Vincent

    Barbados is a wonderful island with a beautiful climate. But its institutions are awful. After Clico, where are our financial services regulators? The banks are run by bandits. Or are we punching above our weight? At some point we must get real. Ordinary people should take their money out of the Canadian and Trinidadian banks and put it in the credit unions.

  44. John A Avatar
    John A

    If you want to look at it from all ends the problem for the Banks here started when Sinkler forced them to increase by a large amount the amount of government paper they held. That was I think in the 2017 budget. This mind you was the same paper he tried to float on the international market that no one wanted. So post 2017 our banks were now forced to hold millions more in Gov bonds than they were comfortable holding and if you remember they stated that publically then as well. This was where the seed for today s problem was planted.

    Let’s now step forward to the local debt restructuring where the return on bonds were slashed from an average of 7% to 1%. So let’s say between the commercial banks they held 400 million in Gov paper, they collectively lost 24 million in one shot on the income side that day!

    Now we take one final step to 2019. The foreign owned banks answer to head office and they have been instructed that the short fall in revenue from the debt restructuring, must be made up in anyway possible. So what do they do locally?

    First they offer you nothing in interest. They then increase charges in every way possible for the “inconvenience ” of having to store your money for you. The economy is stagnant so they can’t get it lent out to any one for commercial expansions and there is a limit to how many car loans they can do based on the said economy. So what do they now do?

    Well they come back to their said customer base and see how else they can nickle and dime us to death.

    I don’t think many realise that in real terms with inflation at say 5% and investment return at 0.25%, you are in fact getting poorer by the day even though you are not touching the savings. How could that be allowed by government you ask?

    Well you remember when the goodly governor of the central bank removed the minimum saving rate? It was done to force people to buy the worthless government bonds. The same bonds that the commercial banks were then forced to buy as the market didn’t want them. The same bonds that ended up yielding little in the restructuring and hence have now come full circle to bite us in our ass today, as the banks try to make up lost revenue.

    You see who you now have to blame for all this? Hal asked where were the regulators? The regulator was in bed with the MOF at the print shop making sure the paper came out clean.

    My question is therefore this. Based on this dismal example of the failure of oversight under the current system, what are we changing to protect the public going forward?

  45. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    @Pachamama at 2:29 p.m.

    Mike Pompeo is a real-real Christian?

  46. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ John A at 3:36 PM

    You have given a description of what took place with which I am in agreement. Other countries did it and we followed. Not a fellow asked:” is this action good for Barbados?” We were solving a short term symptom. Superficial analysis:superficial solutions.

  47. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    “When we see all assholes in power everywhere!”

    it has suddenly become A THING.

    and i do believe it is intended to WAKE THE WORLD’S PEOPLE UP…to the WICKEDNESS of the world’s EVIL LEADERS…

  48. David Avatar
    David

    @John A

    Are you saying the banks exacting some payback ?

  49. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    @John A June 13, 2019 3:36 PM

    Your comments are plain and to the point. All and sundry should now understand what the populace is up against.

  50. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @HA
    what we need is well regulated British Banks.

    @John2
    what you forgot was the trade for unregulated interest rates was a larger % holding of their deposits. More free financing.

    While several of the most senior Bank employees have been unceremoniously turfed, maybe the lesson will be they have to either speak or act. Keeping quiet for fear it is seen as political, is slamming them in the wallet. No longer an option.

The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading