Bank of England says Bank are charging more for loans

Come on now you banks, don't you think this has gone far enough?

This is Money .co.uk http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/ has reported that banks have not been passing on falls in the base rate in full to borrowers, while continuing to deny small businesses cash. I have some very strong views on this..................

Whilst the banks are trying to improve their cash reserves they have a vested interest in not lending money. And all the BANKS ARE THE SAME I'm afraid when it comes to this. There is so little competition out there - nobody has really (I'm mean really) said that they open for business and ready to back business with great flexibility and rate. And so the bank are increasing rates and charges willy nilly leaving the poor old business customer with no alternative than to take it on the chin.........what else are they going to do?? They can hardly walk out of one bank into another get a better rate and more flexible lending because NONE of them are offering that!

I know of one poor chap, a long standing business customer of one of the main high street banks, (supposedly unaffected by the credit crunch and not requiring any government cash) who had a £400,000 loan for some development land. His bank came to see him to renew the facility after the original deal had expired together with a 2% (£8,000) fee for the renewal and an increase from 1.5% over to 8% over base!!! And his company had been performing well.............

This to me just shows how it suits the banks not to be lending more, improving their cash positions, suits them not to have competition with other banks offering similar or worse terms, and customer left with no choice but to take what ever the banks throw at them because they frankly have no choice.

My customer, sold his development land instead of agreeing this new deal - good on him.

Mark my words - gone are the days of banks reported £2bn - £5bn profits - get ready for £10bn + profits for the forseeable future why we are ripped off good and proper. Last year saw all the bad news come out from them and the record losses, next year will see record profits as they lend less and make more. A great business model...............

It will take one brave high street bank to come out from the shadows and start lending flexibly and cheaply. This will make the others follow suit - but why would they want to do it? Lend more for less profit? Makes no sense.................

So in my view, we need to see Tesco Bank, Virgin Money or another new player come and stir up the market a bit............and then, only then, do I think we will see the banks lending sensibly, flexibly and competitively.............