When the Office of Fair Trading geared up to present a report on banks and their approach to customers who exceed their overdraft limits, no one expected a daring, robust piece of literature, damning the banks and threatening to take the strongest possible action.

Just as well, because that wasn’t what they got. Instead, the OFT fluffed on about nothing in particular, apart for some stuff about the banks giving customers the option not to be able to exceed their overdraft limit at all, and therefore incur no charges.

Sounds interesting, until you realise that the banks were mournfully warning that anyone who DID exceed the limit that couldn’t be exceeded could find that it impacts on their credit rating. Oh, so that’s not really an improvement at all.

HSBC have already announced a new account that operates along these lines – the HSBC Bank Account Pay Monthly “features a strict overdraft limit that cannot be exceeded unless the bank has formally agreed a higher limit beforehand.” Yours for a monthly fee of only £15.

The OFT parped on about the fact that the banks had been doing their bit in bringing down the level of charges from obscene to just deeply unpleasant, with charges for a bounced cheque or other payment dropping from £34 to an average of £17.

Marc Gander of the Consumer Action Group said the OFT had “nothing to cheer about or to congratulate itself about,” adding, “Despite its powers and its influence, the OFT has achieved very little.”

“It has been defeated on the test case charges issue because it allowed itself to be corralled into dealing with a very narrow point of law and despite a very clear signal from the Supreme Court that there were another more realistic routes to make a challenge on behalf of bank customers, it has declined to do so.”

But if you still think that the OFT are just a toothless, meandering bunch of old duffers, wait until you read this. They’ll be keeping a careful eye on the banks over the next two years and if customers are still getting a raw deal by THEN, they’ll definitely consider doing something about it.

Keep on believing!

People who drive are mental. They are. Driving a car is more expensive that making a decision to only eat black printer ink cartridges coated in saffron for the rest of your life.

And now, the motorist in you should brace itself for record high petrol prices this year. According to research by the AA, the cost of unleaded fuel will leap to £1.20 a litre or more.

The Very Nice Men say that those who are skint will be hit hard by the predicted price jump and, subsequently, asked the chancellor, Alistair Darling, to hold fire on the introduction of a 3p hike in petrol duty, due on 1st April.

On average, you’re paying just over £1.15 for a litre of petrol at the moment (feel free to say if you’re paying more in the comments). The AA reckon that’s more likely to be  £1.20 by next month, which number fans, is over £5.40 a gallon. Before long, drivers may as well power their cars on rocking-horse shit.

According to the Guardian, figures show that the average petrol bill for a two-car family has already gone up by £52 per month to £245 in the past year.

The AA’s president, Edmund King, said: “The UK is barely out of recession, yet petrol threatens to rise to record prices seen during the boom of 2008, shortly before the collapse into recession. If families, drivers on fixed incomes and those on low pay were unable to cope with prices then, they are even less likely now.”

Lindsay Hoyle, a Labour MP on the Commons business select committee who is also a man with a girl’s name, called the increase a “complete disgrace”. Speaking to the Telegraph, he said: “Yes, crude oil has gone up this year, but nothing like the rise in petrol prices. Motorists are being legally mugged at the forecourt by petrol companies.”

Vent now.

A hard-working bank manager, yesterday

The fall-out from the meandering bank charges legal saga continues as the Office of Fair Trading are said to be due to reveal the planned future of bank charges later today.

A voluntary code agreed by the OFT and the banks is believed to be in the pipeline and MoneySavingExpert’s Martin Lewis is predicting that charges in excess of £10 will be binned, presumably because the banks have privately conceded that they are unfair.

But there’ll be no refunds for customers who have incurred higher charges in the past – the voluntary charge levels will almost certainly be higher than most campaigners would have hoped for and most of the banks will eventually find other ways to maintain their profits.

At the weekend, The Observer highlighted the plight of a 20-year-old Alliance & Leicester customer, Lewis Mathers, who was charged the grand total of £80 after mistakenly going 15p over his authorised overdraft limit. That’s an interest rate of 53,333% and an APR of almost 2,000,000%.

How 2025 will surely look

Plans for a high-speed rail network are due to be unveiled later today, with £2 billion to be spent every year for more than a decade readying a super-fast connection between London and Birmingham by 2025.

The suave-sounding-but-actually-not-suave-in-the-slightest transport chief Lord Adonis will unveil the plans today, and he’s expected to announce a space-age link that will reduce a journey between the capital and the hub of the Midlands to the speed of a blink of an eye. Well, around 50 minutes.

The new track will be able to handle trains capable of speeds of up to 250mph with 18 trains an hour ferrying 20,000 folk between London and Brum, possibly whether they like it or not.

It is believed that the line would branch off in two directions from Birmingham, with one running west of the Pennines to Manchester and on to Scotland and the other going east through Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle.

The Conservatives are already opposing the plans, suggesting that Heathrow should be included in the scheme and proposing an admittedly more exciting-sounding reverse S-shaped line from London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.

What everyone has failed to take into account is that by 2025, the personal high-speed jet packs that the 21^st century promised us must surely have been perfected and we’ll all be racing through the skies at hundreds of miles an hour in a land where dark skies and sleep have been eradicated.

Idiots.

Game on! The banking revolution promised by Metro Bank is HAPPENING after they finally received their licence from the Financial Services Authority.

Co-founder Vernon Hill has already promised extended opening hours and a 15-minute no-fuss account-opening procedure – and now they’re planning to take care of your dog as well!

Metro Bank chairman Anthony Thomson says: “With the FSA authorisation of Metro Bank we are entering a new era of banking, one where we go back to a more traditional banking model where customer service is key and there is deposit based lending. We believe that by providing unparalleled service and convenience, Metro Bank will stand out from other High Street banks.”

Then, as a contradiction to the ‘traditional banking model’ which Thomson speaks of, the bank adds: “A friendly welcome to dogs and their owners, with water bowls and dog biscuits on hand for man’s best friend – dogs rule at Metro Bank!”

If you like their style, the good news is that Metro are aiming to have 200 branches by 2020 – the bad news is that they’ll all be in Greater London… and possibly managed by Great Danes.

If you snapped up flights to the US during the Christmas sales, here’s some news that’s grimmer than a wet day in Doncaster – the pound is taking one hell of a beating from the dollar right now. The reasons are many and varied, but the net effect is that if you try and exchange your money anytime soon, you’re going to get screwed over:

From a high of nearly $1.65 to the pound in January, sterling dropped below $1.60 at the beginning of February, and on Monday slipped below $1.49 – suddenly you’re getting $15 less per £100 compared to six weeks ago. According to business papers, key causes include the upcoming UK elections, continued economic strife and investors scrutinising the European market closer than ever since Greece blew its financial load.

That’s not the worst of it. Some analysts think the UK is carrying too debt and need to reduce it immediately. Analysts being analysts, however, couldn’t agree on anything if their faces were on fire; Swiss bank UBS AG has warned the pound could fall to $1.05 or lower, if the country tries to cut its debt too quickly. They’re not the only ones, sadly – the Financial Times compares sterling’s current problems to the situation in 1985, when the pound nearly reached parity with the dollar. Whaaaaat!

Of course it may not happen, but even the best case scenario doesn’t see sterling strengthening against the dollar anytime soon. So if you’re travelling to the States soon, what can you do about it?

If you’re a very regular visitor to the US, you’re probably already following the exchange rates and buying currency through the likes of XE.com. What if yours is a one-off visit in a couple of months? It could be worth taking a punt on a currency exchange card from the likes of FairFX. It’s a Mastercard that lets you buy currency at today’s exchange rate for use later on; the exchange rates are generous – FairFX beats the likes of Tesco hands down – and it’s free if you add over £500 to the card. Other cards are available for free with a lower spend, but we mention FairFX because there’s Quidco available too. The only downside – there’s a $2 transaction fee for every cash withdrawl.

They’re £78 million in debt, in administration and almost certain to be relegated, but as of last night, Portsmouth FC were still offering financial products and advice through their official website.

While you’d probably be better off getting your fiscal recommendations from, ooh, lets say fictional cartoon children Charlie & Lola, ailing Pompey were keen for fans to sign up for a Supporter Bond or a Soccersaver Account until The Mirror ran the story late last night. As of today, the link to PFC Financial Services has oddly disappeared.

Could there actually be anything more toxic than a Portsmouth FC credit card? Well, apart from a pay as you go mobile that used to belong to Ashley Cole of course…

The lesser-spotted Ethel Austin store, yesterday

Struggling cut-price fashion retailer Ethel Austin has sunk further into the mire with the news that administrators MCR are closing 114 stores by the end of the week, with the loss of over 1,000 jobs.

469 distribution and head office staff were also laid off earlier in the month. A spokesman for MCR said that the chain’s remaining 162 stores would continue to operate as usual while he looked for a buyer for the rest of the business as a going concern.

But the question as to how many companies really need to go into administration is continuing to be asked. Private Eye recently reported on the financial fall out from the collapse of Woolworths in late 2008, highlighting a major conflict of interest.

The Eye claim that when Woolies got into trouble, their chief executive Steve Johnson hatched a plan to prevent administration by selling the stores to a “turnaround specialist” company, Hilco. This plan was rejected by Woolworth’s banks’ advisor, Deloitte and the banks duly put Woolies into administration. The administrators who got the job of grinding Woolworths into the dirt? That would be Deloitte.

The recent publication of the Woolworths administration report shows that the banks were repaid everything they were owed in full and Deloitte’s three partners and their staff got £9.3 million for their hard work. Even poor Hilco got a piece of the tragic action, pocketing £8.44 million as advisors to the administrators.

Oh, but what of the thousands of staff who lost their jobs over the Christmas 2008? They received the bare legal minimum statutory redundancy pay, averaging a week’s wages per year of service. Ouch.

A while ago, we highlighted the oncoming charge of Metro Bank, a brand new kind of retail bank that is heading towards the UK. The boffins behind it spoke excitedly of long opening hours and a strong emphasis on customer service. Ooooh!

There was only one snag however – they hadn’t been granted a banking licence. Gah!

Now the Metro head honchos are back with more big talk about their revolution in banking, and they reckon we’re just weeks away from getting a taste of it.

As well as the aforementioned long opening hours (including most bank holidays), they’re also boasting customer toilets, a 15-minute account opening procedure which will see new customers walking out with their new debit and credit cards there and then, and face painting. Okay, maybe not face painting, but they’re keen to rewrite the rules of retail banking.

Metro are focussing on the Greater London area initially but aim to have 200 branches by 2020. It sounds mightily impressive and surely there’s nothing getting in the way of their imminent dominance of 21^st century banking.

Oh, apart from the fact that they STILL haven’t got a banking licence. Doh!

Plenty of you have been in touch concerning the fate of Kublax, the online money management service. Last week, Kublax mailed its database and told users that because no further investment was forthcoming, there were only days remaining until all customer data was purged and the service was shut down.

But no need to panic, and since most of you probably weren’t, as you were. Several avid Bitterwallet readers have been in touch to let us know that Kublax lives on, according to an email sent to users:

We are very happy to report that we are currently in advanced discussions with a UK based consumer finance website, SimplyFinance, to find a way to keep the Kublax site up and running.

As a result, our service will not shut down today as we had initially feared, and we will be working very closely with SimplyFinance to arrive at a long term solution which will allow us to keep the Kublax site and services available to you indefinitely.

You may not have used Kublax before (or some of the alternative services we mentioned last week) but judging by the response since we reported on the company’s possible demise, it seems many of you find it invaluable.

Thanks to avid readers Graham, Chris, Alex, Charlie and Gooner

A burglar, yesterday

Insurance companies could use social networking as a way of squeezing higher premiums out of customers, according to some fresh jaw-fart from a man at Confused.com.

Darren Black, head of home insurance believes that, as using sites like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, allows strangers to tell when you are and aren’t at home, the risk of burglary will be increased, giving the insurers a golden opportunity to bleed a few more quid out of you.

He says: “Criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their information gathering, even using Google Earth and Streetview to plan their burglaries with military precision. Insurance providers are starting to take this into account when they are assessing claims and we may in future see insurers declining claims if they believe the customer was negligent.”

The warning comes in the wake of the Please Rob Me site which appeared this week, listing Foursquare users who aren’t at home and are therefore probably ripe for a good hard burgling.

Here at Bitterwallet, we’re in our windowless underground pod 24/7, so no one’s gonna get their paws on our crown jewels. Know this.

The latest name to be carved into the gnarled Deathwatch tree isn’t a high street name but is still an institution – Reader’s Digest’s UK arm has gone into administration with 117 jobs at risk.

Unless the fortunes of the magazine can be turned around, dentists across the country will be forced to find alternative publications with which to fill their waiting rooms. Jamie Oliver’s own magazine and Razzle are believed to be waiting in the wings.

The move came after talks between the Digest’s US parent company and the UK Pension Regulator broke down over a £125 million deficit in the Digest’s pension fund in the UK. In the US, the magazine’s publishers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and the magazine has struggled to overcome the fact that its readership has got older and in many cases, died.

117 jobs are at stake if the magazine closes in the UK. If you never believed the letters from Reader’s Digest informing you that you may have won £250,000, it’s probably not a good idea to start believing them now.

There’s been a small avalanche of emails from avid Bitterwallet readers this afternoon concerning the online budgeting service Kublax. Graham, Alan and Chris all contacted us with news that the website – which displays your household expenditure in graph form to show trends over time – has gone into administration. All bank account information and transactional data will be deleted this Friday.

An email sent to users of the website, the UK version of mint.com, pinned the blame on the failure to raise further funding for the venture. Shame – despite the stupid name it was a nifty little tool for managing money. If you’re looking for alternatives, we’d point you in the direction of lovemoney.com or apply to join the beta programme at moneydashboard.com.

For everybody who is truly dreadful at managing cash, this would be ideal. This live checking card would use e-ink technology to display the accumulated spending amount on your credit or debit card after every purchase, and reconcile bank transactions using a RFID chip. It’s still a concept design, so will it ever happen? Christ knows. Jetpacks and flying cars first, lads.

[Gizmodiva]

A price comparison site user, yesterday.

Dealing with price comparison websites is like crawling through a minefield covered with broken glass with a squirrel in your trousers and a Mynah bird squawking obscenities in your earhole. Or so they say.

It can be a living nightmare with no way of knowing how comparisons are made, who is paying for enhanced listings and the frustration of that finding the price you are quoted isn’t always the price you pay. Which is why it would be a good idea for an official watchdog to appear that would police the oeuvre and sort out the cowboys from the good guys (if indeed there are any).

The good news is that a proposed code of conduct for price comparison sites has been under discussion for the past few months. The bad news is that discussions have collapsed and what was going to be a voluntary watchdog will now not be created.

Sean Gardner, former managing director of the Moneyexpert website and head of the Comparison Consortium until its demise, says: ‘Trying to bring many of these people together felt like herding a group of angry cats. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that many consumers will continue to be misled. It is immensely frustrating.’

If you do buy any financial product through a price comparison, sit down in a well-lit room, turn the TV off and unplug the phone and make sure you’re wide awake. Then read all of the small print. All of it – otherwise you could quite easily find yourself signing up for a product that could be useless in the future, eg; insurance that is null and void because you skimmed over some of the details at the application stage.

Would you even use a price comparison site given the shady reputation that they’ve picked up over the years? Or do you treat them as a guide to where the best bargains are before dealing directly with the company in question? Tell us. In the little box.