I normally pay off all off the full balance of my credit cards via direct debit each month. However when it came to renewing my car insurance last summer I calculated, given the amount they charge you to pay monthly, it was actually cheaper to pay the whole lot upfront on my credit card and pay that off each month than it was to just pay my car insurance monthly.
As such I’ve had a rapidly diminishing but never the less outstanding balance on my Lloyds TSB credit card for the past couple of months.
Bare in mind that this is a credit card which I have held for over three years now and never have they written to me regarding it. Then today I was opening my mail and found a letter announcing that they had increased my credit limit. Actually, according to the letter, they have increased my “credit limit.”
And I know, I know, a corporation is by definition a soulless entity without feelings designed to grab as much money from people as possible by whatever means and I am normally the first to preach about how you can’t really judge such an entity for immortal practices because it is by it’s very nature amoral.
But seriously, we’ve just gone through a global financial meltdown. Indeed one which Lloyds TSB was actually bailed out by the government. And when I say by the government I mean by me, because the government is funded by the huge tax bill I pay every month.
Now I don’t particularly care that they have done this because I’m not going to go out and spend the extra money and struggle to pay it back, I have far higher limits on my other cards anyway. But there must be thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people out there who would go out and dig themselves into even more debt which they would struggle to pay back all because the banks saw another opportunity to take advantage.
Wankers.
