[Previous entry: "Gangs use deportation to advantage"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "JKT"]

10/31/2005 Archived Entry: ""

Two cautionary tales about finances, one in the present and one from the past.

From the Present: Beware the new no-late-fee credit cards being offered by Citigroup Inc. and American Express. Read the small print. The Miami Herald reports: "Clear card holders [American Express] can miss one payment every 12 months without consequences. Miss two in 12 months, however, and the interest rate spikes for the next 12 months -- from a minimum of 12.74 percent to 28.74 percent." With Citigroup, the rate can increase "from 9.99 percent to 30.74 percent." [Please click on 'more' to continue]

From the past: How ATM fraud nearly brought down British banking: "This is the story of how the UK banking system could have collapsed in the early 1990s, but for the forbearance of a junior barrister who also happened to be an expert in computer law - and who discovered that at that time the computing department of one of the banks issuing ATM cards had "gone rogue", cracking PINs and taking money from customers' accounts with abandon.

The reason you're hearing it now is that, with Chip and PIN cards finally in widespread use in the UK, the risk of the ATM network being abused as it was has fallen away. And now that junior barrister, Alistair Kelman, wanted to get paid for thousands of pounds of work that he did under legal aid, when he was running a class action on behalf of more than 2,000 people who had suffered "phantom withdrawals" from their bank accounts. What you're about to read comes from the documents he submitted last week to the High Court, pursuing his claim to payment."