"What kind of people make it their corporate mission to keep their loyal customers in perpetual debt for all eternity?"

I find it reprehensible - no, in fact I find it worse than that - I find it deeply threatening to the very core of our financial existence that our nation's banks can be allowed to 'get away' with half the crap they do and say!

Take for example, the way in which they promote credit cards:

In one breath, they try and fool you and I into thinking that they actually care about our financial well-being i.e. they won't let us have a credit card unless we have a clean credit score. Yet - and here's the clincher - once we DO get a credit card - they do everything within their 'greed and bottom-line driven power' to ensure we STAY IN DEBT UNTIL THE DAY WE DIE!……

Think about it… how many times have you gone to collect the mail and discovered a letter from the bank or credit card company stating the following:

"Congratulations! Your credit card limit has been increased. Your NEW limit is $15,000!"

Hell, it was only $10,000 yesterday… and even then, I only owed $341. Damn it all…I've been trying to repay that sucker since Adam was a cowboy… I almost get it back to zero balance and they go and increase the goddam freakin limit to $15,000 without even bothering to ask me???

What is that shit???!!!

I'll TELL you what it is… it's the banks' philosophy of keeping its customers in a perpetual but manageable state of debt for all eternity!

You wanna know something? When I worked in a bank - and I'm talking a 'major' bank here, folks (that shall remain 'nameless' unless they get pissed at my "reveal all" tactics and try and shut me up), the frontline banking staff i.e. tellers, customer service folks, banking consultants etc., were given weekly targets to meet.

Never mind the poor, struggling, vulnerable, naively ignorant but otherwise well-meaning customers' financial position and needs - these ruthless bankers literally FORCED themselves on their walk-in customers, offering every conceivable bribe known to mankind in order to get them to sign up for another credit card, personal loan or insurance product!

I personally cringed at some of the conversations I used to overhear when my own home loan customers were sitting in with a designated banking consultant, getting their insurance needs seen to. Sure, we all need some sort of insurance cover on the building and contents. That's because we're STILL ALIVE "if and when" the claims need to be made.

However, a single (widowed or unmarried) home owner with no dependents and no-one to leave an insurance payout to, SERIOUSLY DOESN'T NEED FREAKIN DEATH COVER!!!

Yet, in every bank I worked in, it was always the same deal…

"Management would send out memos to all staff, alerting us to competitions between the various branches. The 'winning branch' was deemed to be the one who had signed up the most new credit card, personal loan, insurance, savings and home loan deals that week!"

Look, I absolutely understand the logic of this strategy from a "business profits" point of view. However, I feel like spitting in their faces when I see the television commercials and billboard signs promoting these same banks as "caring" and "looking after your future well-being".

PUKE!!!

The greatest irony of all is this, though:

Virtually every print ad, radio commercial, television commercial, billboard, web site, poster, brochure, leaflet and flyer ever put out by a bank, says on the one hand…

"Best rates, cheapest fees, best service, best advice, most flexible home loans, easy credit, low interest credit cards, low bi-weekly or monthly payments etc…etc…etc… all giving the impression of studious financial management and the ability to get out of debt quickly.

Yet - and here's the paradox - on the OTHER hand, those same banks and bankers are subtly intimidating us into borrowing more, and more, and more AND MORE………ad infinitum!!!

I think back to those days and admit to finding myself sometimes telling a (potential home loan) customer - who had just repaid his / her mortgage in full after decades of repayments - "how easy it would be for them to get approval for ANOTHER home loan should they ever want to purchase a second property".

Now, while I am a great advocate of building up an investment property portfolio for retirement purposes, the underlying principal of targeting bank customers with "low to no" current borrowings JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE THE EASIEST TO APPROVE MORE LENDING FOR… is, in my opinion - and with the added benefit of hindsight - UNETHICAL!

Your comments are welcome: