Banks; the real robbers

Tumie Modise | Monday February 8, 2016 15:49

For those of us who have been mugged before, the experience is traumatic, one that plays over and over in your head like an old vinyl record on repeat mode. It doesn’t matter whether the mugging took place during the day or at night; somehow the incident has a way of waiting for you to get in bed, before replaying itself, driving you totally crazy. Theft also happens much more overtly. They can deny it all they want but banks rob people. Even bank employees do not understand they are actively engaged in theft. Banks always make a fuss over bank robberies but reality is that they are worse than common criminals; that is if they are not involved in some of these robberies already. Am I worried that my bank manager will see this? Not a bit. In over 10 years, I have changed banks like four times, not because other banks were offering anything better or that they don’t steal as much, only because I could. If it’s not the ridiculous service charges or whatever they call them, then it’s the headache they give you when you ask for a simple loan. All of a sudden they go personal on you; they want to know every single aspect of your life like your marital status, the number of children, whether the father/s is taking care of them, your place of residence, the people residing there, the name of your boss and as a final insult, they will give you a form for your employer to fill, and how many employers ever fill that form and take the fall, should it ever come to that? When you finally  manoeuvre through all the hurdles, still they don’t give you what you asked for. Then you learn of insurances and other hilarious charges they have added onto the amount and by then, they know they have got you. So, you just sign away without even going through the fine print. Thieves. I have this habit, and old habits die hard, of withdrawing all my monies then stashing the loot at several undisclosed locations. I do this without any fail every December. I am forced to do this by banks; the idea of being charged for withdrawing my own money just irks me in a very big way. I think by now my bank manager understands and I am very certain I am not the only one who does this. I embarrassed myself this past December at my home village. I went into the local store, picked some groceries then checked them out at the counter. My ‘uhu’ moment came when I gave the cashier the ATM card to swipe, it declined. When it did, I did what every person does whenever they are faced with this situation. With a straight face I told the cashier that their machine must be faulty, but on her screen it was written in black and white; ‘insufficient funds’. It must be a new thing, I didn’t argue. As I walked out of the door, only then did I remember that I had long emptied my account; that part of the loot was right inside my handbag! Walking like a air force commander, I walked back to the till with a smirk on my face!

Lately I am a customer at this other interesting bank.

One day you have money in your account, the next day you don’t, but after a few days of helplessness miracle money then reappears magically in your account. This happens without fail every month, especially during weekends.

It happened again this past weekend. This is how banks rob us. Banks do not have any money to start with. Like leeches, they feed on the very funds that we take to banks for safekeeping. We have lost our culture and they know it.

Money doesn’t grow; even some of these modern prophets know that deep down in their hearts, though they will always claim to have the power to make money ‘double’. Banks ‘borrow’ money from depositors (those with savings). Then they take that same money; lend it to bank borrowers (those in need of funds). They make money by charging borrowers more for a loan (higher interest rate) than is paid to depositors, to kind of compensate them for using (gambling) with their savings.

In the meantime, you are stuck with a never ending loan; on the other hand they even charge you for accessing that loan from your account. We are their willing hostages. Banks rob us, not once but twice!