BANKS are fleecing customers out of £15billion a year with interest charges and overdraft fees, Sun Business can reveal.
It means Brits pay a whopping £41million a day to service debts.
4
Philip Belamant — chief executive of payments tech firm Zilch — said: “The damage done by credit card fees to the financial wellbeing of millions and the UK economy is a national scandal. It has flown under the radar for far too long.”
His firm is taking part in a consultation into the growing “buy now pay later” industry.
It shared its findings with the Treasury and Financial Conduct Authority.
Zilch — regulated by the FCA — says it differs from Klarna and Clearpay because it does not charge interest or fees.
The cost of its credit is subsidised by retailers and brands selling via its app.
The cost of living crisis is forcing more people to turn to credit cards, loans and overdrafts to buy essentials.
The average traditional credit card interest rate rose to a record 30.4 per cent, according to Moneyfacts.
Banks can charge up to 40 per cent for an overdraft facility.
Most read in Business
They have been criticised for not passing on higher savings rates to customers as quickly as they hiked the cost of borrowing.
Mr Belamant, left, said: “People pay billions in interest and fees for something that should be freely available and fairly priced.
“Consumers are switching to zero-interest credit products provided by a new generation of lenders who don’t have credit-card style models that lend more than you can afford to repay and whose purpose isn’t to keep you in debt for decades.”
But a banking source said financial tech start-ups focus on a narrow part of the market and do not have the social responsibilities of providing branches and cash.
Twitter’s 4 in 5 cull of staff
TWITTER’s workforce has been cut by four-fifths just months after Elon Musk bought the social media site for £35billion.
Mr Musk confirmed the number of employees was cut from 8,000 to just 1,500.
4
He said it had been “quite a stressful situation”.
Thousands of Twitter workers only found out they were sacked when they could no longer log on to their laptops.
But the multi-billionaire Tesla and Space X founder insisted it was not “uncaring”.
He said: “If the whole ship sinks, then nobody’s got a job.”
Mr Musk told a BBC reporter on a Twitter Spaces interview that advertisers were beginning to return to the site.
The company was now “roughly break-even” after the staff cutbacks and charging for blue tick verification.
Mr Musk confirmed he is no longer officially Twitter’s chief executive as he has given the title to his dog Floki.
Mayor’s sum fear
HALF of working-age adults have the numeracy level of a primary school child and need help with financial literacy, the City of London Corporation has warned.
A similar number don’t feel confident managing their finances, while a quarter have less than £100 in savings.
Lord Mayor Nicholas Lyons told a summit on financial inclusion at Mansion House yesterday that better financial literacy would “create a more resilient, more equal society”.
Bum note for cash printers
BANK note printer De La Rue says demand has fallen to its lowest level in 20 years.
The British company which designs a third of the world’s currency — including the new King Charles notes — said the slump means profits will be around half that expected.
4
4
It expects adjusted operating profits to be around £20million compared to earlier forecasts of £40 million.
It said there was a “significant degree of uncertainty” about its outlook.
Shares in De La Rue fell by 22 per cent yesterday with the company worth just £76million.
It has issued two profit warnings in the past 16 months and faces pressure from an activist shareholder to break up.
Its bleak financial position and expensive debt interest costs — caused by higher interest rates — prompted the 200-year-old company to request delaying paying £19million into its pension fund and to negotiate extra headroom with its banks.
Handsome profits
FASHION firm Sosander expects to make a £1.6m profit this year — its first since its 2015 launch.
Sales rose 44 per cent to £42.5m, helped by partnerships with John Lewis, Next and Marks & Spencer.
Last year Sosandar made a £600,000 loss.
Jobs safe in revamp by Sains
SAINSBURY’S has said there will be no job cuts as part of a shake-up of its logistic operations that will affect 7,000 staff.
It is transferring 3,000 of its own staff to one of the three warehouse and delivery companies it works with.
A further 4,000 people who currently work for Sainsbury’s at the trio of DHL, Wincanton and GXO Logistics will also be switched around.
The supermarket said the “big bold changes” would not change their terms of employment, pay or pension.
It said that it would help modernise its operations and mean it can have a separate national logistics network for food and general merchandise.
DHL will be responsible for its Argos, Habitat and TU clothing business.
