People got used to never to be repeated super duper low rates due to the lifetime anomaly of joining a new currency where the biggest countries were in recession at a time we were booming like never seen before in history.
Rates are returning to normal. No where near penal.
<4% is a super duper rate.
4-6% is a low rate
6-7% is a normal rate.
7-9% us a high rate.
9%+ is a penal rate.
I'm getting really tired of all the cribbing and moaning by people as rates return to NORMAL.
I lived here through the eighties and the nineties and saw Commercial rates climb to 22%, so I can appreciate where you are coming from.
I also happen to agree with the OP.
All the bluster from the banks about "having to put up rates or lose money" is just that - a blowhards excuse for financially abusing people who have no alternative.
It has been apparent for many years that banking is run like a cartel, with little or no competition and a lot of hand-wringing from these shylocks when the interest rates go up.
Just like the oil prices, whenever it looks like market forces are actually doing what they are supposed to be doing - increasing competition and reducing costs - there is some convenient reason for pitting prices up
The essence of the bankers' crimes against humanity is that when they have broken a country or a people they use chasing profits as an excuse for beggaring families.
On top of their recent reckless economic treason and forelock-tugging bailouts this is just too much to bear - I think people should get out on the streets and make them realise they need to help their customers get through this - not screw them.
These are not profitable, well run institutions - we own them, they owe us a living and they have no right to beggar people they - along with the squeaky clean estate agents we never seem to hear about - lured into spending money they could not afford.
Banks and estate agents had a duty to advise people properly - as in wisely and well - they failed to do so to any real degree and its they and not the man on the 46A bus who should be paying through the nose for this crisis.
Let the argument advanced above for a return to higher fees be turned on its head - were the consequence of a bubble not foreseeable by professional bankers and valuers?
Yes they were - and returning to the high inflation days of the 1980's simply cannot and will not be borne this time.
Do the people pulling strings just assume that people will remain law-abiding when their homes are taken from them?
You're taking about anarchy - and a lot of the people who will bring this down will suffer this time.
ONQ.