Quite often, Jesus talks about things that I don’t know much about. A man may have gone out to sow – but I know precious little about agriculture. A father may have said goodbye to a prodigal son but I know nothing about having a jealous brother. A young man may have been told not to look back from the plough – but my soft hands, have clearly never touched a plough in their life.
However in the Gospel today, Jesus does stray into an area where I know a thing or two.
He is talking about (more…)
I’m contemplating it – too much instability coming up in the next couple of months though.
You might find http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides/money/bankingcurrentaccounts.aspx interesting – the CoOp don’t seem to score all that highly, although obviously better than established big names.
I did move my account and our joint account about 18 months ago – from Lloyds to the Co-op!
My reason was what appeared to be a policy to get as much money out of me as possible, culminating in imposing an accumulating daily penalty for a going a very small amount overdrawn on one account by accident when I was ill. The charge amounted to much more than the original overdraft. They didn’t inform me of this for several days and the basic attitude was ‘well that’s your lookout’. They knew that there was enough money in other accounts to cover it.
I knew about ethical banking before that – our son is a great advocate of ethical banking and had suggested we moved to the Co-op several times – but it was only a personal experience of what I considered unethical behaviour which damaged me personally that gave me the impetus to do it.
Many years ago when my father was struggling financially, his branch of Barclays called him in to tell him off about his overdraft. He went straight across the road to another small local bank called Martin’s, asked if he could transfer his overdraft there and they lent him the money to close down the account at Barclays. He always said that Barclays had to eventually take over Martin’s to get his custom back!
One thing I did find with moving banks though – it was actually not quite as straightforward as I was told it would be – there were several standing orders and direct debits that didn’t get automatically transferred so there were a couple of months of companies contacting us to tell us we owed them money! However it was all fairly easy to sort out on the phone. Also we were on a lower overdraft limit for the first six months so if you need to use the whole of your current overdraft limit every month it’s best to be clear about what you’re being allowed.
I bank with the Clydesdale because I work for them, and they require you to have your salary paid into a Clydesdale account.
I wonder if Howard’s branch of Lloyds is being sold to the Co… I really hope so, for hunners of different reasons.
I wonder how ethical the co-op bank actually is. I have had a preference for shopping at co-op supermarkets because of their ethical stance,until the recent revelations that they are among the worst offenders for driving down the price of milk below the cost of production. Fair trade and ethical have to apply to the uk too.
The Cooperative have just increased the price they pay to milk producers, in response to concerns raised. As to the bank, “more ethical than any of the other high street banks” is about as good as it gets right now.
I realised at during morning prayer yesterday that in the midst of Heathrow Hell, I had glimpsed a moment of the Christmas story. People were getting grumpy and cross with the airport staff, panic was starting to appear on faces belonging to those who knew they were not going to get home in time for…
The realisation dawns that my dog-collar shirts are mostly in transit. I have a small stock (that is, a stock, not a stock of other shirts – ie a thing, not a collection of things) which I can use stuffed beneath other garments to simulate the bedog-collared look but that lives in the realm of…
Well as of 9 am Thursday… The cat is in Cat Prison The car is in Edinburgh I am in Glasgow having escaped Heathrow Hell by booking a last-minute sleeper My luggage, last seen in Sweden may be in London, Edinburgh or pretty much anywhere. Still, all I need is a quite couple of days…
Many thanks to all those who chose to correspond on the subject of Advent Wreaths. For the record, we don’t have advent wreaths in Sweden, but rather a thingy (adventljus?) which places the four candles in a straight line. These may be decorated with green stuff but are more likely just to be metal. This…
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