The lowest of the low

As low as you can get. Worse than that of journalists (you may beg to disagree) and lower than the shores of the Dead Sea (as you know, the lowest point on dry land anywhere on this wonderful planet of ours).

Politicians first, if you do not mind. Although the election is still more than four weeks away, I have already had my fill of most of them and all the mainstream political parties.

Here we have a government riddled with fickleness. One moment attempting to hit entrepreneurs with bigger National Insurance contribution bills, the next doing a spectacular U-turn in response to an almighty backlash from ‘white van man'.

Probate fees were a disgraceful bit of government policy now quite rightly abandoned

Lock Liz Truss in the Tower

The same goes with the intended increase in probate fees. A disgraceful bit of government policy now quite rightly abandoned, but what possessed Elizabeth Truss, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, to dream up such an unjust idea in the first place? She should be locked in the Tower as punishment – and not allowed out until June 9.

To compound matters, we now have the government jettisoning policy measures as if they are junk – regular tax returns for small businesses (making tax digital), the cutting of the annual dividend allowance from £5,000 to £2,000, the increase in the pension advice allowance and the reduction in the money purchase annual allowance to £4,000 for those drawing taxable income from their pensions.

Of course, such measures may be re-introduced if Theresa May forms the next government (we should be told if they are going to be – before June 8), but the Conservatives are treating the electorate with contempt.

As for Labour, it is hell bent on wealth re-distribution. Surely unelectable, but then who saw Brexit coming and Donald Trump rocking up at the White House? Certainly, not me. It is May’s June election to lose (if you know what I mean).

Given my caustic views on most politicians, you would have thought the financial services industry could not sink to the Dead Sea level. But it does it all the time – by treating long-standing customers with disdain, making greedy profits from their loyalty, and only offering them a better deal if they threaten to leave (insurers excel in this form of financial skulduggery).

By prioritising new customers (banks and insurers are particularly adept at this tactic – as are energy companies and other utility providers). And, of course, by running customer service departments that are more third world in their delivery of service than befitting of one of the world’s leading democracies and financial centres.

The recent complaints data from the Financial Conduct Authority says it all. More than three million complaints against financial companies were received in the second half of last year. Of these some 60 per cent were upheld in favour of the customer with redress totalling £1.9bn being shelled out (a big chunk relating to compensation for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance).

Perverse way to run an industry

What a perverse way to run an industry that is crucial to the financial lives of us all. Why can it not learn to do things right from the outset rather than either mis-sell or provide woeful customer service – and then be forced to compensate.

What I find most annoying about the behaviour of many financial services companies is that it spoils it for everyone. The uncaring attitude of the big banks and some insurance companies results in all the industry getting tarred with the same brush (as phone hacking did to the profession of journalism – for a long time, I was persona non grata at dinner parties).

As a result, all the good things going on do not get much of a look-in and become submerged in a swamp of financial services negativity.

So, we fail to give enough air time praising the great customer service consistently provided by the likes of Metro Bank and building societies Nationwide and Coventry. We do not acknowledge the progress that the protection insurance market has made in developing products that are more consumer-centric – not just at the point of claim, but throughout a policy’s term.

We also readily skim over the fact that the financial adviser market is more consumer-focused than it was before RDR. A beacon of hope in a sea swarming with ‘sharks’ (the big banks and insurers).

Most important of all, the constant swirl of mistrust and the occasional bad odour of mis-selling is discouraging many people to do the financial things they should be doing as a matter of course – saving, investing and protecting.

It is high time this state of financial affairs was addressed. It should have been in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, but it was not because of weak government and ineffective regulation.

June 9; a new political dawn. But it would be lovely if it also signalled the start of a new financial dawn, when consumer-centric companies started coming to the fore. Becoming the norm.































I live in hope.

Jeff Prestridge is personal finance editor of the Mail on Sunday