Bring back the old BA

HOLIDAYS are meant to be a time when you can switch off completely from the stresses of the daily grind.

But if Money Mail’s postbag is anything to go by, many of those heading abroad are finding it’s just adding to their anxieties.

If you’re not under siege from greedy car hire salesmen at the airport (see page 35), you’re left out of pocket for flights cancelled due to IT glitches or freak weather.

Just to make it worse, today we’re told to expect four-hour delays as border checks are tightened at European airports.

In the past, you knew you’d be all right if you were flying British Airways. But, as we report today on pages 36 and 41, standards are slipping at what was once the world’s greatest airline.

Its issue isn’t ineptitude, but plain old penny-pinching.

From charging for food to cutting legroom and refusing upgrades and cash refunds, it’s leaving customers feeling like they’ve been tricked into paying for a premium service they haven’t received. That’d be enough to put a downer on my holiday.

BA has two options to stop customers switching to cheaper airlines or rivals such as Virgin Atlantic and Emirates: either cut prices so flights are better value, or ask staff to pull up their socks and demonstrate that customer service ethos that made the firm so great in the past.

Unfair fees

BANK fees for slipping into the red are not just toxic for borrowers — they’re rapidly becoming poisonous for the banks, too. Last month, Lloyds Bank broke rank to ditch so- called unauthorised overdraft fees, and other firms began considering similar moves.

The decision could now be made for them. The Financial Conduct Authority says it’s unsure whether such fees ‘should have a place in any modern banking market’. In other words, the charges could be banned. And not before time.

Most striking in the FCA analysis was that payday lenders, so long the bad boys of finance, seem to be offering clearer and lower rates than High Street banks.

Banks have been tasked before by regulators to set their own caps on unauthorised overdraft fees — and it isn’t making a blind bit of difference. RBS and NatWest, for example, last week brought in a higher daily fee of £8 for going into the red, but a lower cap of £72.

Yet they admit this still leaves customers paying up to 655 pc interest if they borrow just £11.

If the banks want to stop being bashed for their unfair antics, they need to stop bashing their customers with unfair fees.

House of cards

FOR most Britons under 35, the only way to get on the housing ladder is to borrow a ghastly sum from a bank. In times past, bank managers would wince if you tried to borrow more than four times your salary.

Now they hand out giant mortgages and barely bat an eyelid.

Up to 140,000 people took out a home loan worth more than fourand-a-half times their income over the past year — up 15 pc on the previous 12 months. It sounds like a house price crash in the making.

But what choice do the banks have? If they stop lending large amounts, the inflow of first-time buyers will dry up in a flash. That would be catastrophic, because families upgrading to three or four beds wouldn’t have anyone to sell to — and the whole house of cards will come toppling down.

The only thing that can save this stuttering market is a housebuilding boom — but, at the moment, we’re a long way off.

Common concern

THE Government crackdown on rip-off leaseholds will save homeowners a fortune. These deals can come with stonking ground rents and huge fees if you want to buy the freehold.

One solution is commonhold homes, where owners have full security of tenure and share ownerships of gardens and paths. These are widespread in Europe.

However, as the residents of Blandfield flats in Edinburgh will testify after receiving a £600,000 bill for a crumbling railway wall, taking on responsibility for surrounding land is risky. It’s vital to have a hardened solicitor look over your contract before buying.