Capitalism Rant and MSFT

I want to withdraw a sum of money from an account I have in the United Kingdom, it yields approximately 4.2% interest every year. I have to give notice of any cash withdrawals to the finance house that is holding the investment. However, when I phoned up to tell them I was planning to make a withdrawal, they asked me if I would prefer to take a loan. The conversation went something like this –
G2007: Hello, I would like to give notice of withdrawing some cash from my account
PERSON: Sure ok, you’ll have to give 30 days notice so the earliest you can withdraw money from is 5th November. How much would you like to withdraw?
G2007: I would like to withdraw XXXXXX pounds

At this point I can only imagine the computer terminal the customer assistant is sitting at pops up with a message saying ‘OFFER LOAN NOW’

PERSON: Did you know we can offer you a very competitive loan of this amount with us @ 6.2%
G2007: Errr..no I’m fine thanks

I found it amusing that the company would rather give me the same money but with a 2% charge on using it. The banks must take us all for fools; luckly the new generation of us are starting to notice that the men in suits sitting at the top of these building and driving their sports cars are not actually as clever as they think they are. Managed funds rarely out perform an index tracker, but yet fund managers take home huge salaries for the privilage of losing us our money!

Well this blog started off as a funny story about being offered a loan and turned into a rant about capitalism. On a lighter note, I have my name on a Microsoft Case Study, which is great for the CV – see I wasn’t making it up!