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Post by crojoe on Mar 26, 2014 1:01:18 GMT 1
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Post by Ribaric on Mar 26, 2014 9:02:12 GMT 1
There's another side to this. Croatia times printed the story as some kind of barometer of an economic crisis. I believe this is fundamentally wrong, here's why...
Any HR company with a lawyer can apply to their local (friendly) Notar and claim that customers X, Y and Z are in debt to the company and it is now necessary to take the money directly from X,Y and Z's bank account or, if there are insufficient funds, block it and take any future salary until the debt is paid. The Notar does not have to check anything nor is a Notar responsible for anything, they just stamp the appliocation and get their cash. The company then advise FINA who also check absolutely nothing at all and instruct X, Y and Z's bankers to either take money and/or block the account. What does FINA check before they do this? Nothing.
If you are X, Y or Z, you may have no idea that HRT, T-com, HEP, TermoPlin... etc etc think you owe them money THEY DO NOT HAVE TO TELL YOU! The debt must be only shown to be 3 months unpaid... assuming there is a debt at all and nobody in HRT, T-com etc hasn't screwed up the accounts. The first time you know your bank account is empty is when you stand in shock in front of a bankomat.
So, off the FINA you go to line up to find out why they have authorised your account block. They advise you it is on behalf of T-com (typically) and that you've paid about 900 kuna in legal fees for the privilege. So you ask for evidence that you owe T-com anything. For this you must pay another 20 kuna and they give you a piece of paper that says merely "T-com say you owe them money". That's it.
So now you are broke and it is up to you to contact T-com (or whoever) to sort it out. You are guilty and have paid, now it is up to you to prove yourself innocent.
A principle or two: (1) Creditors do not have to advise you of their actions. (2) Creditors do not have to reveal to you who, in their organisation, authorised this action. (3) FINA check only that there's a notar's stamp on the application, they carry no responsibility for any consequences of what they are going to order a bank to do. (4) The Notar has no responsibility in this at all, they merely notarise the application and take their cut. (5) The bank merely follows FINA's instructions and have no say in the matter. In the end, anyone can claim you owe them money and take it from your bank and they don't have to justify anything to anybody, nor do the notars, nor do FINA.
Spain had a similar set up some years ago which was systematically abused as is the case here in HR, they rejected it and are now a more normal society in this regard. The EU has a current project to force HR to follow suit, T-com and the others all know this and want to get all their debts back, real or imagined, before this free-for-all is removed. Yes, there may be a financial crisis but using blocked bank accounts to demonstrate it is very wide of the mark. Personally, I don't have a bank account in HR, this one of (one of several) the reasons. Don't start me on why foreigners don't want to invest here............
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Post by fidobsa on Mar 27, 2014 16:38:06 GMT 1
Is it best not to open a bank account in Croatia then?
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Post by Ribaric on Mar 27, 2014 18:26:53 GMT 1
Is it best not to open a bank account in Croatia then? It's Ok as long you don't put any money into it. Update from Croatia Times.... A number of Croatian citizens who have had their bank accounts blocked because of debts has risen to 310,000. Opposition politicians have revealed in parliament the total debt of the above mentioned citizens is over 24 billion Croatian kuna. ...... in a country with a population of 4.2 million and over 380,000 unemployed people.
A new twist today. I was in FINA who tell me that they cannot stop companies blocking your account nor prevent them from taking your money but they can limit this to 1/3rd of your pay. Of course, you cannot arrange this with them unless your bank account is already blocked! The point would be?  |
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Post by upthevilla on Mar 27, 2014 20:06:15 GMT 1
The point would be? Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely |
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Post by crojoe on Mar 27, 2014 20:11:25 GMT 1
Is it best not to open a bank account in Croatia then? It's Ok as long you don't put any money into it. Update from Croatia Times.... A number of Croatian citizens who have had their bank accounts blocked because of debts has risen to 310,000. Opposition politicians have revealed in parliament the total debt of the above mentioned citizens is over 24 billion Croatian kuna. ...... in a country with a population of 4.2 million and over 380,000 unemployed people.
A new twist today. I was in FINA who tell me that they cannot stop companies blocking your account nor prevent them from taking your money but they can limit this to 1/3rd of your pay. Of course, you cannot arrange this with them unless your bank account is already blocked! The point would be? I don't think they can just block and take money out of anyones account unless they actually have a bill to show for it and contract, otherwise anyone would just issue a fake bill to close down competition. Has to be "some" rhyme of reason, such as late payment. I have never tested it as have no debts. If I can't afford it I just don't buy it. Period! |
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