Scrooge-like behaviour in financial services does not happen only at Christmas. Banks, insurance companies, utility providers, broadband suppliers and retailers indulge in tightfistedness all year round, according to your responses to our second annual Scrooge of the Year competition. Readers provided nominations in their droves at Money Central, with more than 50 organisations put up for the dubious honour.

The overwhelming majority of you said that the title should be awarded jointly to Gordon Brown and Revenue & Customs. The Prime Minister and the tax office together won 40 per cent of the vote as readers blamed Mr Brown personally for the catalogue of fiascos at the Revenue, including the overpayment of tax credits and last month’s loss of computer discs containing the personal information of 25 million people, exposing the public to fraud.

One reader, Ray Nipper, summarised why he voted for the Revenue by saying: “Tight as two coats of paint when it comes to our money, but as liberal as anything when it comes to our data.”

For overpaying tax credits to some of the UK’s poorest families and then asking for the money to be returned, Alison Myers-Ward wrote: “HMRC, with its ‘money with your name on it’ tax credits – now you see them, now you don’t. Giving with one hand, taking with the other and holding the customer responsible for its own mistakes.”

The Government was also criticised for punitive changes to inheritance tax and income tax, as well as for the “raid” on pension schemes.

In second place was British Gas, with almost 10 per cent of the vote. Despite appearing in last year’s Scrooge of the Year list, customers do not feel that the utility supplier has cleaned up its act. The criticisms levelled at the gasman included doubling one reader’s monthly payments without notice, not collecting direct debits on time and poor service when boilers break down. Andrea Vickers recounted an alarming tale of woe, writing: “British Gas win hands down for its swingeing treatment of me over a bill it sent for someone else’s meter. After months of phone calls, letter writing and wrangling to try to get it to stop threatening me with legal action, the Energy Ombudsman took up the case on my behalf and it is finally resolved.”

British Gas said: “We have started to make real progress on customer service issues but understand that there are many challenges still ahead for us. We are disappointed to hear of these nominations but will be focusing a huge effort on improving our customer service levels in 2008.”

Another company making a repeat appearance in our list is TalkTalk, which attracted most nominations for a home-services company. One reader, J.S.D, wrote: “It promised so much, yet delivered so little. The customer service department gives no service. The complaints department does not handle complaints. Its broadband internet access does not give internet access... new customers get no custom.”

But even the supposed consumer champions did not escape your ire. A few stuck the boot into the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the chief City watchdog, for prolonging the waiver on unauthorised overdraft charge repayments that it granted when the Office of Fair Trading and eight leading banks announced that they were going to court to try to resolve the question of whether overdrafts charges were legal.

Financial experts say that the waiver has given banks too much breathing space. One reader accused the FSA of implementing too much red tape, writing: “The FSA should be considered for trying to generate the red herring of its ‘new’ policy of treating customers fairly, when any self-respecting business would already be doing just that.”

Industry bodies also gained notoriety this year. The British Bankers Association, which represents UK banks, joined the FSA and the Revenue on the hitlist for its handling of the bank charges debacle. Even Which?, the consumer group, received one vote, for offering a free trial of its subscription-only website but failing to remind readers when the trial comes to an end and they have to start paying.

The bank with the highest Scrooge factor, according to Times readers, was Alliance & Leicester, for high charges and failing to keep balances up to date, putting account holders at greater risk of breaching their overdraft limits. Wally Rhodes wrote: “Its bank charges policy was devised by Dick Turpin.”

An Alliance & Leicester spokesman said: “Improvements have been made as a result of introducing a single available balance, which ensures that the same balance is displayed on internet banking, ATM mini-statements and telephone banking. Through the faster payments initiative being introduced next year, customers’ balances will be updated much more quickly.”

HSBC was also in the running with its scrapping of interest-free overdrafts for students, followed by a swift U-turn after a campaign on Facebook, the social networking website. First Direct, a bank that prides itself on customer service, was criticised by one reader for removing in-credit interest with the claim that customers do not care about the feature. “They do,” insisted Keith Crocker on Money Central.

Readers also named and shamed companies for offering better deals to new rather than loyal customers. These included Abbey, for its 8 per cent current account offer, and Virgin Media, for its broadband packages.

ING Direct, meanwhile, was nominated for its failure to increase savings rates in line with the Bank of England base rate. The internet bank, which has five million savers in the UK, offers a return of 5.4 per cent on its savings account, 0.35 points below base rate.

Martin Rutland, of ING Direct, said: “We were market-leading when we launched, but it is not possible to be top of the tables at all times. One hundred banks, including Halifax, Nationwide, Lloyds TSB and HSBC, offer a lower average rate of interest than ING by offering best buys to some customers and hardly anything to others. All our customers receive the same rate, which has been 4.96 per cent on average since we opened for business.”

For the full list of our readers’ nominations, go to timesonline.co.uk/moneycentral.

On the bright side...

NORTHERN ROCK may have experienced the first run on a UK bank for more than 100 years, but not all of its customers were annoyed. B. Haworth praised the bank for increasing the return on his bond. Despite its troubles, none of our readers nominated the bank, or Adam Applegarth, its former chief executive.

Tess Diaz, meanwhile, complimented HSBC on its high level of service when she became a victim of fraud. “When a fraudster withdrew £200 from my account in Lyons, the bank let me know about it two hours later. No further damage was done and my money was recouped in due course. Other glitches, such as a lost bank card abroad, have also been dealt with efficiently.”

Times Money thinks a special mention should also go to Les Dawson, chief executive of Southern Water, for admitting that it had misled customers and saying “sorry” – a word rarely uttered by company bosses.

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