Bank querying why I want MY own money!

[spikey]

 ...  if I lose it then I have only myself to blame and I'm happy to take responsibility for that.

Ah, there's a clue ... if the person behind the counter was much under thirty or so, she might well have had a problem with the concept of you taking responsibility for your own actions

[New Haven Neil]

I remain firmly against contactless and even if I'm only paying a couple of quid in the supermarket my card goes in the machine and I enter my PIN int the card reading machine.  Kood practice for remembering the PIN numbers as I have three cards all with different PINs

 

 

With you on that one, Mike.  We had contactless taken off all our cards after Mrs NHN paid for the lunch of a bloke standing next to her.  He turned away and the machine 'saw' it preferred Debs card and made the payment!  No thank you, Mr Bank.

[caradoc]

I understand the comments regarding money laundering, and old folk being scammed out of their savings, and these are reasonable precautions. But what happens next time E3109 goes to withdraw his monthly pay, if the bank staff are not happy with his explanation and refuse to give him his money - How can a bank refuse to give anyone what is their own money, certainly not the bank's property ?

 

Edited, spelling mistake

Edited December 8, 2018 by caradoc

[pH]

I was once in Germany on a business trip with a number of colleagues from around Europe.

 

We went to a small restaurant in a small town, and found that after our meal for 8 people they didn't take credit cards.

 

We had a whip round and between us had just enough cash to pay the bill.

 

Regards,

 

John P

Exactly the same thing happened to us in Berlin this October. We took my wife's niece and her partner out for dinner, and when I presented a Mastercard to pay, we were told that, regretfully, they took only cash. Fortunately, we'd taken enough money out of an ATM that afternoon that we could just cover the bill (and tip).

 

Something similar happened the next night when my wife and I ate in another restaurant. They did take plastic, but only Visa. Having cleaned ourselves out of cash for the bill the night before, we'd visited another ATM that day and so had enough cash that night as well.

 

A couple of interesting experiences, contrasting with the situation here in Canada where almost any establishment selling anything will take at least Visa and MasterCard.

[Jonboy]

Or the Etsy shop here in Didcot that doesn’t accept cash...

[Andy Hayter]

Torper while of course I respect your position, as I said earlier on I've done nothing wrong, that's why I started the thread.

 

"Nothing to hide, then nothing to fear" is a poor argument (not that I'm suggesting you've said that) and even poorer when the politicians go out of their way to prevent those who they supposedly serve find out what they're up to.

 

I'm aware that this may be straying into politics territory so I'll hold back with respect to forum rules.

But I genuinely fear that the population at large is being beasted big time and perhaps it will only get worse, given what Dudders, Mike and other expats have said regarding what goes on on the continent.

 

Just don't let anyone blame the EU.  Nothing to do with them and rather different countries and different banks with different histories finding ways to protect themselves against international rules and the consequences (more often than not in the US) of failure to have controls..

[Colin_McLeod]

Just don't let anyone blame the EU.  .

I don't think anyone was.

[E3109]

After the Manchester MRS show recently we decided it was time for a pint.

I'm happy with Guinness but my colleagues are more into real ale (some of which I don't mind).

 

Anyway we spent a while trying to find this brew pub, it's one of the newer sort where they're hidden away within an anonymous building on an industrial estate. A sort of hipster's paradise, if you will.

So having found the gaff, we traipsed upstairs only to be presented with a sign that read "No cash, only Contactless", it was at that point to a man we turned around and left (and politely told the doorman why).

 

I suppose that the saddest part to report, is that the place was rammed.

Do the youngsters know what they might be letting themselves in for, I do wonder.

[Gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

 

Any funds that may be held in a bank account with your name upon are is subject to the following;

• The account does not contain money but currency which is used as money.
• The currency is not yours which is why you pay tax upon transactions that you use it for and why you pay interest to the bank for using currency that you have not yet worked for, both effectively being for the privilege of use of the currency.
• What you may think of as your account is in fact property of the bank that has allowed you the privilege of use of their funds for their account.
• The currency is issued and is also therefore the property of the central bank of which the account is denominated in.
• All currencies issued by the so called national central banks are debt based currencies and are as a result subject to interest payments set by the creator of those currencies in a system that allows them to float against the reserve currency, the US dollar. This allows currency's value and the value of the bond yield curve to fluctuate thus denoting purchase power of that particular currency upon both domestic and world markets.
• You may think I'm a conspiracy nut job but any research into the Basel 3 accords will prove all of the above correct.

Apologies for those that cannot face the truth about what banking is and what banking does.

 

Gibbo.

[jjb1970]

If you think it's bad to withdraw money then it can be worse to try and pay cash in. I had a friend who worked for various shipowners on a casual basis and specialised in end of life trips to take ships up a beach etc. In career terms it wasn't the most stable way to work and I can't imagine it was especially fulfilling but he worked when he wanted to work and it was quite lucrative. He did it for quite a few years before he just left the sea. However I digress, because of the nature of that world he was generally paid in cash, in full and when he went home he went to the bank with several thousand quid in a carrier bag. Even back then he had never ending issues with banks but clearly not enough to dissuade him from that line of work.

[john new]

If you think it's bad to withdraw money then it can be worse to try and pay cash in. I had a friend who worked for various shipowners on a casual basis and specialised in end of life trips to take ships up a beach etc. In career terms it wasn't the most stable way to work and I can't imagine it was especially fulfilling but he worked when he wanted to work and it was quite lucrative. He did it for quite a few years before he just left the sea. However I digress, because of the nature of that world he was generally paid in cash, in full and when he went home he went to the bank with several thousand quid in a carrier bag. Even back then he had never ending issues with banks but clearly not enough to dissuade him from that line of work.

Notice in HSBC the last time I was in my branch saying you can't pay cash into someone else's account. So how the f*** are you supposed to get funds paid into a relative's account instantly in the event of an emergency? The immediate clear of the value was always the advantage of cash deposits over cheques, and they don't want cheques used either. Also how do remote members pay-in to Society funds after gala days etc., if the group banks with HSBC?

Edited December 8, 2018 by john new

[Free At Last]

I am another one who draws all my money from the bank. One of the problems with keeping large sums of cash is when they change to a new note. The £20 is due to change again in a year or so.

The banks stopped me changing large sums of old notes for new over the counter on the last change of the £20 note, cash had to be deposited into your account and then withdrawn.

They seem to have a problem with paying over the counter withdrawals in £10 notes. I now make daily multiple £30 withdrawals from the ATM  to get it all in £10 notes. I pay for all my supermarket items individually at the auto check out using my £20 notes to get £10 and £5 notes and the £1 coins can be used in the other shops. It may be a chore but its a game I don't mind playing.

If one day I lose the plot (Oi! I heard that) and have to go into care, just because I haven't sent it up in smoke, pi**ed it down a urinal or wasted it on women doesn't mean the state can have it to spend on someone that has.

I can see the cashless society coming and the state will then have total control of the common man's dosh. I will have gone up in smoke myself by then.

[Dunsignalling]

Notice in HSBC the last time I was in my branch saying you can't pay cash into someone else's account. So how the f*** are you supposed to get funds paid into a relative's account instantly in the event of an emergency? The immediate clear of the value was always the advantage of cash deposits over cheques, and they don't want cheques used either. Also how do remote members pay-in to Society funds after gala days etc., if the group banks with HSBC?

You just do it as a transfer from your account to theirs.

 

I think most banks can credit accounts at most others pretty much instantly these days rather than by Bank Giro Credit which took three working days to get there.

 

It's another measure devised to combat money laundering and just provides clear evidence of where the money came from.

 

To some extent, it's arse-covering on the Bank's part, but it's designed to thwart the ungodly and prevent suspicion falling upon the likes of thee and me.. 

 

I always used to buy cars for cash (the sight of a wad never hurt the haggling process) but dealerships nowadays aren't permitted to accept more than (I think) £5,000 in cash. Bought my last two using my Debit Card. .

 

John

Edited December 8, 2018 by Dunsignalling

[APOLLO]

 

Brit15

[admiles]

With you on that one, Mike.  We had contactless taken off all our cards after Mrs NHN paid for the lunch of a bloke standing next to her.  He turned away and the machine 'saw' it preferred Debs card and made the payment!  No thank you, Mr Bank.

 

Interesting. A card needs to be within 5mm of the contact surface to be read. How did she get her card so close?

Edited December 9, 2018 by admiles

[Metr0Land]

Interesting. A card needs to be within 5mm of the contact surface to be read. How did she get her card so close?

I think you'll find that's what's supposed to happen. I had an occasion in local mini-supermarket (where I sometimes use cash and sometimes contactless).  On one occasion (and so far only once) the machine beeped acceptance well before I got that close - quite a surprise at the time.  I guess it's down to atmospheric conditions of somesuch?

[jjb1970]

I must admit, at the risk of sounding like a tin foil hat wearing conspiracy nut, I do find something rather sinister about the surveillance state we live in. I recognise the legitimate law enforcement aspects of much of this surveillance but it could very easily serve other purposes.

[JJGraphics]

Interesting. A card needs to be within 5mm of the contact surface to be read. How did she get her card so close?

 

 

We occasionally watch the stream of so-called "poor young things" (who are anything but) in our local coffee shop waving their cards around when they get their caffeine fix along with something to stuff down to help them keep up with their obesity and they definitely don't hold their cards within 5 mm of the card reader.

 

We don't use contactless either but in our old age have recently graduated to using a fruity brand of smartwatch that ensures the payment is very secure. Those will not work unless they are very close to the face of the card reader.

 

John

[GeoffAlan]

12 years ago I worked for a bank. At that time any transaction of £10k or more was automatically queried. We had to ask when it came from, deposits, or where it was going, withdrawals. If you were not convinced of the honesty of the transaction you had to refer it for investigation by the money laundering department.

 

These days vulnerable people are routinely targeted by dishonest traders who always want cash. So I expect that the limit is lower.

 

As to carrying large sums of money. While my wife was caring for her frail parents I found out that once every 5 or 6 weeks she was going the post office to get their pensions. This would come to well over £1k plus whatever of our cash she had in her bag. With her in her 60s I didn't think this was a 'good idea'. They didn't have bank accounts, had savings in tins all over the house for various bills, which was their problem had anyone known, but I put a stop to this waiting over a month between collecting the pensions.

 

Maybe, if the OP is 'of a certain age' the teller was concerned for their safety?

[New Haven Neil]

Interesting. A card needs to be within 5mm of the contact surface to be read. How did she get her card so close?

 

Simples - your statement is incorrect.  It was about 18" away, witnessed by several other customers.

[raymw]

I pay my bills with turnips and chickens. What's this new fangled cash all about?

[E3109]

12 years ago I worked for a bank. At that time any transaction of £10k or more was automatically queried. We had to ask when it came from, deposits, or where it was going, withdrawals. If you were not convinced of the honesty of the transaction you had to refer it for investigation by the money laundering department.

 

These days vulnerable people are routinely targeted by dishonest traders who always want cash. So I expect that the limit is lower.

 

As to carrying large sums of money. While my wife was caring for her frail parents I found out that once every 5 or 6 weeks she was going the post office to get their pensions. This would come to well over £1k plus whatever of our cash she had in her bag. With her in her 60s I didn't think this was a 'good idea'. They didn't have bank accounts, had savings in tins all over the house for various bills, which was their problem had anyone known, but I put a stop to this waiting over a month between collecting the pensions.

 

Maybe, if the OP is 'of a certain age' the teller was concerned for their safety?

Hi Geoff, I'm in my 40s (just about) and I'm quite a big fella so 'of certain age' wouldn't apply.

I felt sorry for the teller but I will pursue this, if you can't access your hard earned wages without being interrogated then we really have hit rock bottom.

 

I don't mean any disrespect to those who work(ed) in banks, people have to earn a crust but the irony of banks carrying out money laundering checks, is duly noted (Fractional Reserve etc).

[Junctionmad]

After the Manchester MRS show recently we decided it was time for a pint.

I'm happy with Guinness but my colleagues are more into real ale (some of which I don't mind).

Anyway we spent a while trying to find this brew pub, it's one of the newer sort where they're hidden away within an anonymous building on an industrial estate. A sort of hipster's paradise, if you will.

So having found the gaff, we traipsed upstairs only to be presented with a sign that read "No cash, only Contactless", it was at that point to a man we turned around and left (and politely told the doorman why).

I suppose that the saddest part to report, is that the place was rammed.

Do the youngsters know what they might be letting themselves in for, I do wonder.

I never carry cash , I find contactless great and I hope to see the cashless society in my lifetime , I’ve recently activated my Apple pay and that’s great

 

I never understand what people find wrong with contactless , there is much “ daily mail “ nonsense out there about contactless , but the system is robust and secure

[Junctionmad]

Hi Geoff, I'm in my 40s (just about) and I'm quite a big fella so 'of certain age' wouldn't apply.

I felt sorry for the teller but I will pursue this, if you can't access your hard earned wages without being interrogated then we really have hit rock bottom.

I don't mean any disrespect to those who work(ed) in banks, people have to earn a crust but the irony of banks carrying out money laundering checks, is duly noted (Fractional Reserve etc).

In general banks are applying the law of the land or rules from the various central banks etc hence you have to abide by those rules . Of course , if you don’t like banks, don’t use them , I’m sure your pillow is very convenient Edited December 9, 2018 by Junctionmad

[GeoffAlan]

Hi Geoff, I'm in my 40s (just about) and I'm quite a big fella so 'of certain age' wouldn't apply.

I felt sorry for the teller but I will pursue this, if you can't access your hard earned wages without being interrogated then we really have hit rock bottom.

 

I don't mean any disrespect to those who work(ed) in banks, people have to earn a crust but the irony of banks carrying out money laundering checks, is duly noted (Fractional Reserve etc).

 

 

I totally agree, but failure of the teller to report any relevant transaction means they could face a fine and 6 months in jail. Something that crossed my mind when asked to transact £250k into a £275k flexi-mortgage taken out the day before. Flexi-mortgages on London properties were, and likely still are a favoured means of laundering ill-gotten gains.

Edited December 9, 2018 by GeoffAlan