Random Rant

[NGMD]

8 hours ago, misterchippie said:

Not having a good day. Just tried to buy the new Tudor Beasts coin from The Royal Mint. Thought this time I'd use my MBNA account instead. Guess what? Yep, payment blocked! Now doing the text-message dance. I just want to spend my wages goddamit!!

Just had the same message from NatWest with text ping pong on a purchase for Silver £380 but not for a DBL Sov at £800.

[Bigmarc]

Next week will be buying a car on behalf of mother in-law. Will have 9k going through my account for a few hours and I am already hearing myself up for a fight.

[sovereignsteve]

3 hours ago, Bigmarc said:

Next week will be buying a car on behalf of mother in-law. Will have 9k going through my account for a few hours and I am already hearing myself up for a fight.

I always found it useful to phone my branch before attempting something like this but that was in the days of actually having a local branch so maybe irrelevant now. This was especially useful if there was going to be any cash involved.

I would imagine this is where banking with First Direct comes in useful. They used to be a telephone/postal only execution bank and you can still get through to them by phone straight away and the CS staff are very good. Always managed to sort any issues immediately.

[Bogart]

Would help if staff in thh bank were not clipboard indoctrinated people.

[ArgentSmith]

Is it just me or are others still waiting on RM memorial proofs? My patience is being tested 😠

[Midasfrog]

On 17/02/2023 at 11:18, Bogart said:

In the process of swapping some accounts. £200 for free get it then move on.

I know someone who has made £800 doing just that his wife also sets up new accounts 😂 ongoing free money I suppose but I can't be bothered with a spread sheet for accounts and pass words. 

[Midasfrog]

9 hours ago, Bogart said:

Would help if staff in thh bank were not clipboard indoctrinated people.

Staff in banks also no longer deal with fraud which is a pain , they give you a number to call and a woman in India takes the call 😆

[Bogart]

Lloyds fraud people are not in India but might as well be speaking in Indian for all the sense they make to me.

[misterchippie]

5 hours ago, ArgentSmith said:

Is it just me or are others still waiting on RM memorial proofs? My patience is being tested 😠

Yep, last I was told was it would be shipped "by the end of Feb". Still waiting.

[misterchippie]

On 03/03/2023 at 17:45, ArgentSmith said:

Is it just me or are others still waiting on RM memorial proofs? My patience is being tested 😠

It finally arrived this morning!

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by misterchippie

[bluemoon]

On 02/03/2023 at 18:37, Bigmarc said:

Next week will be buying a car on behalf of mother in-law. Will have 9k going through my account for a few hours and I am already hearing myself up for a fight.

What happened in the end?

[Bigmarc]

4 hours ago, bluemoon said:

What happened in the end?

Usual mother-in-law thing, she wants a different car last minute. So put off for now, will keep the page posted.

[Foster88]

Something I saw recently, well something I read online said:

If you spend £20 in a shop for goods or a service, how will you pay? If you pay by card, the bank or payment processing company will take around 2%. So that £20 just became £19.96 instantly (the bank has just made £0.4p). So that £19.96 is with the seller or business, they then use that to buy something else but they also pay 2% fees, if they pay by card so the £20 that you originally spent is now at £19.56 or thereabouts.

So who is making a profit here? The banks of course. If that ‘original’ person had used cash, taking into account inflation etc. The only winner here is the bank or the payment processing company. Money (fiat) is devaluing because it suits ‘them’, they get their cut. For everyday purchases cash is King as I’ve heard so many times before.

So how many card payments would it take for £20 to become ‘worthless’.

[Roy]

It's worse.

2% of £20 is 40p.

2% of £19.60 is 39.2p

😕

[Charliemouse]

4 hours ago, Foster88 said:

Something I saw recently, well something I read online said:

If you spend £20 in a shop for goods or a service, how will you pay? If you pay by card, the bank or payment processing company will take around 2%. So that £20 just became £19.96 instantly (the bank has just made £0.4p). So that £19.96 is with the seller or business, they then use that to buy something else but they also pay 2% fees, if they pay by card so the £20 that you originally spent is now at £19.56 or thereabouts.

So who is making a profit here? The banks of course. If that ‘original’ person had used cash, taking into account inflation etc. The only winner here is the bank or the payment processing company. Money (fiat) is devaluing because it suits ‘them’, they get their cut. For everyday purchases cash is King as I’ve heard so many times before.

So how many card payments would it take for £20 to become ‘worthless’.

But the flip side of that is cash has its own problems. The shop has to spend time counting it, storing it, moving it to a bank. All of this costs actual money.  Then of course, since the cash is very portable and essentially untraceable, you have to protect it at every stage from theft by staff, customers and random people with shotguns.  Again, this is expensive.

Most shopkeepers you talk to would rather pay 2% processing fees than handle cash.

[flyingveepixie]

On 03/03/2023 at 19:04, Midasfrog said:

I know someone who has made £800 doing just that his wife also sets up new accounts 😂 ongoing free money I suppose but I can't be bothered with a spread sheet for accounts and pass words. 

I did this for a few years and worked my way through every bank I could find.  Now I've run out of banks to relieve of their ill gotten gain as they wont let you do it more than once every five years or so, and some of them will only let you do it once and never again. Natwest/RBS I think are an example of this.

 

42 minutes ago, Charliemouse said:

But the flip side of that is cash has its own problems. The shop has to spend time counting it, storing it, moving it to a bank. All of this costs actual money.  Then of course, since the cash is very portable and essentially untraceable, you have to protect it at every stage from theft by staff, customers and random people with shotguns.  Again, this is expensive.

Most shopkeepers you talk to would rather pay 2% processing fees than handle cash.

I'd still rather use cash than any other method though to keep the transaction private between me and the other party.

My daughter is the ultimate non-cash-user and refuses point blank to use cash for anything at all, regardless of all the implications as we are pushed faster and faster towards a cashless society where every transaction will soon be scrutiniseable by cynical powers. I do not believe this to be a good thing...

Edited March 22, 2023 by flyingveepixie

[ZRPMs]

33 minutes ago, flyingveepixie said:

I did this for a few years and worked my way through every bank I could find.  Now I've run out of banks to relieve of their ill gotten gain as they wont let you do it more than once every five years or so, and some of them will only let you do it once and never again. Natwest/RBS I think are an example of this.

 

I'd still rather use cash than any other method though to keep the transaction private between me and the other party.

My daughter is the ultimate non-cash-user and refuses point blank to use cash for anything at all, regardless of all the implications as we are pushed faster and faster towards a cashless society where every transaction will soon be scrutiniseable by cynical powers. I do not believe this to be a good thing...

In my own personal ramblings are that, there is a fundamental change to how the individual is treated. We seem to be moving from, The individual is sovereign and is treated as innocent until there is proof of guilt. To the assumption that of the need for the individual to prove their innocence for any and all accusations. This is quite prevalent in the wide society and also at the more serious levels of government from top to bottom. This has become the default in any and all situations. Now couple this with amount of data capture that is out there. The average person can be put under surveillance without any knowledge and their every move, location and at what time for how long, purchases tracked, etc.

Going cashless is just another step towards the loss of my freedoms. The technology behind the cashless transactions in it's self is great. Its convenient and probably now in real terms on par with the cost of accepting cash if your a store. But its not that I'm a fossil and cant use the tech, or that I'm a criminal of any sort that I use cash for every purchase I make in person. It's the slow creep towards unknown people with unknown agendas that have the ability to track, survey and make assumptions about me, my needs or motives. 

Things are subtle and nothing is in isolation. Use cash as much as you can at a maned till or check out, Support local businesses. Push back against this push for tracking data for our every move.

Sorry for the rant folks but we are on the Random Rant thread.

[Spark268]

On 03/03/2023 at 19:08, Midasfrog said:

Staff in banks also no longer deal with fraud which is a pain , they give you a number to call and a woman in India takes the call 😆

isnt that where most of the frauds that the banks are protecting you from originate?

 

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-so-many-phone-scam-call-centers-located-in-India

Edited March 22, 2023 by Spark268

[bluemoon]

2 hours ago, Charliemouse said:

But the flip side of that is cash has its own problems. The shop has to spend time counting it, storing it, moving it to a bank. All of this costs actual money.  Then of course, since the cash is very portable and essentially untraceable, you have to protect it at every stage from theft by staff, customers and random people with shotguns.  Again, this is expensive.

Most shopkeepers you talk to would rather pay 2% processing fees than handle cash.

In my view this ties in with the reasons people have doorbell cameras these days or CCTV outside their house as though they're a supermarket. Even road users have cameras including those obnoxious cyclists with stupid GoPros on their head, ready to record and report anyone who pisses them off. All these cameras give the illusion of security but why do they feel they need for security? It's because 1) we're constantly being told to live in fear of the next big threat, and 2) we're indeed turning into a 3rd world country with 3rd world crimes on the rise. The semi-amusing thing is crime is rising in spite of the cameras. Criminals won't stop just because people put up these placebo cameras which their consumerism made them think their new toy will keep them safe.

It's the same with digital payments. Hacking of bank or PayPal accounts happens with monotonous regularity. Then of course there is the easy theft of digital payments by the governments either through taxation or inflation. Businesses are still safer off using cash and saving more money that way.

P.S. I saw a till worker in Boots wearing a bodycam the other day which I thought was rude, and then there are the self-service machines at Tesco which display your face up close. Surely any thief would walk out of the shop with their loot without coming to the self service machine in the first place? But it's us who actually pay, who get our faces filmed up close. I always cover the cameras with my glove. Wish I could have done that to that mare's bodycam too, but that would have intruded on her personal space.

Went off on a tangent towards the end but hey this is the random rant thread! I do want to slap those Go-Pro cyclists though, they're just looking to start trouble!

[Bogart]

Cash versus card. Recenly bought some hifi from a local chap who runs a business out of his house. Was going to give him cash until he told me every time he deposits cash in his bank they take a slice. Him being a business he is treated differently

to an individual. Suppose will all be sorted by the time we get an ID card implanted in ones brain. 1984 just around the corner.

[Petra]

Cash! Cash! Only set up a business account at a bank because some customers wanted to pay into a bank and I didn’t want more people having my private account details.

Luckily lots of people still pay with cash. Love getting the small change bag out when head of a queue to pay the exact amount😮🤔

and yes, I do fill out a tax return and pay (too much) tax

[ZRPMs]

4 minutes ago, Bogart said:

Cash versus card. Recenly bought some hifi from a local chap who runs a business out of his house. Was going to give him cash until he told me every time he deposits cash in his bank they take a slice. Him being a business he is treated differently

to an individual. Suppose will all be sorted by the time we get an ID card implanted in ones brain. 1984 just around the corner.

Its sad but true. Deposits of cash and withdrawals are charged for per £100. But so are the card transactions. My solution to this was to. For my accounting purposes dedicate my personal account as a holding account for cash. I have a separate account with a different bank for my personal transactions and move the cash from my holding account to where it's needed. As I need to pay myself the holding account smooth's out the large payments. The majority of the cash payments end up being used as my personal income and its a good way of ensuring I have enough set aside to pay my personal tax liabilities. This way I don't fall foul of the personal account or the business account rules.

I don't think the metaphorical 1984 is round the corner. I feel and know its here already. Even to the re-writing of historical events. 

[GoldDiggerDave]

2 hours ago, flyingveepixie said:

I did this for a few years and worked my way through every bank I could find.  Now I've run out of banks to relieve of their ill gotten gain as they wont let you do it more than once every five years or so, and some of them will only let you do it once and never again. Natwest/RBS I think are an example of this.

 

I'd still rather use cash than any other method though to keep the transaction private between me and the other party.

My daughter is the ultimate non-cash-user and refuses point blank to use cash for anything at all, regardless of all the implications as we are pushed faster and faster towards a cashless society where every transaction will soon be scrutiniseable by cynical powers. I do not believe this to be a good thing...

Cash is almost dead, I was in my local village butchers its been in the same family for 150 years, I was in the queue of around 5 people one of the old dears in the queue looked like she was there on the opening day and the rest of the local customers were all well into their late 60's/70's.    I was the only person who handed the butcher cash, everyone else all paid contactless.   

This did get me thinking, had all these old people just adopted contactless faster then me, then I realised something, theres no cash machine anywhere around the area, they have all been quietly been cut off from cash and have very little options either drive a few miles to a cash point or just tap the card in the butchers.  

Some areas have been cutoff from cash for years, no banks, post offices or cash points.  

[CazLikesCoins]

41 minutes ago, bluemoon said:

In my view this ties in with the reasons people have doorbell cameras these days or CCTV outside their house as though they're a supermarket. Even road users have cameras including those obnoxious cyclists with stupid GoPros on their head, ready to record and report anyone who pisses them off. All these cameras give the illusion of security but why do they feel they need for security? It's because 1) we're constantly being told to live in fear of the next big threat, and 2) we're indeed turning into a 3rd world country with 3rd world crimes on the rise. The semi-amusing thing is crime is rising in spite of the cameras. Criminals won't stop just because people put up these placebo cameras which their consumerism made them think their new toy will keep them safe.

It's the same with digital payments. Hacking of bank or PayPal accounts happens with monotonous regularity. Then of course there is the easy theft of digital payments by the governments either through taxation or inflation. Businesses are still safer off using cash and saving more money that way.

P.S. I saw a till worker in Boots wearing a bodycam the other day which I thought was rude, and then there are the self-service machines at Tesco which display your face up close. Surely any thief would walk out of the shop with their loot without coming to the self service machine in the first place? But it's us who actually pay, who get our faces filmed up close. I always cover the cameras with my glove. Wish I could have done that to that mare's bodycam too, but that would have intruded on her personal space.

Went off on a tangent towards the end but hey this is the random rant thread! I do want to slap those Go-Pro cyclists though, they're just looking to start trouble!

I like having all these high street cameras around. I feel safer when travelling and I always try to maximise my position slap bang in the centre of any lens that looks security'ish when I sit for a sandwich or am at a bus, train or metro stop. 

If you spend enough time travelling you quickly come to realise there's a large amount of misfits, nutters, perves and weirdoes hanging around public places with nothing better to do than harass and annoy people and I have a penchant for attracting the wrong sorts when I'm travelling, usually alone by train, almost on a weekly basis. Weirdo type men come and sit next to me and want to take me places. Pubs usually. One even wanted to take me home and was actually annoyed when I politely declined. Having a wedding ring doesn't dissuade  either. I'm married! "So what!" is often the reply. Idiots. Scary idiots. Often, scary idiots who are a bit smelly. Nope, the more cameras the better lol.

Edited March 22, 2023 by CazLikesCoins

[CazLikesCoins]

On 02/03/2023 at 18:03, NGMD said:

Just had the same message from NatWest with text ping pong on a purchase for Silver £380 but not for a DBL Sov at £800.

Set up facial recognition for bank transfers if available on you bank app. It stops the pong pong from ever starting.