Debanking

[mangocrazy]

The bank thinks they should have total control and do whatever they want because it’s their bank, but the people need to hold them to account, for the good of the people.

My, my - Potter going all Socialist when it suits him.

I think you’ve got socialism and democracy mixed up.

I think you're trying to face both ways at once.

[mangocrazy]

I think you're trying to face both ways at once.

We can’t discuss it, I’d like to but you don’t understand enough about the history of socialism and democracy.

Btw I’m not being a dick, but it involves understanding the last 400yrs of UK history.

Discuss? With you? You have no concept of discussion. A patronising air of superiority is your stock in trade, as evidenced by the above.

[mangocrazy]

You really can't help yourself, can you? There always has to be some snidey put down in any of your replies. Do you have to do this stuff to make yourself feel better? I'm genuinely interested...

[Screwdriver]

Yes a bank should have the ability to deny services to any person they deem "unacceptable"
Yes there are rules/laws/codes of practice which are de facto "unacceptable"

But who exactly who is deciding what is or is not acceptable? Is that a democratic process?
What measures are in place to ensure the correct procedures are followed and the system is not being manipulated for political purposes?

I'm just going to throw this out there: the advent of AI means a tremendous number of regulatory systems and financial instruments are going to be semi-automated. Not fully automated because that implies a rigid algorithmic response. A set of deterministic outcomes for a given measurable input.

AI is not like that. It makes "reasoned" decisions. Probably pretty good ones most of the time so I imagine AI is being installed in everything at a rate that would make your head spin. Everything works like clockwork. Reduces the need for fallible human interaction, speeds up the process, overheads like office space and wages drop like a stone.

What happens when that goes wrong? Which it will.

Once AI is tied into everything, everything will go wrong all at once. There will be a "pandemic" response. Financial institutions will be crippled. Who do you suppose will pay for that? Who do you suppose will benefit from it? Is there a rather obvious precedent for "unforeseen" global catastrophes? How did that pan out for the already mindbendingly rich?

Oh but nobody could have seen that coming....

[Ant]

If only there was a place that mandated banking as being a basic right for all.

Oh, hang on a bit, is that an EU law?

"Directive on payment accounts
The directive on payment accountsEN••• gives people in the EU the right to a basic payment account regardless of a person's place of residence or financial situation. The directive also improves the transparency of bank account fees and makes it easier to switch banks.

The European Commission makes the process of opening bank accounts easier and clearer for consumers."

UK too, SI 2015 No.2038

Part 4 requires credit institutions that have been designated by the Treasury in accordance with the procedure set out in Schedule 6 to offer eligible consumers a payment account with basic features. Regulation 19 sets out the nature of the services that will be offered as part of a payment account with basic features, and regulation 23 prescribes the eligibility criteria.

https://www.gov.uk/government/collectio ... k-accounts

Innit, often UK laws and rules are overlooked by some as they think the EU set the golden standard. Most EU regulation rules were ones they adopted from the UK, especially health and safety.

[Ant]

He'll go full Frank Spencer if you make him think too much....

[Mr. Dazzle]

https://www.gov.uk/government/collectio ... k-accounts

Righto....so it IS unlawful to debank someone completely as I guessed/hoped it would be.

WRT Farage I doubt banks "ganged up on him" for political reasons. It seems far more likely to me that all those banks use the same/very similar resource to vet their customers. So fail with one and you'll fail with all the others too. How many of these 7 banks which turned him down were "fancy" ones with the same-ish entry requirements?

I have no proof of that, it just feels like a much simpler and hence more likely scenario.

The problem with that of course is that you're just a cog in a machine.

[mangocrazy]

You really can't help yourself, can you? There always has to be some snidey put down in any of your replies. Do you have to do this stuff to make yourself feel better? I'm genuinely interested...

Ok, what’s your thoughts on the the mixed philosophies just before, during and post English civil war and why do you think it’s important today to recognise what they were trying to achieve?

Let me guess - this was your specialist subject when you studied English History at Uni, in fact it was probably the subject of your thesis. I remember studying the Civil War in the 3rd or 4th year at Grammar School and found it very interesting, but the detailed memory of it has long gone. On one side there was the entrenched, totally self-serving monarchy and assorted hangers-on (the Cavaliers) and against them was Oliver Cromwell and the Roundheads who wished to assert the primacy of Parliament in ruling the country versus the whims of Royalty and patronage. There were a series of battles and skirmishes that lasted the best part of ten years, often divided into 3 separate Civil Wars. The Roundheads (Parliamentarians) won the struggle, had Charles I beheaded and fully asserted the primacy of Parliament, clipping the wings of the Monarchy forever.

Why is it important today? Because democracy.

[Cousin Jack]

I don’t know why, maybe it was just a routine audit that picked it up, or maybe they don’t like him - it doesn’t matter to me what the reason is, but the fact that banks can pick and choose their own rules in a world where they’re more powerful than governments is a concern and that’s the issue.

Most of you are too intellectually poor and ignorant to care or indeed worry, you’ll carry on sucking up whatever comes your way anyway, but some people are asking questions and pushing back on the erosion of freedoms. These types of questions and challenges on powerful entities having too much power have been up for discussion by ordinary people since even before Cromwell and the Levellers were at it in the 1640’s. People died so that you would have the right to challenge it rather than nod and bury your heads in the sand like the divs that you are.

I think Farage is a total bellend, but I have the brains to see the issue, not the person that raised it.

Banks, and virtually all other companies, have had the freedom to chose their customers, or even to chose not to sell a particular product to a particular customer, since forever. Offering something for sale in an ad is an invitation to treat, not an offer that can be accepted to make a contract, unless it is very specific. See Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. https://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/con ... ball-co-2/

[Mr. Dazzle]

Never fear, the man who stole the cockney rhyming slang off James Blunt is on the case.

Edit: Oh right, pay wall.

Jeremy Hunt, treasurey, telling banks they can't kick you out for views.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... acklisted/

[Yambo]

A few years ago when I was having a spot of bother with my bank's rules and communication, I spoke to a nice young lady from First Direct about opening an account with them.

Despite First Direct having no branches and operated exclusively on-line (as far as I was aware), the young lady advised me that I couldn't open an account as I was not resident in the UK. This is despite all my income being sourced in the UK, I'm still a UK tax payer and as a veteran, I shouldn't be denied basic services (so much for the Armed Forces Covenant).

A few less years ago when I was having another issue with my bank's rules and communication, my son went to his bank and asked to open a joint account for his aging father to utilise. That bank was NatWest. They asked me to provide details of where I live so I told them that I like to travel, spend a bit of time in Turkey but when I'm in the UK I stay with my son (who had an account with them). They asked me to provide utility bills in my name and I tried to explain that my son paid the bills and I paid housekeeping money. Despite being a UK citizen etc etc see above, I couldn't open a joint account with my son.

My bank subsequently closed my account (wrongly) and it was proving very difficult to get a bank account. My income, was floating around in the ether, pushed backwards and forwards by dark energy that required it to be paid into a bank account that I wasn't allowed to open because of politicians, instead of enforcing their laws and chasing and prosecuting the money launderers, made getting a bank account difficult for every honest person. I'd like to blame Thatcher but it was that c**t Blair (soft on crime, soft on the causes of crime).

I have a UK bank account now and my state pension is paid directly into my Turkish bank account (by fuck, they could give the UK bank's some pointers on customer service!) via Citibank in the States (it would be too difficult to use a UK bank apparently). My old UK bank, Santanfuckingder, reopened my accounts so that once sorted with a new functioning account with another bank I could sort out all the DDs, SOs etc and I could close the account. One simple, good bit of customer service after years of appealing service.

The bank's are abysmal with customer service, not just the Spanish twats but according to friends and acquaintances, all of them. They're shite and it seems many of you are apathetic.

My current bank is doing OK at the moment though.

[Hot_Air]

The comments have been blasted by Elon Musk and swimmer Sharron Davies

It’s off-topic, but Sharron Davies is one of the more prominent commentators on “the gender wars” regarding trans issues — including writing a book on trans athletes in sports. She’s argued against biological males being allowed to self-ID as female to compete in women’s sports.

[Cousin Jack]

I have been with my bank for 60 years. Yes, they are shite at some things, but I know what they are shite at and I work around it.

Better the devil you know.

[Mr. Dazzle]

The comments have been blasted by Elon Musk and swimmer Sharron Davies

It’s off-topic, but Sharron Davies is one of the more prominent commentators on “the gender wars” regarding trans issues — including writing a book on trans athletes in sports.

Yeah I suspected she had slightly more involvement with trans issues Just didn't read it very far.

It's a shame, we could do with more opinions from random uninvolved celebrities, we get enough from the general public.

[DefTrap]

Let me guess - this was your specialist subject when you studied English History at Uni

Istr dropped out because it was too hard.

[Screwdriver]

The comments have been blasted by Elon Musk and swimmer Sharron Davies

It’s off-topic, but Sharron Davies is one of the more prominent commentators on “the gender wars” regarding trans issues — including writing a book on trans athletes in sports. She’s argued against biological males being allowed to self-ID as female to compete in women’s sports.

Bang on topic if you ask me. It takes extraordinary bravery these days to stand up against the woke mob. Extraordinary.

I bet she’s not allowed to shop at Wickes….

[weeksy]

Let me guess - this was your specialist subject when you studied English History at Uni

Istr dropped out because it was too hard.

I read Law (LLB), but didn't go back for the third year because I was making silly money doing something else, they gave me a certificate
Turned out to be a good decision, we have lawyers in the family but I cream them in terms of earnings, to be fair though they're just normal lawyers, not Ironside or defending OJ or anything high profile.

I could write a masters paper on 17th century England though, so he was always going to be fucked trying to argue it with me

Don't forget to mention the range rover

[weeksy]

Don't forget to mention the range rover

Pah, I've just been out and bought £500 worth of bearings that I don't really need and I'm putting them into little bags in the garage, then I'll do a little brag about it whilst at the same time whining about being poor and how people on the internet paid their mortgage off and I didn't listen to them

I bought them over the last 4 years. From the money I get from busking in town with pan lids and a comb

[mangocrazy]

Ok, well then maybe don’t have a pop at me on the difference between socialism and democracy when you can only back it up with the intelligence of a kid in the 3rd year at school.

Back to patronising, then. Foolish of me to expect anything else.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I have to rent my pan lids from Poundland. I used to get em from TKMaxx but they deplatformed me for saying dogs shouldn't be allowed to fly airplanes