Central Bank Digital Currency

[Cousin Jack]

Well, we have a bank in our village I have to say it's pretty rare though, even out here. We lost our village PO last week.
My own bank (HSBC) nearest branch is 20 miles away. Last time i went (and it was years ago) they wouldn't even let me into the building as "they didn't recognise me". But I can imagine the long drawn out conversation, eye-rolling and shrugs if I dared to require cash

You are lucky, but don't worry, they will get to you soon.

When we moved here 7 years we had a local Barclays branch about 800 yards away, plus a bigger branch in the town centre a mile and a half further away. Now we have a caravan in the town square, that you can book an appointment in for a loan or something. The caravan doesn't do cash, and won't accept even cheques. This is in a town of 20,000+ people. You want a bank branch, that will be Truro, the nearest city, and I doubt that will last more than a few more years.

[gremlin]

I genuinely don't know if I'd be allowed to just withdraw my salary as cash every month. I have a feeling it would at first raise eyebrows (have you actually tried getting a large wedge off a bank?) and then after a few months I'd imagine they'd probably invite me to find banking services elsewhere.

Just a guess though.

First off, your bank has two legal obligations:

Money laundering. You would have to admit that it would be a strange customer who gets paid, then comes and takes it all out in cash on payday. Your bank would be forced to lodge an UAR (Unusual Activity Report) and escalate it to their AML/Fraud team. This take time and effort and the bank would be in a position to not facilitate these movements until such time as it is satisfied that there are no funnies going on. Oh, and if somebody has a suspicion in the branch that you are up to no good, notwithstanding any evidence or suchlike, they're potentially looking at a 7 year stretch at His Maj's pleasure, should they keep schtum. Given that your account is provided free, where is the business incentive for this?

Second, you may be a Vulnerable Customer. Who to say you're not being forced to hand over your salary to an unscrupulous relative? The bank has a duty of care and will get fined if it does not have safeguards in place. So, understandably, they'll probably decline and refer. If, of course, it's all above board, they suggest that you set up a DD to pay the funds to your other account, if that's the case. And, again, you can understand why they might ask you to never darken their door again if you have an active account, which takes time and effort to maintain, for no profit. That's business.

Then of course, your bank probably doesn't hold that much cash. All that security cost, insurance etc. Imagine all that cash, which nobody ever withdraws, sat just waiting to be nicked. Doesn't make much sense really, does it?

[weeksy]

Well, we have a bank in our village I have to say it's pretty rare though, even out here. We lost our village PO last week.
My own bank (HSBC) nearest branch is 20 miles away. Last time i went (and it was years ago) they wouldn't even let me into the building as "they didn't recognise me". But I can imagine the long drawn out conversation, eye-rolling and shrugs if I dared to require cash

You are lucky, but don't worry, they will get to you soon.

When we moved here 7 years we had a local Barclays branch about 800 yards away, plus a bigger branch in the town centre a mile and a half further away. Now we have a caravan in the town square, that you can book an appointment in for a loan or something. The caravan doesn't do cash, and won't accept even cheques. This is in a town of 20,000+ people. You want a bank branch, that will be Truro, the nearest city, and I doubt that will last more than a few more years.

you know you can pay cheques in with your phone, without ever leaving your sofa ?

[Count Steer]

We have a few local markets and, yes, many of the stalls have pay by card facilities, but there's still lots of cash changing hands. I wondered where the stallholders get their supplies of change from?

(I've been reduced to buying things from the supermarket and paying cash at the self-checkout to get change for the car parks. You can pay online but they charge an unwarranted premium and I'm stubborn ).

[Mr. Dazzle]

The only thing I've genuinely needed to go into branch for in the last ~10 years is legal stuff around power of attorney for elderly relatives, that's it. As weeksy says, you can pay in cheques from your phone now.

I do only have limited sympathy for people complaining about rural banks and rural post offices etc. You want the rural lifestyle with less 'bustle'....fine, but it comes with caveats! Can't have it both ways.

[gremlin]

When we moved here 7 years we had a local Barclays branch about 800 yards away, plus a bigger branch in the town centre a mile and a half further away. Now we have a caravan in the town square, that you can book an appointment in for a loan or something. The caravan doesn't do cash, and won't accept even cheques. This is in a town of 20,000+ people. You want a bank branch, that will be Truro, the nearest city, and I doubt that will last more than a few more years.

How often did you use it, prior to its closing?

Banking isn't a social enterprise. It's business. If it was a restaurant that never took a booking would you expect it to stay open just on the off chance that you fancied a meal one night? With all the staff and other running costs? Your bank is responding to customer behavior, nothing else. If people loved standing around in their branches and paying in cheques, they'd be happy to oblige as they'd take the opportunity to flog you something. Given that your account is free, it's the only way they make money out of you.

[Cousin Jack]

When we moved here 7 years we had a local Barclays branch about 800 yards away, plus a bigger branch in the town centre a mile and a half further away. Now we have a caravan in the town square, that you can book an appointment in for a loan or something. The caravan doesn't do cash, and won't accept even cheques. This is in a town of 20,000+ people. You want a bank branch, that will be Truro, the nearest city, and I doubt that will last more than a few more years.

How often did you use it, prior to its closing?

Banking isn't a social enterprise. It's business. If it was a restaurant that never took a booking would you expect it to stay open just on the off chance that you fancied a meal one night? With all the staff and other running costs? Your bank is responding to customer behavior, nothing else. If people loved standing around in their branches and paying in cheques, they'd be happy to oblige as they'd take the opportunity to flog you something. Given that your account is free, it's the only way they make money out of you.

I did use it! Quite regularly, for paying stuff in, for sorting out shit (Barclays are the FUF of banks), and for drawing out cash (rather than using the Tesco machine). Obviously not enough other people did.

[Cousin Jack]

you know you can pay cheques in with your phone, without ever leaving your sofa ?

Yes, I can and do.

[gremlin]

you know you can pay cheques in with your phone, without ever leaving your sofa ?

The stupidity of writing a financial transaction on a piece of paper and then transferring that transaction into a digital one, rather that just doing the whole transaction digitally, from start to finish, is just mind-boggling.

Who the fuck writes cheques, anyway...? Oh, seemingly every branch of the UK Government do.

[MrLongbeard]

I think you can do it by arrangement because they simply don't bother to hold that much locally any more................

What is this 'locally' of which you speak? Banks don't do branches any more.

Yep, got a letter last week that Natwest are closing my home branch down, I'll not lose to much sleep, after all ABAB, and it's 90 miles from where I live now

[Mr. Dazzle]

Who the fuck writes cheques, anyway...? Oh, seemingly every branch of the UK Government do.

And they manage to do it in such a way that apps struggle to read 'em too, IME

[gremlin]

Barclays closed their Petts Wood branch. It's now a nice coffee shop. I frequent that way more than I ever did Barclays.

This is progress of the highest order.

[cheb]

I think you can do it by arrangement because they simply don't bother to hold that much locally any more................

What is this 'locally' of which you speak? Banks don't do branches any more.

People don't go into branches anymore.

When was the last time you did?

It was about a year ago. I felt it it was respectful to my colleagues to resign in person.

[MrLongbeard]

The stupidity of writing a financial transaction on a piece of paper and then transferring that transaction into a digital one, rather that just doing the whole transaction digitally, from start to finish, is just mind-boggling.

Who the fuck writes cheques, anyway...? Oh, seemingly every branch of the UK Government do.

We (the wife) gets through a couple of cheque books a year, not for personal business but as chief head owl or something for the Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers, they're charities or some such and require double signing

you know you can pay cheques in with your phone, without ever leaving your sofa ?

nat.jpg (136.32 KiB) Viewed 327 times

[weeksy]

The stupidity of writing a financial transaction on a piece of paper and then transferring that transaction into a digital one, rather that just doing the whole transaction digitally, from start to finish, is just mind-boggling.

Who the fuck writes cheques, anyway...? Oh, seemingly every branch of the UK Government do.

We (the wife) gets through a couple of cheque books a year, not for personal business but as chief head owl or something for the Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers, they're charities or some such and require double signing

you know you can pay cheques in with your phone, without ever leaving your sofa ?

nat.jpg

LOL from your banking App. Not from your sodding browser.

[gremlin]

We (the wife) gets through a couple of cheque books a year, not for personal business but as chief head owl or something for the Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers, they're charities or some such and require double signing

You can set up payments so that one, both or either party has to verify bank transfers, you know.


I do sympathise, as Mrs. G does a lot of work in schools. They pay her considerable amounts of money via cheque. She has requested multiple times to use electronic transfer, but it seems that some people are truly stuck in the past.

[DefTrap]

you know you can pay cheques in with your phone, without ever leaving your sofa ?

I told my folks that - I may as well have said something random in Greek, they just can't get their head around how it works, let alone if it works. And then there's the "safety issue". Tinfoilhattage amongst the elderly regarding banking (and everything else) is based upon silly rumours, fear of anything new, crackpot old wive's tales. My dad sprays WD40 on his knees FFS.

But I do feel sorry for them - local services should be retained as long as possible.

[Mr. Dazzle]

LOL from your banking App. Not from your sodding browser.

MLB taking a selfie.

[MrLongbeard]

nat.jpg

LOL from your banking App. Not from your sodding browser.

I've never done it so was looking it up.
The last time I got a cheque the TSB app didn't have the option, I had to go in branch, where they told me to use the machine right in front of the teller windows.

[Mr. Dazzle]

The last time I got a cheque the TSB app didn't have the option, I had to go in branch, where they told me to use the machine right in front of the teller windows.

They told me to use my phone Coulda told me that before I left home.