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The end of cash?

In NZ we don't need to do that as it's really easy to create endless sub accounts on our banking apps, I'm not poor but I have a holiday account, a daily spend account, a going out on Saturday account etc. it's a great budgeting tool for everyone but if I had to do it the analogue way I'd be fucked, envelopes all over the place.

Yes some UK banks also do this. When I get paid my money goes to various spaces, it really doesn help keep track of things. I can even set up virtual debit cards on each space if I want.
 
Apparently it's not that they're being phased out, there are just loads sitting in warehouses because fewer and fewer people are using cash. So no need for new coins anytime soon. So you can enjoy your small pleasure for a while, even if not that many people are joining in.
also given we have the better part of a year where there was little or no cash transaction and many people / businesses who worked mainly / solely in cash pre lockdown went to card or remote transactions in lockdown ....

as an example in the 'before times' the 'famous' Dance studio complexes in London i.e. Pineapple and Dance works worked o nthe basis of 'membership' and class fees

you could buy a membership for a day, a week , a month or the year or have a monthly DD for the year ( daily membership wasa coule of quid if you did one class or 3 , the monthly and annual memberships were significantly cheaper especially if you had NUS / Equity /spotlight ) , but these didn't actually pay for any classes you paid the teacher in cash for the class on the day, who them paid their 'rent' to the studio and if you had a pianist/ accompanist paid them from the takings , what was left after paying the rent and the agreed musician;s fee was the pay for the teacher.

then lockdown happened and it was online classes ( which still remain an option certainly at Pineaplle and Danceworks) and then you have to book classes becasue limited numbers / social distancing and venue based track and trace ... so they invested / brought into online booking platforms which is how it remains to this day
 
Maybe this is an unrelated story, but it doesn't feel like it at this moment in time.

I tried to buy something today online that cost £1800 (an e-bike, if anyone is interested) and the transaction was blocked by my bank. I wasn't too surprised by this, but within 10 minutes of my card being declined I received a phone call by the Fraud department.

I ran through all their security checks and informed them that it was me, that it was my money, that it was a legitimate company and there was no fraud involved. Okay, great, try again in 10 minutes and you are authorised to proceed.

10 minutes later and my card is declined again. And even better, I've been told that it's been blocked entirely and I have to go to my local branch with two pieces of evidence to prove my ID, then they will unblock it.

Now, luckily for me, I do have a local branch and it is within walking distance of 1.7 miles, and it's open on Saturdays. But what if there were no local branch? What if it were 10 miles' away? I don't drive. Okay, use public transport then. Well, fine, but what if I don't have any cash to pay?

I can understand why the transaction was blocked, but I'm really not happy that they can remotely block my card, but then computer says no (so I was told) and my only option is to go to a local branch with ID to unblock it.

In the meantime, if I didn't have cash in the house, how would I be able to pay for anything with a blocked card?
 
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Maybe this is an unrelated story, but it doesn't feel like it at this moment in time.

I tried to buy something today online that cost £1800 (an e-bike, if anyone is interested) and the transaction was blocked by my bank. I wasn't too surprised by this, but within 10 minutes of my card being declined I received a phone call by the Fraud department.

I ran through all their security checks and informed them that it was me, that it was my money, that it was a legitimate company and there was no fraud involved. Okay, great, try again in 10 minutes and you are authorised to proceed.

10 minutes later and my card is declined again. And even better, I've been told that it's been blocked entirely and I have to go to my local branch with two pieces of evidence to prove my ID, then they will unblock it.

Now, luckily for me, I do have a local branch and it is within walking distance of 1.7 miles, and it's open on Saturdays. But what if there were no local branch? What if it were 10 miles' away? I don't drive. Okay, use public transport then. Well, fine, but what if I don't have any cash to pay?

I can understand why the transaction was blocked, but I'm really not happy that they can remotely block my card, but then computer says no (so I was told) and my only option is to go to a local branch with ID to unblock it.

In the meantime, if I didn't have cash in the house, how would I be able to pay for anything with a blocked card?

I might be looking to change banks.
 
I'm reminded of the time I called HSBC and told them that I'm going to Australia for two weeks and could they please not block my card there. "Sure, no problem!" Hah! Hah, I say! At least they unblocked it easily enough.

"We couldn't call you."
Does it say in the account notes that the customer will be in Australia?
"Yes."
Did you try and call me at what would be 2am in this part of the world?
"uummmm.."
 
I'm reminded of the time I called HSBC and told them that I'm going to Australia for two weeks and could they please not block my card there. "Sure, no problem!" Hah! Hah, I say! At least they unblocked it easily enough.

"We couldn't call you."
Does it say in the account notes that the customer will be in Australia?
"Yes."
Did you try and call me at what would be 2am in this part of the world?
"uummmm.."
I did similar when I went to the USA. Got in and bought a train ticket okay, but as soon as I went to get money out at the train station where you change from the actual trainline from JFK onto the subway.....no dice.

It's not long before the bank rings and asks me what the hell am I doing in.....Jamaica when I said I was going to the USA, they're not the same place you know (he really was that patronising). It took five minutes to convince him that Jamaica is the name of a suburb with a bloody big train station that ten of thousands of air passengers use every bloody day.
 
I can see why card providers all stopped doing the "tell us before when you're gong abroad thing". they're shit at doing anything with that info.
 
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Maybe this is an unrelated story, but it doesn't feel like it at this moment in time.

I tried to buy something today online that cost £1800 (an e-bike, if anyone is interested) and the transaction was blocked by my bank. I wasn't too surprised by this, but within 10 minutes of my card being declined I received a phone call by the Fraud department.

I ran through all their security checks and informed them that it was me, that it was my money, that it was a legitimate company and there was no fraud involved. Okay, great, try again in 10 minutes and you are authorised to proceed.

10 minutes later and my card is declined again. And even better, I've been told that it's been blocked entirely and I have to go to my local branch with two pieces of evidence to prove my ID, then they will unblock it.

Now, luckily for me, I do have a local branch and it is within walking distance of 1.7 miles, and it's open on Saturdays. But what if there were no local branch? What if it were 10 miles' away? I don't drive. Okay, use public transport then. Well, fine, but what if I don't have any cash to pay?

I can understand why the transaction was blocked, but I'm really not happy that they can remotely block my card, but then computer says no (so I was told) and my only option is to go to a local branch with ID to unblock it.

In the meantime, if I didn't have cash in the house, how would I be able to pay for anything with a blocked card?
Sounds like almost as bad as it was in the olden days, when if you wanted to buy something that cost £1800 you'd have to go in person to a physical bank to get the money.

And then you had to physically take the money to another physical place to get the thing.
 
Sounds like almost as bad as it was in the olden days, when if you wanted to buy something that cost £1800 you'd have to go in person to a physical bank to get the money.

And then you had to physically take the money to another physical place to get the thing.
I'm not sure the olden days means during my lifetime and I'm only 60.

And at least you had a level of control - you weren't interrogated about why you were withdrawing £1800, what you were buying, who the seller was, how long they'd been in business etc etc.
 
I'm not sure the olden days means during my lifetime and I'm only 60.

And at least you had a level of control - you weren't interrogated about why you were withdrawing £1800, what you were buying, who the seller was, how long they'd been in business etc etc.
Online shopping has only been a thing for about 20-30 years.
 
So not the olden days at all, then?
I misunderstood your comment & thought you were implying that it was so long ago that it wasn't within your lifetime.

But the point is, the situation you described is not really a worsening of things - of course it's a pain when electronic payments get blocked, but the fact that we can now pay for everything in that way is massively more convenient than was the case when things had to be paid for in person, with cash or a cheque (or maybe by mail by cheque). So when that convenience gets disrupted, it seems like a big deal but it's only a reversion to something like how things used to be.

And of course, were it to have been the case that someone was actually defrauding you, and the bank had failed to take any action then you would not be happy with that either.

Your point about being stuck if you didn't have any cash in the house is fair enough, but the solution to that is either to have a small amount of cash sitting around for such situations, or to have more than one bank account (with different banks) so you have a backup if one of them temporarily stops working.

This is all in the context of the discussion on this thread, which you maybe have not read all of, but we have a few folk on here that are quite obsessed about cash being the only safe and reliable means of payment (even though they obtain their cash by going to an electronic machine in the wall where the computer can also say no).
 
I misunderstood your comment & thought you were implying that it was so long ago that it wasn't within your lifetime.

But the point is, the situation you described is not really a worsening of things - of course it's a pain when electronic payments get blocked, but the fact that we can now pay for everything in that way is massively more convenient than was the case when things had to be paid for in person, with cash or a cheque (or maybe by mail by cheque). So when that convenience gets disrupted, it seems like a big deal but it's only a reversion to something like how things used to be.

And of course, were it to have been the case that someone was actually defrauding you, and the bank had failed to take any action then you would not be happy with that either.

Your point about being stuck if you didn't have any cash in the house is fair enough, but the solution to that is either to have a small amount of cash sitting around for such situations, or to have more than one bank account (with different banks) so you have a backup if one of them temporarily stops working.

This is all in the context of the discussion on this thread, which you maybe have not read all of, but we have a few folk on here that are quite obsessed about cash being the only safe and reliable means of payment (even though they obtain their cash by going to an electronic machine in the wall where the computer can also say no).
I've now downloaded the Barclays app onto my mobile so I hope I don't have to go through that tortuous process ever again.

And, for me, it was less about what happened but more about how I was treated and how it made me feel - like I was a criminal for wanting to spend my own money. I won't deny that I felt very resentful about it and was probably not as cooperative as I could've been, and I think I would've done things better with a different mindset.

Never mind, it's done now. The bike's been paid for and it should be built for me over the next six weeks.
 
Maybe this is an unrelated story, but it doesn't feel like it at this moment in time.

I tried to buy something today online that cost £1800 (an e-bike, if anyone is interested) and the transaction was blocked by my bank. I wasn't too surprised by this, but within 10 minutes of my card being declined I received a phone call by the Fraud department.

I ran through all their security checks and informed them that it was me, that it was my money, that it was a legitimate company and there was no fraud involved. Okay, great, try again in 10 minutes and you are authorised to proceed.

10 minutes later and my card is declined again. And even better, I've been told that it's been blocked entirely and I have to go to my local branch with two pieces of evidence to prove my ID, then they will unblock it.

Now, luckily for me, I do have a local branch and it is within walking distance of 1.7 miles, and it's open on Saturdays. But what if there were no local branch? What if it were 10 miles' away? I don't drive. Okay, use public transport then. Well, fine, but what if I don't have any cash to pay?

I can understand why the transaction was blocked, but I'm really not happy that they can remotely block my card, but then computer says no (so I was told) and my only option is to go to a local branch with ID to unblock it.

In the meantime, if I didn't have cash in the house, how would I be able to pay for anything with a blocked card?
my worry here is the bank calling you and you giving details to them, somehow this sounds like a massive security failure trap.
 
my worry here is the bank calling you and you giving details to them, somehow this sounds like a massive security failure trap.
No, you only need to worry if your "bank" claims there's been fraud and you need to shift your money elsewhere quickly/give them your account details for confirmation.

I was called within 10 minutes of the initial transaction being declined and all she asked me were security questions, no account details.

But yes, it's best to be doubtful that who you're speaking to might not be who they claim to be. Which is what the guy I spoke to said to me after I'd showed my passport to his colleague in the branch, and before she'd called him!:facepalm:
 
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Sorry to keep going on about this, but I work in Social Care with people who have Learning Disabilities and Autism.

I've been doing some online training tonight and it was a module on health inequalities, the treatment of people with Learning Disabilities and Autism within a clinical setting, and putting them at the centre of their own care having established their capacity to understand and make informed decisions.

As I was listening to people relate their real-life experiences of not being listened to, of feeling disempowered, of people not being patient nor making reasonable adjustments to their capacities, and of not fitting into society's expectations of acceptable behaviour, I was reminded again of my conversation with a member of the Fraud department when I went into my branch on Saturday.

This man said hello, asked how I was, then immediately launched into a long spiel about how suspicious my behaviour was when I spoke to his colleague the previous day, how suspect the company was from whom I was buying and when I burst out laughing at his paranoia, made a thinly-veiled threat to not unblock my Debit card if I did not cooperate with him.

Now, I don't know anything about this person and he may have just been responding in kind to me, but I just felt so humiliated, so disempowered and would never have started a conversation like that with a customer.

I would not have come from a place of suspicion and probably would've begun something like this:

"Hello Mr S-H, or can I call you Derek?
Derek (I prefer informality).
I appreciate you coming into the bank on a Saturday and I'm very sorry we have blocked your card, but my job is to protect your money and I am here to work with you and have your best interests at heart.
Okay, thank you.
Now, would you mind explaining to me what you are buying, who you are buying from, how much you know about them and whether you feel confident that you will receive what you are paying for, please?"

And then we could just go from there - I wouldn't feel defensive, I would've been treated with respect and care, and I would've been at the centre of the interaction, not that their fraud process was more important than me.

If this is the future, then I hope we keep cash for as long as possible.
 
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Sorry to keep going on about this, but I work in Social Care with people who have Learning Disabilities and Autism.

I've been doing some online training tonight and it was a module on health inequalities, the treatment of people with Learning Disabilities and Autism within a clinical setting, and putting them at the centre of their care having established their capacity to understand and make informed decisions.

As I was listening to people relate their real-life experiences of not being listened to, of feeling disempowered, of people not being patient nor making reasonable adjustments to their capacities, and of not fitting into society's expectations of acceptable behaviour, I was reminded again of my conversation with a member of the Fraud department when I went into my branch on Saturday.

This man said hello, asked how I was, then immediately launched into a long spiel about how suspicious my behaviour was when I spoke to his colleague the previous day, how suspect the company was from whom I was buying and when I burst out laughing at his paranoia, made a veiled threat to not unblock my Debit card if I did not cooperate with him.

Now, I don't know anything about this person and he may have just been responding in kind to me, but I just felt so humiliated, so disempowered and would never have started a conversation like that with a customer.

I would not have come from a place of suspicion and probably would've begun something like this:

"Hello Mr S-H, or can I call you Derek?
Derek (I prefer informality).
I appreciate you coming into the bank on a Saturday and I'm very sorry we have blocked your card, but my job is to protect your money and I am here to work with you and have your best interests at heart.
Okay, thank you.
Now, would you mind explaining to me what you are buying, who you are buying from, how much you know about them and whether you feel confident that you will receive what you are paying for, please?"

And then we could just go from there - I wouldn't feel defensive, I would've been treated with respect and care, and I would've been at the centre of the interaction, not that their fraud process was more important than me.

If this is the future, then I hope we keep cash for as long as possible.
I completely agree with you with regards to the bank's attitude / customer service - but I don't think that's in itself an argument for cash. It's an argument for increased regulation of banking.

The new digital pound (much discussed earlier on this thread) will also, in time, mean you can hold digital currency in your own digital wallet, eg completely separately from your bank account.
 
I completely agree with you with regards to the bank's attitude / customer service - but I don't think that's in itself an argument for cash. It's an argument for increased regulation of banking.

The new digital pound (much discussed earlier on this thread) will also, in time, mean you can hold digital currency in your own digital wallet, eg completely separately from your bank account.
I appreciate your response, but I've only recently joined the site/this Thread, so haven't ploughed my way through 100+ pages and can't comment on digital currency.

As for banking regulation: they seem to be a law unto themselves with adherence to codes of conduct entirely voluntary. Alas, I am not a millionaire with a foghorn voice constantly shouting about financial exclusion, I'm Mr Nobody so no one will listen to me.
 
It’s worth bearing in mind that online fraud in this country alone now costs almost £7bn a year (having more than doubled over the last decade). Rightly, the onus is being put on banks to do more to interrupt this fraud when in progress. They’re trying to figure that out, which includes put more pressure on their own staff not to fall for scams. So I’m not surprised there is unevenness out there for how individual bank staff respond to being presented with potentially fraudulent situations.
 
Ice Cream Vans, are they another hold out for cash only ? Got a Feast yesterday from a van - only because the guy who sells coffee from a carpark on the marshes was very busy and I couldn't be arsed queueing and he only takes cards) Came across the ice cream van - asked him if he preferred cash - he did :D I did have cash so was able to enjoy a delicious Feast.
 
It’s worth bearing in mind that online fraud in this country alone now costs almost £7bn a year (having more than doubled over the last decade). Rightly, the onus is being put on banks to do more to interrupt this fraud when in progress. They’re trying to figure that out, which includes put more pressure on their own staff not to fall for scams. So I’m not surprised there is unevenness out there for how individual bank staff respond to being presented with potentially fraudulent situations.
Banks are going to be on the hook for APP fraud later in the year, unless the customer is "grossly negligent". Subscribe to read

While this wasn't this type of payment, I'd expect this kind of interrogation to become more common.
 
It’s worth bearing in mind that online fraud in this country alone now costs almost £7bn a year (having more than doubled over the last decade). Rightly, the onus is being put on banks to do more to interrupt this fraud when in progress. They’re trying to figure that out, which includes put more pressure on their own staff not to fall for scams. So I’m not surprised there is unevenness out there for how individual bank staff respond to being presented with potentially fraudulent situations.
I've noticed that more transactions I do online are being picked up by my bank. Sometimes it's for really small amounts too.
 
I've noticed that more transactions I do online are being picked up by my bank. Sometimes it's for really small amounts too.
They are indeed and of course fraud has to be countered. I get sent a one time password for amounts around £30. Not usually a problem but last week my 99 year old Mother was moved into a full time care home. I do all her financial stuff she cannot remember how to use a mobile phone I doubt that she can still write a legible check even. Anyway I went on-line (with an account I have set up in her name) to go on the Royal Mail site to set up 3 months mail re-direction. Cost £35. I normally use my card to buy her stuff on-line. Cannot do that because understandably you have to use a card registered to one of the addresses involved. So I use her debit card but of course the bank will not process the transaction without a one time password text and she does not have a mobile!
Cannot easily put my mobile on her* account because of course she does not have on-line banking. Arrrrrrg
 
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