West Norwood news, chitter chatter and gossip

[Smick]

We had this discussion previously about the Hope & Anchor. I can't see how it can possibly be a good thing for all customers, but it's a total win for the business. Some people like to be able to stick to a budget when they go out - so they take £20 and that's all they can spend. But with a credit/debit card it's far easier to keep on spending.

Crown and Anchor pub, Brixton Road, Brixton goes card-only

That's true. With 'paperless statements', contactless payments etc, money can come out of people's accounts and they will never even look. Go overdrawn, hit with a fee by the bank, no statement unless you log in, leaves you tighter for cash in your next pay cycle.

 

[Smick]

I agree with Smick that nearly everyone has a debit card for cash machine use anyway. Also I notice many people use bank cards on bus and tube these days.

You really need to be on top of using contactless payments on TfL. They are happy and efficient to refund and sort things out when they go wrong. When they do go wrong though, you can end up paying £25 for your day's travel.

Each time I use my card on public transport, I check everything on their app the next day. When I was on trains five days a week, I would think I had to contact them three times per year.

I am lucky in that I am happy to use mobiles, apps, internet banking, contactless cards, and I usually have enough to get me from one month to the next. People who can't say the same about all of those statements must feel differently.

 

[nick]

Canopy Beer is also cashless. The motivation there was that they got robbed of their cash takings a few months back - so I have a lot more sympathy with them.
Personally I hate contactless due to the loss of "intent" required to make a payment. I use the insert and PIN option in a pub so as to make the action of spending more conscious

(ETA - yes I realise Canopy should really be in the Herne Hill forum - but it's an easy pub crawl from the Railway)

 

[editor]

Washington has got it right:

However, one city in the US is resisting that trend: Washington DC. In the nation’s capital cash is still king, and a new bill introduced this week wants to keep it that way. The Cashless Retailers Prohibition Act of 2018 would make it illegal for restaurants and retailers not to accept cash or charge a different price to customers depending on the type of payment they use.

But to some, not accepting cash is discriminatory. A report last year by the Washington City Paper found that 27% of people in the US would have trouble using only a credit card to purchase products, and that the percentage in Washington DC is even higher. “I’m concerned with more and more restaurants, businesses and shops going cashless because you’re systematically excluding a group of people who are already disadvantaged and disenfranchised,” Linnea Lassiter, an analyst at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, told the paper. “And now they can’t have access to this restaurant?”

Which is exactly why Grosso and his fellow councilmembers introduced the bill. “Banning the use of cash is a discriminatory practice that disproportionately impacts the 10% of DC residents who are unbanked, and an additional 25% of residents who are underbanked and may not have access to a credit card,” he said in a statement on his website. “In addition, this practice is discriminatory against youth, who are often unable to obtain a credit card, impacting many of our middle school and high school students. By denying patrons the ability to use cash as a form of payment, businesses are effectively telling lower-income and young patrons that they are n

Why going cashless is discriminatory – and what's being done to stop it

And: 25 million Brits would struggle in a cashless society – Which? News

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Every fucking transaction shows up on your bank statement too. It's just another way to control and monitor activity.

What I spend my cash on should be my business. I don't want the bank to know that I go in the pub every night after work. It's none of their business.

Not everyone has a bank account, and/or cards (over 1.5mill in the UK don't have a bank account). It may be a small %, but why should they be excluded from venues employing a card only policy.

It sucks.

 

[CH1]

Not everyone has a bank account, and/or cards (over 1.5mill in the UK don't have a bank account). It may be a small %, but why should they be excluded from venues employing a card only policy.

I thought all banks had to offer a free Basic bank account - by law?

That said I guess people have the right to not have one - as I think I have the right not to have (and pay for) a mobile phone.

Regarding transactions coming up on your statement - I find it reassuring that is the case. I keep the receipts and reconcile them every month.

But then I'm a former book-keeper and I don't have a partner from whom to conceal my drinking habits.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

It's life insurers I am concealing my habits from.....

 

[jimbarkanoodle]

I have noticed in shops in Peckham that loads of people actively avoid the self service machines* particularly if they are card only. This puzzled me for a while but it suggests they either dont have bank cards/accounts or budget so carefully they only use set amounts of cash for the week, month or whatever.

*As a side note this can be infuriating because people stand there like silent lemons so the group queue for the one manned till builds up whilst 5 self service machines are free.

 

[editor]

These pre-paid cards aren't much of a solution either

Cost of using a prepaid card
One of the downsides to prepaid cards is that they're often subject to all sorts of charges which can vary significantly from card to card. Some of the fees you might see include:

• A fee of £5 to £10 to buy the card (although there are some free prepaid credit cards)
• A fee of 2% - 3% each time you load money onto the card
• Transaction fees - each time you use the card to buy something or withdraw cash
• Monthly fees - some cards charge a fee of £1 to £12.50 for having the card each month
• Extra fees if you use the card overseas and replacement card fees if the card is lost or stolen
• Upgrade and cancellation fees
• Fees to transfer money off the card

Prepaid Cards - the Facts about UK Prepaid Debit Cards - uSwitch

 

[Smick]

I would imagine if you are undocumented here, you can't get a bank account.

 

[Me76]

I drink in the Horns and know a few people who regularly go to the Railway after the pub has closed. The three I have spoken to tonight are all a bit Wtf when I've let them know. Two are totally in the only deal cash business so won't be able to go any more.

 

[alfajobrob]

I drink in the Horns and know a few people who regularly go to the Railway after the pub has closed. The three I have spoken to tonight are all a bit Wtf when I've let them know. Two are totally in the only deal cash business so won't be able to go any more.

Lol not saying a word...check your last sentence.

 

[discobastard]

It's life insurers I am concealing my habits from.....

I've had an insurance client get me to research health insurance customers about linking bank accounts to their insurance policy. The premise is that lifestyle impacts wellbeing, though it was mainly couched in terms of financial stress and the ability for them to 'help' if somebody's financial situation changes significantly. I actually don't think they know what they would do with it yet.

It is similar to existing health insurance products whereby your insurance premium reduces if your are doing 'good' things like getting over 10,000 steps a day (Vitality do this whereby you get reward points for tracking data Fitness Tracker Offers | Activity Tracking | Vitality) They can't put your premium up if you don't do the activity though.

If insurance companies *did* look at your bank activity though, they would only get limited information at present, because while they could potentially decline payments to gambling and possibly pubs and off licence chains, they don't get itemised purchase data, only where you are buying. So if you wanted to put a block on your ability to buy alcohol or fast food, they could potentially do this by building up a database of bookies, off licences and fast food joints. Which they have in place for the major chains. But if you go into the Co-op and buy fags and booze they can't do anything about that because individual item data doesn't get transmitted when you do that. At present. It would be a huge undertaking to put that in place and so stuff like that is a long way off. And while they might be able to eventually do that with the larger chains like KFC and the Co-op - it would be a long way off before they would get that data from places like Costcutter in Tulse Hill. So it's not gonna happen anytime soon, they are not that organised.

I have no doubt they are cooking something up, but it's a long way off, and you'd have to opt in due to GDPR. Still, I really don't like it.

 

[Smick]

I have read that the new Lidl at Crown Point will be opening next Thursday, 19th September.

There's no doubt that it will be the same goods sold in the same way as the Lidl in Streatham or Norbury, but I am actually quite excited and may even go round on the day it opens, just to check it out.

 

[discobastard]

I have read that the new Lidl at Crown Point will be opening next Thursday, 19th September.

There's no doubt that it will be the same goods sold in the same way as the Lidl in Streatham or Norbury, but I am actually quite excited and may even go round on the day it opens, just to check it out.

About time Though still actually quicker for me to go to Aldi in Streatham!

 

[sparkybird]

There's a Lidl in Streatham too discobastard !

 

[Smick]

About time Though still actually quicker for me to go to Aldi in Streatham!

Tulse Hill is in the middle of a Lidl triangle. Between Norbury, Streatham and Brixton. We will be moving to a Lidl square now.

I definitely prefer Aldi to Lidl, but I'm not sure if it is novelty or not.

I hate the big shops now. Tesco and Sainsburys. Having to traverse 28 aisles just to get your shopping instead of 3. And if I want a packet of digestives, for example, there are maybe six different brands, each with multiple pack sizes. I might have to size up the price per gram of 15 different packs of biscuits, never mind the special offers. Lidl: one, maybe two packs. And it's all cheaper in the German shops. Tesco in Streatham is a last resort for me.

 

[BusLanes]

So I was perusing Twitter the other day and by chance saw the Herne Hill Society and Helen Hates united in their opposition to BT's new Link WiFi and calling pedestals. Basically they seem to see them as hotspots (ha!) of anti social behaviour.

I must say I hadn't thought about that before. I just assumed they were an annoying, shelter free modern version of a phone box.

 

[editor]

So I was perusing Twitter the other day and by chance saw the Herne Hill Society and Helen Hates united in their opposition to Bat's new Link WiFi and calling pedestals. Basically they seem to see them as hotspots (ha!) of anti social behaviour.

I must say I hadn't thought about that before. I just assumed they were an annoying, shelter free modern version of a phone box.

I can't say I've seen much anti social activity around the ones in Brixton. Just people charging their phones.

 

[BusLanes]

I can't say I've seen much anti social activity around the ones in Brixton. Just people charging their phones.

It did seem like an over reaction - I wonder if they have any hard data on this

 

[CH1]

I have read that the new Lidl at Crown Point will be opening next Thursday, 19th September.

There's no doubt that it will be the same goods sold in the same way as the Lidl in Streatham or Norbury, but I am actually quite excited and may even go round on the day it opens, just to check it out.

Went past it en route to the Open House London Crystal Palace Underpass.
The Lidl car park seems massive - and the store looks quite large for a Lidl.
Full car park on Sunday morning seems to me hardly catering to zero emissions.
Maybe the garish Fast Charger electric point is Lidl's get out of jail free card?

 

[Smick]

Went past it en route to the Open House London Crystal Palace Underpass.
The Lidl car park seems massive - and the store looks quite large for a Lidl.
Full car park on Sunday morning seems to me hardly catering to zero emissions.
Maybe the garish Fast Charger electric point is Lidl's get out of jail free card?

Great, so I can charge my car there when I am shopping.

 

[GarveyLives]

Three men are now due to stand trial over the murder of West Norwood father-of-one Jude Gayle.

Jonathon Haynes, 35, of Park Avenue, Mitcham, and Leon Bishop, 30, from East Dulwich, appeared at The Old Bailey on Wednesday 11 October 2017

They were each remanded in custody where they will remain until their trial which is due to take place in March.

A third man, Tarelle Bishop, 23, of Dunelm Grove, West Norwood, appeared at The Old Bailey on Tuesday 3 October 2017, when he was also charged with the murder of Mr Gayle and is also set to stand trial in March 2018.

The Late Jude Gayle

Anyone with information concerning this incident should call the Homicide and Major Crime Command on 020 8721 4961 or via 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111​

On the second anniversary:

Jude Gayle death: Family's new appeal to find man's killers

 

[editor]

The trendy craft beer place next to Pintadero has now closed for good.

 

[colacubes]

The trendy craft beer place next to Pintadero has now closed for good.

Can’t say I’m surprised. It was never busy and the prices for cans weren’t much cheaper than going for a pint over the road.

 

[editor]

Can’t say I’m surprised. It was never busy and the prices for cans weren’t much cheaper than going for a pint over the road.

I think they'd prematurely boozejaculated.

 

[editor]

Here's a fascinating photo of the old station before it was rebuilt

 

[CH1]

Fascinating (to me) human interest story about a collapsing bar stool at the Gipsy Hill Tavern.
Man sues pub for £1,000,000 after bar stool collapsed under him | Metro News
after this £1 million legal suit, it appears the judge knocked it back to £198,343.69 plus interest.
£200k for dad who ballooned to 22st after breaking ankle in pub fall

It does go to show though that falling off your bar stool can adversely affect you life - particularly if you instal satellite dishes up long ladders.

 

[tommers]

Can’t say I’m surprised. It was never busy and the prices for cans weren’t much cheaper than going for a pint over the road.

I used to go in there to buy a few cans as a treat on a Saturday. Annoyingly I had just bought a big glass bottle to refill when they closed down.

 

[editor]

I used to go in there to buy a few cans as a treat on a Saturday. Annoyingly I had just bought a big glass bottle to refill when they closed down.

It's now been taken over by Pintadera who have expanded into two units.