The Anonymous Widower

It’s Not Their Money It’s Mine!

I haven’t used large amounts of cash for years, but I did a couple of times years ago, when I needed to buy a car, or in one case a truck privately.

However, I do think HSBC are being a bit heavy handed in this story from the BBC. Here’s the reaction of an HSBC customer, when he tried to withdraw £10,000.

Mr Cotton cannot understand HSBC’s attitude: “I’ve been banking in that bank for 28 years. They all know me in there. You shouldn’t have to explain to your bank why you want that money. It’s not theirs, it’s yours.”

Strangely, you’re probably better off using a peer-to-peer lender as an instant access account, as I do. If I needed £10,000 on say the 10th March, I could probably get it in returns from my Zopa account with little difficulty.  But I’d have to plan what I was doing. On the other hand my credit raqting is good enough to borrow it from the sdame source, if I needed it urgently.

As peer-to-peer lenders get bigger, more common and flexible, we’ll see all sorts of innovative ways to manage our money.

Banks will probably die in their numbers, as they are incapable of innovation. I like the quote of Paul Volcker, who was once chairman of the Federal Reserve.

ATMs were banking’s only useful technological innovation in the last 30 years.

He is so right.

January 25, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Finance | Banks, Peer-to-Peer Lending