Am I Mean To Myself In Small Ways?
My left humerus hasn’t been in the best of sorts the last couple of weeks. But it’s always been like that in the cold, ever since the school bully broke it. After Southgate I took the train up to Oakwood station and could see the park, through which I used to walk every day to get physiotherapy on my arm, in the three months or so after it mended.
I always used to walk, rather than take the two buses, as it was in some ways easier. And of course, I got to keep the bus fare! What I used to spend it on, I can’t remember! But it was probably bits for my Meccano.
In some thmgs, I waste money, but at other times, I’m quite the opposite. It must be my careful Jewish and Huguenot genes!
Peer-to-Peer Lending In Estonia
My Zopa alert found this article from a website called European Voice.
It gives this view on Estonian banking.
Banking is the economy’s biggest weakness. It offers stingy, fee-ridden savings products and over-priced loans with nasty hidden costs. Intermediaries gain colossal profits, especially when they are greedy and reckless. When things go wrong, as they inevitably do, the taxpayer picks up the bill. Apart from that, it works fine.
It then goes on to show how things are changing through a company called Isepankur.
The writer has in fact invested some of his savings, by loaning to Estonian borrowers. This is his experience so far.
My net average return (like most Isepankur lenders) is about 17%. I have so far lent €1,570 to about 50 borrowers, in amounts ranging from €5 to €25. I have received €60 back in repaid capital and €24 in interest. I also got €0.06 in ‘penalties’ (my share in a small fine levied on a borrower called ‘Lillekas’ who paid a few days late).
I don’t think it will be many years, before the peer-to-peer lenders are available in many countries.
Who’d be a retail banker?
Credit Card Transactions
Yesterday, I used my credit cards, twice. I used my Visa card to buy a present in Selfridges and also bought my supper in Marks and Spencer using my John Lewis Partnership card.
Checking my on-line accounts this morning, neither of the transactions have been added. Why not?
In these days of instance pin checking and information, surely the information, should be in my statement, immediately I’ve used the card!
After all, it would be a big security check, for users.
On the other hand, where your partner has a card on your account, it could be major source of friction in a relationship.
How Do You Choose An On-Line Bank Account?
If I want to choose a piece of software to say edit images, it is a fairly easy process.
I can usually try the software before I buy it and all of the charges are there in words of a couple of syllables.
If say, I want to use some form of system, to store those pictures on-line, it’s something very similar. Usually, I would try it for a few days, and if I didn’t like it, I could go and try another.
But what would Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC et al, say if I said, I’d like to try their on-line banking for a few days, to see if I liked their interface? I doubt they would be amused. Or even take me seriously!
I did try to get a pointer by typing “which on-line bank account has the best interface” into Google and all I got was adverts for on-line banking. But no serious study!
Someone should do one. I would, but I’m certain that the banks would wonder why I wanted accounts with all of them.
In other ways, the customer, who should be king, loses out all round.
Supporting Aston Villa Is Much More Stressful Than Being Governor Of The Bank Of England
This is a quote from Mervyn King, in an article in the New Statesman.
I think he ducked the match at Villa Park yesterday, as he was making a speech in Belfast.
Tips For New Zopa Users
When you start using Zopa, you’re obviously going to go down a few blind alleys or do things wrong.
Here’s a few tips.
I always keep a record of the interest rates I have set and how much money, I lend out on particular days. Thus, if I find that money is sticking and not being lent, I can drop my rates slightly to see the effect. Zopa’s information helps in this way, but your own records are invaluable. I keep my records in Excel, but there is nothing wrong with an old-fashioned notebook or as my mate, Brian, would say, the back of an old envelope or fag packet. But then he was a real accountant!
I’d also check the minimum amount you are prepared to lend to each borrower. My limit is £100 and I’ve generally found that to be good and fairly safe.
I also don’t have AutoLend switched on. I just transfer the money to the offer, when it comes in. I have in the past found that sometimes having a few hundred pounds in Zopa is faster to get into my bill paying account, than waiting for my pension to come in. With money, timing is everything!
Make sure you have Rapid Return switched on, so that you can accept loans, that other lenders want to cash in. I’ve got seventy loans that way and not one has gone belly up on me. You may not pick up many loans that way, but they’ll generally be good ones.
Doing A Favour For A Friend
Last night, I renewed my friend’s domain name, as I’d originally registered it and it’s easier for me to do.
He then needed to pay me twenty four pounds, so late last night, he sent me a direct transfer to my bank account.
it was duly there this morning, when I checked my bank account.
But all the statement said, was that it was a credit of the requisite amount, labelled as just a credit.
As it was, I obviously knew what it was, so there was no problem. But surely in this day and age of good computer systems, that the banks could add a bit more detail to the statement, as soon as the money arrives.
The banks could actually use fully annotated statements as a marketing and selling point for their services.
But they don’t! No wonder people don’t like banks.
What a wunch of bankers!
Will The Co-op Bank Take Over The Lloyds Branches?
There is an article in The Times today, saying that the transfer of 632 branches from Lloyds Banking Group to the Co-op Bank is hitting various problems, mainly it appears conerned with computing.
If I was a customer of one of the branches to be transferred, I would have been off elsewhere by now, as I am one of those dinosaurs, who believe that I choose my bank and not politicians and bureaucrats from Europe.
So I suspect that if the transfer does go through, the Co-op will get some the branches without the customers.
It appears to, that a similar transfer of branches from RBS to Santander has already foundered.
It’s a real mess out there in retail banking.
Improving Banking Security
There is an article about the security level of chip and pin on the BBC’s web site. It got me thinking.
I am careful with my bank debit and credit cards and feel that with on-line banking, not enough is done to create a more flexible and much more secure system, by using the power of the servers to make things difficult for a criminal.
Logging In
I always log in from memory, rather than use the little machine that my bank gave me. As the customer number and passwords are not written down anywhere, even with the card and the machine, it would be difficult to log in to my account, unless they had co-operation from someone inside the bank.
There is a big flaw in the bank’s security, in the fact that all the machines are identical, which means criminals only have to get one to use this method of logging in, if they have a stolen debit card and the customer number. I needed a new one and just went into a branch and asked for one. They didn’t ask me any questions, before I got a new one.
I very much like the login system used by Zopa. It is very secure and very simple, and I would suspect most people would not need to write anything down to login first time. Something, you can’t say about many systems I’ve seen.
Restricting Cash Withdrawals
I have never understood why thee is nowhere in your on-line banking account, where you can set parameters about how and where you can draw money out through cash machines.
In a simple case, you might impose limits on the amount of money that could be withdrawn at any one time, or say in a week or month.
I would impose a limit of up to a hundred at any one time. If I needed more, I could always change the limit. You wouldn’t want to make it too complicated, as it would start to get onerous.
Better Bank Statements
When I look at my bank statement on-line, the cash withdrawals, just say how much I’ve withdrawn and the name of the bank. Some of the direct debits are well documented either.
it would be very easy to say give every cash point machine a unique reference, so when you checked the statement, you would quickly notice a transaction that was perhaps done with a cloned card.
The more information you gave customers, the more likely they would be to spot something that wasn’t correct.
An Emergency Pin Number
You hear stories about criminals threatening cash point users and getting them to draw money out. So why not have an emergency pin number, that smallows the card, perhaps gives out a few pounds and then says something like.
This machine as run out of money, please try another machine.
Whatever the system did would have to be carefully thought out, to avoid the criminal taking it out on the victim.
SMS Confirmation Of Bigger Transactions
I’ve never understood, why this couldn’t be done, as any message relating to a purchase you hadn’t made, would give you warning.
I’ve always felt that this would be very effective, even if only a few cards were setup this way. But would criminals take the chance of using a card that was, when it might start an immediate chase.
In some ways, what seems to be sad is that all on-line banking is so similar, when there are so many things that can be done to make the system much more secure for both the bank and its customers.
Banks are just so conservative and don’t innovate. Which is why they’re going to fail even more.
Is It The Right Maple Leaf?
There’s a bit of a row going on in Canada over whether their new plastic banknotes have the right maple leaf. It’s reported here on the BBC.
I have no opinion about the maple leaf as I’m no biologist, but is that lady on the note supposed to be the Queen?
I’ve never seen a plastic banknote, although I’ve always thought they should work. Checking with Wikipedia, they are more common than you think according to this article.
The Anonymous Widower 