Could We All Own Part of the Taxpayer-Owned Banks?
Liberal Democrat MP is suggesting that all adults on the electoral roll be given about a £1,000 of shares in the taxpayer-owned banks.
It looks that it could be a good idea, especially if the conditions are got right. After all it could be argued that they were bought with our money.
If nothing, it would mean that the electoral roll would probably be better than it is in some places now.
But there would have to be substantial protection against fraud. And I hope the sharesare restricted to those owning British passports.
King says “Bank Reforms Must Not Fail”
The headline of this post is taken from an article on the BBC web-site.
Meryn King makes a lot of good points, but on the other hand why shouldn’t banks fail? And when they do why should those behind that failure be rewarded with large bonuses?
When Northern Rock failed, we were able to rescue what was left and it is now back in the land of the living. But the managers were really criminally responsible for what they did. Did they know that the government would bail Northern Rock out, so they just didn’t care? It doesn’t matter but those irresponsible managers weren’t prosecuted. And where are they now? I bet they live comfortably in large houses somewhere, when a lot of their unfortunate employers are struggling badly in damp flats.
I should add here, that years ago I part-owned a finance company. I was worried about what would happen if something catastrophic happened to one of the principles. As its lending was basically sound, all we would have needed to do, was just run the company into the ground collecting the debts and cutting expenses to the bone to get all of our money back. I think this is what was done with Northern Rock, so when a bank goes bust, everything is not lost.
If we look at HBOS and RBS, then they should have been treated the same way as Northern Rock. But the failure of two banks in NuLabor heartlands couldn’t be allowed to happen. In the end however, Lloyds was brought into the mess to save NuLabor’s face and a good sound bank was ruined. The only things that are important in my way of thinking about banks, is that the money of innocent customers is safe and companies and individuals that need to borrow have access to funds.
In part, since the banking crisis, things have got better, as customer money is now safe, but obtaining funds for a reputable purpose has got difficult. Unless of course you have no credit rating, so you can go down the pay-day loan route and bankrupt yourself.
I suspect too, that people are now less likely to bank in countries like Iceland. Why incidentally, does the UK government have to bail out the Icelandic banks, so those greedy individuals who put their money offshore get their money back? I prefer to bank with a building society and speculate using Zopa. And with Zopa, I’m getting five or six percent by following a conservative strategy.
So King’s statement that reforms must not fail is correct, but those reforms must not ruin the banks, as NuLabor ruined Lloyds.
And those reforms must not bring companies like Zopa into the grasp of the FSA. But I suspect there will be pressure for this, as the Zopa model is low-cost for borrowers and lenders, and I can see it growing to be very large. Will the major clearing banks allow this? I doubt it and they will have the King’s ear.
I Never Use My Visa Card On-Line
I’ve just been reviewing my credit card use, as it is getting to that time in the month when they get paid.
The interesting thing is that my Visa card is now never used on-line and hasn’t been for some months, as the stupid Verified by Visa system is a complete deterent to on-line use, as I pointed out in an earlier post.
The system may mean that my bank doesn’t see any on-line fraud with credit cards, but I just wonder if some people have cut-up their Visa cards in frustration at the security system.
Is Now the Time to Get a Zopa Loan?
One of the advantages of a Zopa is that you get the loan at a fixed-rate for three or five years. With interest rates, likely to rise in the next few months according to many, such as the Telegraph, if you have a good credit rating, could Zopa be the place to get a loan now?
After all, the great advantage is that if you cash a Zopa loan in, you don’t pay any penalties. And you can even change the repayment day, if your salary date should change say.
Folding Stools at the British Museum
I saw these clever folding stools in the British Museum yesterday.
Folding Stools at the British Museum
I like these, as they are a simple design, that does what is needed without fuss. I didn’t use one, as I’m not that decrepit yet!
We need good design and the jobs it creates to get us out of the hole, that the clueless wunch of bankers dug for us.
The Discontinuous NHS
I am a control engineer by training, although I haven’t really practised since the early 1970s. But any control engineer will tell you that the most difficult system to control is one with discontinuities. I always liken it to riding a bicycle, which you may be able to do happily on the flat, but then you need to go up or down a kerb and you have a problem.
Some of the biggest problems we get in life are concerned with discontinuities; such as birth, marriages and deaths. We also get a whole series of problems when we do something like move house.
Organisations such as the banks, insurance, utility and telephone companies, major retailers, supermarkets and some government agenices like the DVLC, TV Licensing and a few others, have used modern methods, such as web sites, e-mail, text messaging and dare I say it well-designed call centres to liase with their customers in whatever way those important customers find easiest and most convenient. If say a gas company doesn’t do what the customers want, then those same customers will desert it.
Moving wasn’t particularly difficult for me, with respect to gas, electricity, banks, gas, water, credit cards, broadband, TV and phones, even if I have a couple of minor issues to sort out.
One problem I have had was getting used to the refuse system. But Hackney council were very helpful over the phone and the binmen sorted out the small details. But in an ideal world all councils would use the same collection system. In a few years time, they probably will, as one method will probably be cheapest for all councils to operate for a variety of reasons. The method will probably have a high level of recycling too.
But the NHS seems almost to be designed to be discontinuous.
My previous and current surgeries are run on different lines, probably use different computer systems and have made my transfer a lot more difficult than it should be, as I can’t understand, why the same system is not used in both places. Would, BP, Shell or Esso, use different computer systems in all the garages they supply with fuel? I don’t know, but I suspect they don’t!
Today, I miscalculated when I would run out of tablets. I thought I had another weeks supply, which I do, except for the statins I take. So I needed to get some more.
At my previous surgery, I just e-mailed them and they would be ready within 24 hours. But my new surgery doesn’t have a pharmacist and after visiting them this morning, they informed me, I wouldn’t get the prescription forms until tomorrow afternoon. I had assumed as it was a repeat prescriptiuon, I could just pick one up and get it dispensed. I thought that I might be able to get some in emergency at a pharmacist, but this would need a visit to a doctor at an NHS walk-in centre. Would we accept such a system for buying groceries at Tesco’s.
We need two things.
- Every surgery should use similar systems and methods. They should also make it clear to new patients, how you get repeat prescriptions.
- All repeat prescriptions, should be on a central NHS database, so that you can walk into any pharmacy and get the drugs you need. But would that be giving too much power to the patient and pharmacists? What would happen say if I was on holiday in Cromer and I lost my backpack with all my drugs in it? I suspect, it would probably take a whole day to sort it out!
The NHS might save billions by doing what any sensible organisation would do and many government agencies already do. Service would improve to the more modern standards that people expect and receive from many companies they deal with on a day-to-day basis.
Cash Point Machines
I do have a couple of issues with cash point machines, in that Some touch screens are a bit difficult to see and operate for me and I don’t like new £20 notes, as in one incident I gave someone forty by mistake and got the change for twenty.
on a rainy daya couple of weeks ago, I was passing Nationwide at the Angel and needed some money, so I went inside. They had installed a new machine inside and I found it a lot easier to use. It was also placed by a row of seats, so I could sit down, whilst I separated the £20 notes and buried them in the depths of my backpack.
So now, if I’m in that area, I’ll always go to that branch of my bank, Nationwide, if I need some cash. It may not be in their interest, as now I’ll get twenty or thirty out several times a week, instead of perhaps one lot of two hundred. But I do know, that I can do everything safely in the branch and don’t misplace my card, which I sometimes am wont to do.
As a comparison, I went into a friend’s bank with her and it wasn’t relaxed at all and there was nowhere to sit.
I had thought, that it was just this Nationwide branch at the Angel, that was deliberately spacious. However, I’ve since used Moorgate and High Holborn and found similar, although not identical designs. In fact in High Holborn yesterday, with the rain being biblical outside, one of the staff was virtually offering the branch to anybody who came in, as a haven of rest.
So are we seeing a change in banks attitudes, where customers are higher up the priority list? Some banking adverts say so, but are they just words and not deeds?
Zopa As A Cash Flow Smoother
As I indicated in an earlier post, I’ve had a lot of expenses over the previous few weeks, mainly concerned with Christmas and moving house.
As I have invested quite a few thousand in Zopa, over a month I get about £2,000 in repayments and interest to re-invest. But this month, I’ve borrowed some of that to avoid charges and make sure payments go in on the right day. At the end of the month, I’ll put it back into Zopa or something even better.
This is not what Zopa was intended for, but it does show how there are easy ways to avoid being charged by the enormous wunch of bankers out there.
Has the Banking System Failed Us This Christmas?
I don’t have any specific issues, but it did seem that all of my payments and transfers seemed to be taking a day or two longer than normal. But then it is some years since Christmas and New Year has fallen squarely on a Saturday and Sunday. As I’ve moved, I also had set up quite a few utility direct debits, so perhaps I was putting a bit more strain in than most.
So perhaps if they did fail us, it was more in the matter of communicating the strain the system would be under.
If I have a personal issue, it might be with Virgin Media, as I can’t find any trace of my payment to them in my bank account. But this morning, I woke up with no TV and broadband. It is now working properly, although they haven’t been able to transfer my number yet.
So I think, I’ll be on the phone again on Monday.
The Alternative Annuity
The government has stated that it will be abolishing the rule on annuities that means that insurance companies chew up a large proportion of your pension in adminstration charges and incompetence. Whether they actually will abolish it is open to question, as I suspect that insurance companies will be difficult to throw off this particular gravy train.
There is an old joke, which goes something like “How do you make a small fortune?” with an answer of “Start with a large one! and give it to a financial advisor!”
I am not a financial advisor, but I’ve lost millions due to their incompetence. Don’t worry as I’ve also made millions by completely ignoring their advice! So on balance I know a good investment when I see it and a bad one, when no-one else does. I should say that I don’t invest in stocks and shares as I’m then at the mercy of a market over which I have no control. I do wish sometimes, that in the past, I’d used my technological knowledge to buy a few stocks. As an example, I told people that Alan Sugar would be a star in the early 1970s, as what do you get if you give technology to a man, who made his first money flogging car radio aerials and electronic goods from a van? But I had no money to invest when he took Amstrad public. I also met one of the founders of 3Com at Comdex in Las Vegas and thought they were a good thing! They had a tiny stand there which was probably about the size of Alan Sugar’s van.
So do I regret a life of missed opportunities? No! I’m with Piaf on this one!
Life is just a series of pauses, waiting for the next bus to come along. Luckily the buses are getting bigger, better and more comfortable.
It is two years and a couple of months, since I first put the money from C’s Porsche Boxster into Zopa. I added a bit from my pension fund and a few thousand here and there, so that now I’ve got about £50,000 invested. Not a large fortune by any means, but typical of the sort of pots many people of my age have in savings. Every month now, it repays me about £3,000 back in interest and repaid loans, which I reinvest immediately, so the pot is growing! I have had three loans go bad on me, but I’m only £350 down on them and one has even started repaying its debts.
So if you look at the sort of cash flow, you get with Zopa, it is a sum paid paid in, which gives you an income over a period of years, not unlike an annuity. But without all the charges!
So does a retirement financial strategy go something like this. As you approach retirement, you put a small sum into Zopa, so that you get comfortable with the concept. Then as you get happier, you transfer your money accordingly. There is one problem with Zopa though; that is that it is not liked by financial advisers. After all where’s the commission? If they are Zopa investors themselves they may get a bullseye, if they introduce a new investor, but that’s not going to make anybody rich.
Zopa though will be followed by other imitators. Some will be better, but the ones I’ve seen so far are not, often because they have tried to accommodate the dreaded financial adviser.
The Anonymous Widower 