The True Cost Of My €100 Withdrawal
I withdrew €100 from a cashpoint in Bishopsgate before I went on holiday.
I got a rate of 1.157 euro to the pound, which for my € 100 worked out at £86.42. I was then charged a Non-UK commission fee of £1.72 and a Non-UK cash withdrawal fee of £1.00. The main transaction incidentally was labelled Ulster Bank.
So as I was in Bishopsgate and did a transaction with a bank in Ulster, surely I was in the UK. So why did I get slapped for an extra charge of £2.72?
On the other hand it was probably a better transaction, than I got in Morocco, when I changed a few pounds into the local dirham.
If I was in charge of this world, I’d create a universal token, that was worth about a pound, a dollar or a euro, that you could use for small transactions on public transport, pay toilets and with street vendors. After all, many machines now accept a one pound or one euro coin.
Getting Euros In The City Of London On Sunday
I’m going on a cruise tomorrow and thought I’d get some euros, as we’re calling at Corunna, Casablanca, Cadiz, Gibraltar and Lisbon.
I did try yesterday to get s0me at the Angel yesterday, but banks don’t seem to keep them. So I took a bus this morning to Bishopsgate to this Euro Cashpoint under Tower42.
NatWest’s Euro Cashpoint On Bishopsgate
It was a lot less painless than going into and collecting some, as I’m rather allergic to queues.
I’m not sure how much the euros cost yet! But I only needed a few, and I suspect the boat might be a lot more expensive.
Are Pound Coins The New Threepenny Bits?
I know pound coins are worth eighty times more than the old brass threepenny bits, but they do have some of their qualities.
I was in Carluccio’s yesterday afternoon having tea and some polenta cake, and after I’d paid my bill early in cash, I found I had a pile of about half-a-dozen pound coins in front of me. I then started playing with them, by doing things like building stacks, just as I used to do the same thing with threepenny bits over forty years ago. After all, they are about the same weight and have the same clunky feel!
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!
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.
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.
Marks And Spencer Give Out Fivers
I sometimes get cash out of the machine in the side of Marks and Spencer at The Angel.
The last twice, it has given me a large number of fivers.
So that’s where they all are!
The machine was still at it on the 15th January.
Marks And Spencer Give Out Fivers
Note the warning notice!
The notes were as tatty and old as the cash machine, but no-one has rejected any so far.
The Daily Telegraph Says Start Sharing
This article in the Daily Telegraph should be read by everyone.
It outlines various Internet-based sharing schemes for cars, money and even land.
It says this about Zopa and its ilk.
When your budget is tight, lending money to strangers might seem crazy, but a rising number of savers and borrowers are going online to cut out the high street banks.
Better still, while interest rates stand at a historic low, DIY bankers who advance loans online at “peer-to-peer” lending websites such asZopa.co.uk can earn an average return of 5.4pc a year.
We live in interesting times.
The Big Difference Between Men And Women
I can always remember from my student days, that if you had a flat full of females, they often worked out to the nearest d., who paid what for things like food. Males usually didn’t bother with exact mathematics.
So fifty years later in a curry house tonight, I was surprised to see two about eighteen-year-old female students doing what C always remarked girls did.
I wonder why this difference exists! And hasn’t changed!
Cashpoints on Belgian and Dutch Motorways
I needed some euros on the way home and couldn’t find a cashpoint on the motorway.
Beware! After all, most garages and motorway services in the UK have them.
The Anonymous Widower 