Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

I went thru the basket-only line at Sainsbugs tonight and the person in front of me had their card declined and struggled around (no cash). They were with another person, think they were a couple of students, and the other person paid.

Wasn't near enough to see what bank card it was but was mentally wishing the beggar was a cash-user critter like wot I am.

Have added 3 for FB pies to the stash with 2016 dates, so that's all good. Like to have plenty of them in stock but never pay more than £1 for them. Does me two meals with HG veg so pretty economical.

Pumpkinlife, I'm very much into a highly-liquid lifestyle, principally tea-based. Nah, only joking; other that food I buy very few things and most of those are sourced from charity shops for pence. I like to think I could walk away from the "stuff" without taking too much of a financial hit.

I know a fair few people hovering on the edge of a crisis with negative equity, plus personally non-mortgage indebtedness above their annual net income, and no liquidity at all. Perversely, although on paper I would appear a poorer prospect, I am actually a lot more secure than they are.

ETA Cooltrikerchick, I have never liked Big Brother being able to see what and where I spend so have been dealing in cash all my life. Makes the bank statements nice and tidy too; the utility bills and rent out on DD and the rest a couple or three cash withdrawals and then my business is my business, not the State's to nose around in.

Goldiegirl

alfsmum wrote: »

Completely agree about 'stuff'. Dh keeps asking what I'd like for Christmas and it would be easy to hint about a couple of rather expensive kitchen gadgets I've seen but the sensible part of me
says these are wants, not needs, they might be fun but would take up much needed space and come with more bits of paper and warranties to worry about. So my list is empty as yet :rotfl:

We don't need to buy things just cos it's 'that time of year'. Good food in store and a cosy home will be the best present, with time to spend together as a family. That's what we'll remember, not 'stuff'.

Over the years, I find it increasingly difficult to think up things I want for Christmas.

This year, I have one want, which is actually a need.

My furry boot style slippers have been worn so much, they are now disintegrating, and I'm desperate for a new pair, which I believe Santa will being. So, as long as my current slippers last for 22 more days, I'll be ok!

The comfort of being at home with Mr Goldie, and some good food is much more important than 'stuff'

With regard to cash v cards, I'm generally a card user. I find it much easier to budget using my cards. I do have a little envelope of cash tucked away for emergencies - but it's not a large sum, but would be enough to get a few essentials if my bank had outage like NW did yesterday.

Hollyberry

Just to follow up on natwest this morning, my online transfer did work (to OH, who was able to check it), and I hope those of you who also bank with them are sorted. Fortunately we do have other accounts and a cash stash at home if needed, so we could have managed for a while even if all the banking systems went belly-up simultaneously.

Looking back over the past couple of days, my, I've been garrulous on here this weekend. Most unlike me! I will crawl back under my rock soon.

Speaking of snow and blizzards, I am currently re-reading Snow by Ryan Clifford - picked it up as a Kindle freebie from Amazon a while back, although it's currently £1.95 there. Really interesting look at the effects of a major blizzard on the UK, and how we'd all be fending for ourselves. I think his timescale is a bit truncated (and the proof-reading leaves something to be desired), but it's interesting to contemplate how we would cope here if the snow rose above a couple of feet and the power went off. While my inner girl scout is longing for the chance to cook over the open fire and make an "inner room" in front of it, the realist in me knows that an afternoon of it would be plenty! So I hope those of you north of the border stay snug amidst the rather more modest snow forecast this week, and with ample supplies of chocolate.

jk0

I have just been looking at the Bank of England website to try to work out why my letting agent notified me they had the rent, and then somehow it was reclaimed by the tenant's bank.

If what it says on the website is to be believed, this would be impossible:

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/markets/Documents/paymentsystems/rtgsguide.pdf

3a. Settlement of CHAPS and CREST transactions


In most countries, high-value or wholesale payments are settled on a Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) basis across accounts held at the central bank: payment instructions are submitted individually, and the paying bank is debited and the receiving bank is credited before the instruction continues on to the receiving bank. This means that the receiving bank can then go ahead and credit its client’s bank account or pay the funds away in the certain knowledge that the original instruction cannot be revoked. In the technical jargon, ‘receiver risk’ is eliminated. In the UK, CHAPS transfers and interbank payments in respect of CREST transactions are settled on an RTGS basis.CHAPS is the same-day electronic funds transfer service, provided by the CHAPS Clearing Company (which is owned by the commercial banks), that is used for high-value/wholesale payments but also for other time-critical lower value payments (such as house purchase). Individual CHAPS payment instructions are routed via the SWIFT network to the RTGS system and settled across the paying and receiving CHAPS banks’ settlement accounts.

In a little more detail, the message from the sending bank is stored within SWIFT FIN Copy while a full copy of that message is sent to the Bank for settlement. Once the payment is settled in RTGS with finality (sending bank’s account debited, receiving bank’s account credited), a confirmation is returned to SWIFT and the full payment message is then forwarded on to the receiving bank who then processes the payment as required in its own payment systems.

The receiving bank does not get notified until 'the payment is settled in RTGS with finality.'

Now, how on earth does this get reversed, unless the paying bank does not have adequate funds at the Bank of England?

Hollyberry

Sounds very odd, jk0, almost as though the letting agents had jumped the gun to start with and notified you before the rent had been received. Presumably if the tenants' bank has caused you to incur any costs as a result of non-payment, then they should be "making you whole" again, as it were, by dealing with those costs? Hopefully it will soon be in your account.

MrsAtobe

Jk0, a lot of people are reporting that funds that they saw in their accounts are no longer there:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/03/rbs_it_outage/

RBS don't know what caused the problem, so they don't know how to fix it. RBS suffer IT issues every 10 months or so, I could bore you with the reasons, but most of them are discussed in the link above. I wouldn't go within a bargepole's length of them, and I work for a global IT outsourcing company.

It's worth keeping an eye on el-Reg, BTW, they normally get the story first when it eventually comes out. If you are at all techy minded, the BOFH is amusing on a Friday afternoon.

pumpkinlife

GreyQueen, I am more of a warm milk kinda girl these days, perhaps with a glug of medicinal Talisker

I am terrified at the number of people who are carrying on as if everything is back to normal. And then of course there are the poor s*ds who were sold the dream in the good years and bought in to an extent they may not ever dig themselves out. I am incredibly debt averse, will stay renting for a long time to come and will be concentrating on the frugal fine things in life. Hence asking for dried fava beans for christmas...

This made me smile and smart a little:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-03/wisdom-looking-idiot-today

I am an idiot.

Hollyberry

MrsAtobe wrote: »

Jk0, a lot of people are reporting that funds that they saw in their accounts are no longer there:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/03/rbs_it_outage/

RBS don't know what caused the problem, so they don't know how to fix it. RBS suffer IT issues every 10 months or so, I could bore you with the reasons, but most of them are discussed in the link above. I wouldn't go within a bargepole's length of them, and I work for a global IT outsourcing company.

It's worth keeping an eye on el-Reg, BTW, they normally get the story first when it eventually comes out. If you are at all techy minded, the BOFH is amusing on a Friday afternoon.

Very interesting site, Mrs A - thanks - now bookmarked.

I saw an RBS bod being interviewed on Sky News earlier, and saying that their problem is very aged systems, which have had too many customised patches meaning that automated upgrades to the original software fail. Been there, worn that t-shirt, in a past career (for membership databases), and don't want to be doing that again. Even more so, don't want that happening where our cash is involved...

daz378

i must admit that i love looking out of my flat window during bad weather
i fixed the browser hijacker on my mates computer , reloaded to factory settings... but internet explorer still not working 8 hours trying to fix it.... hes on the dole cant afford a new computer..... back in work tomorrow a late and working over the xmas period managed to wrangle boxing day off

greenbee

Hollyberry wrote: »

Very interesting site, Mrs A - thanks - now bookmarked.

I saw an RBS bod being interviewed on Sky News earlier, and saying that their problem is very aged systems, which have had too many customised patches meaning that automated upgrades to the original software fail. Been there, worn that t-shirt, in a past career (for membership databases), and don't want to be doing that again. Even more so, don't want that happening where our cash is involved...

I wouldn't want to be the one moving everything over to a completely new system either. Been there, done that with something a little less complicated but a similar size in another regulated industry and it was NOT fun... (and there were issues for at least 18 months afterwards, even more costs and I seem to recall litigation as well :cool:). That's why people keep on patching and trying to hold these systems together with string and sellotape and by parts for their obsolete hardware on ebay...