Preparedness for when

Frugalsod

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

1 Tonsil, DD1 suggests the following possibility. As you have family in the UK and a UK bank account with money in it, how about giving family in the UK access to that account (online, debit card etc) or opening a joint account at the same bank. They could then use it for western union money transfer possibly to Corfu if supported (worth checking whether that would be released?) or to Italy/Albania wherever is easier to get to. They can transfer £1000 or more at a time in Euros and all that is needed is the transfer code and ID to collect it.
It wouldn't be accessing a Greek account and therefore should not be subject to Greek banking codes unless it is then put into a Greek bank.
She used Western Union in Morocco on a school expedition when there was a problem with cash (not enough issued) and received £1300 in local currency on production of ID at a Western Union point. They are widespread and easy to use.
Just a thought.

I suspect that western Union would have the same problems as they would also be subject to capital controls.

Secondly no need to give power of attorney to them or need to open bank account, simply go online and transfer the funds to their account online. The problem will still be within Greece and its financial institutions.

Frugalsod

Just found this solution for those suffering rodent infestations.

1Tonsil

western union and paypal are not operating in Greece, since the cash restrictions came in. We have a temporary solution in that my sister is visiting for a week on Friday, so will bring us some emergency cash. There is no way of opening an account in Albania , I even need a visa to visit for the day, and they are not in the euro ..We are eight hours on the express ferry from Italy and it would be very expensive to travel there at the height of the season to go to the bank. We are looking for long term solutions in case the situation gets worse or the whole thing crashes. We have family coming over in Sept so they may be able to bring us extra with them, and we are going to the UK in December for a month.

I think the banks are already empty, they are shuffling small amounts around so no one suspects and we all get a little eventually. I heard today that the banks will not give any change to the businesses. I wondered why we have been so short of change for a few months......it stinks! At the moment you are not allowed to open a new account, even at a new bank...and you cannot close one either. Wouldn't you be suspicious as well?:eek:

The bank we have the issue with is one of the four that is not performing well. I have had the thought that I might go and speak with the manager of the other bank we use for the mortgage on the house. That bank is performing well. He might be able to tell me if they can take sterling now as well as euros. Hmmm

Frugalsod

1Tonsil wrote: »

western union and paypal are not operating in Greece, since the cash restrictions came in. We have a temporary solution in that my sister is visiting for a week on Friday, so will bring us some emergency cash. There is no way of opening an account in Albania , I even need a visa to visit for the day, and they are not in the euro ..We are eight hours on the express ferry from Italy and it would be very expensive to travel there at the height of the season to go to the bank. We are looking for long term solutions in case the situation gets worse or the whole thing crashes. We have family coming over in Sept so they may be able to bring us extra with them, and we are going to the UK in December for a month.

Get your family to bring lots of change if they can. Not so easy when banks only give out notes.

My suggestion about Italy was because it is relatively close and they are in the euro area. Obviously transport costs during high season make it unworkable as a regular event. Though as a last resort it might be a bit more workable.

1Tonsil wrote: »

I think the banks are already empty, they are shuffling small amounts around so no one suspects and we all get a little eventually. I heard today that the banks will not give any change to the businesses. I wondered why we have been so short of change for a few months......it stinks! At the moment you are not allowed to open a new account, even at a new bank...and you cannot close one either. Wouldn't you be suspicious as well?:eek:

They are probably all insolvent. The levels of non performing loans is very high.

1Tonsil wrote: »

The bank we have the issue with is one of the four that is not performing well. I have had the thought that I might go and speak with the manager of the other bank we use for the mortgage on the house. That bank is performing well. He might be able to tell me if they can take sterling now as well as euros. Hmmm

It would make sense to pay that direct so while you are not withdrawing money it will allow that debt to be paid down. Maybe quarterly transfers to minimise bank fees. Find out options from locals about bankruptcy in Greece, if your mortgage is in Euros and Greece switches to another currency you might find the costs of the mortgage or value increasing. It is only by looking far ahead that we can avoid such traps.

Good luck.

jk0

1T, I would get your sister to bring you Euros rather than Pounds and try to change them to Euros in Greece.

They change cash to Euros quite happily in UK post offices.

GreyQueen

1tonsil, if your relations in the UK can get to a small independant bureau de change, they may be able to purchase euro coins as well as notes. One here sells coins (all currency, not just euros) at 80% of face value, to incentivise people to take them. Worth asking them to make some enquiries in their locality, perhaps?

The bigger bureaux won't touch the coins, coming or going, but the smaller ones may have them.

Watching this is like seeing a car spinning out of control at very very slow motion. You can't see that it will end other than in disaster, and can only wince and wait for impact. I can't imagine how frightening and depressing it must be for people in Greece.

I just hope a fair few people outside Greece, including here, are looking at this mess thoughtfully and thinking about keeping some cash on hand, as well as stocks of usable supplies.

The Sierra Nevada mountains are interesting. They are irrigated with small stone-build drainage channels (I have forgotten the Spanish name, sorry) which date back to Moorish times, and channel water down from the mountains along the contour lines. I remember from reading Driving Over Lemons, that the times the water is released to invidiual plot holders is controlled and the author had a very unfavourable time (small hours) and was charging about opening and closing little water gates.

I guess if your unemployment pay is exhausted and the options are to return to the family patch or emigrate, a bit of land where you can grow some food, harvesting the sweet chestnuts on the hills and repairing the little old farmstead are a lot better than being destitute in Madrid.

Ultimately, these mountains are moving into increasing aridity, as are many parts of southern Spain, so it isn't somewhere to sell up and move to, unless you want to end up stuck on land which is drying out into uselessness.

In the future, I think a lot of us will be revising our standards downwards, in terms of material things, travel, holidays etc. It seems likely to me that the future will be slower, and harder, and more like the mid-twentieth century than the glossy new world we've all had brandished before us.

I can darn and garden, and mend some stuff, so I am ahead of some folk but a long way behind others in terms of what I can do. Plenty more skills out there to try and master.

[Deleted User]

jk0 wrote: »

They change cash to Euros quite happily in UK post offices.

Ramsdens has the best high street exchange rate I've found.

Currently 1.3795

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

In the future, I think a lot of us will be revising our standards downwards, in terms of material things, travel, holidays etc. It seems likely to me that the future will be slower, and harder, and more like the mid-twentieth century than the glossy new world we've all had brandished before us.

I can darn and garden, and mend some stuff, so I am ahead of some folk but a long way behind others in terms of what I can do. Plenty more skills out there to try and master.

I suspect that is the reality but politicians will not get re-elected if they told us that. So they lie.

Though I suspect it will be a slow and gradual decline if they can manage it. The US has had 40 years of stagnant wages yet no mass uprising so far. As a result people will blame themselves rather than realise that the whole game is rigged against them. Once that happens then TPTB will panic as their heads become extremely vulnerable.

GreyQueen

Yeah, the whole happy talk thingy about how people are feeling more confident now. Oh really? I don't encounter any of these happy souls. Most people I know are hurting for money.

Several things have served to disguise people's growing improverishment. One of the chief ones if the availability of cheap-as-chips clothing, footwear, misc stuff produced in sweatshops. The other is consumer credit.

I dunno what it's like where you live, but you wouldn't associate the name of my city (if I gave it - I won't) with improverishment. You'd not associate this place with material hardship. Yet it seems every time I walk through the city there has been a new business added to the roster of those which exploit the poorest.

An endless parade of cash converter/ pay-day loan/ cheque cashing places, pawn shops and endless varieties of the same, where the desperate hock their goods and chattels for a few quid. Just when I think the market must have reached saturation, along comes another one. It's the only growth industry, apparently.

Secondhand shops have always been with us, but I see an economy cannibalising itself, competing to buy rags and scrap metal and cabling, to lend each other money at usurous interest. I see sleazy strip bars etc on main shopping streets and ladies of negotiable affection not even bothering to keep to the red light district. My schoolteacher pals have children fainting at school from hunger, and they aren't self-starving, either.

All this looks like an economy, and a society, on a hiding to nowhere. Or nowhere a prosperous civilised country should aspire to reaching.

I talk to people who have never been brushed by the cold winds of ill-fortune, professionals who have been gainfully employed for 25-30 years. They never thought they'd be out of work and are devastated when it happens to them, and they can't get anything comparable to what they had, they can barely get part-time low wage jobs.

It's sobering to talk to people who are selling their furniture to pay their bills and contemplating emigration to the middle east to work, because that's the place which is hiring.

But hey, to steal a phrase from Candide, all is for the best, in this best of all possible worlds. Turn off your brain and admire a K*rd*shi*n's plump behind, light up a joint, sip some wine; no one wants to think about what's really happening, it't too flipping depressing.

thriftwizard

Heads up - something odd happening in the US with credit/debit cards - friends reporting that they can't use debit cards, only credit cards, and this is from more than one state, several different big box stores/garages, more than one bank, and over two days. Just a computer glitch?

ETA: Not total, but here & there, it seems.