Paying in large amount of £50 notes to bank

sheramber

When my dad's uncle died they found hoards of money around the house- in teapots, behind drawers, in biscuit tins etc. It made them concerned that they would miss some.

Ballard

The attitude towards holding cash rather than putting it in a bank is a strange one but seems reasonably common among people of a certain age. 

I’m 53 but I remember my Mum opening an account with the Woolwich BS back in the 70s and going in to get my passbook updated with interest every now and then. I was hooked on the idea of earning interest for no apparent reason so this was a great lesson by my Mum.

I don’t obsess with interest but I try to keep on top of my options and that account was the seed to my financial understanding. 

hareng

Rob5342 said:

Agreed - she is completely off her head keeping that much money at home. For a start she has lost over £30k of interest.

Unlikely, they give you nothing but take everything - £32k in a high interest earnt £32 a year thats it.

Britcoins already in force signed by Rishi last year.

jon81uk

hareng said:

Rob5342 said:

Agreed - she is completely off her head keeping that much money at home. For a start she has lost over £30k of interest.

Unlikely, they give you nothing but take everything - £32k in a high interest earnt £32 a year thats it.

Britcoins already in force signed by Rishi last year.

Are you sure it would be as low as £32?
1% interest would be £320 a year.

I doubt they would have doubled their money as the previous poster suggested, but seems feasible they could have got a few thousand over the last 20+ years.

Daliah

jon81uk said:

Are you sure it would be as low as £32?
1% interest would be £320 a year.

True, though many of the High Street banks offered (are still offering?) as little as 0.1% to their loyal customers. In 2020, consumer magazine Which? found 110 accounts paying 0.1%. 

Like there are people who keep cash under their mattress, there are people who keep cash in those 0.1% savings accounts. Or worse, in current accounts at 0%.

wmb194

jon81uk said:

hareng said:

Rob5342 said:

Agreed - she is completely off her head keeping that much money at home. For a start she has lost over £30k of interest.

Unlikely, they give you nothing but take everything - £32k in a high interest earnt £32 a year thats it.

Britcoins already in force signed by Rishi last year.

Are you sure it would be as low as £32?
1% interest would be £320 a year.

I doubt they would have doubled their money as the previous poster suggested, but seems feasible they could have got a few thousand over the last 20+ years.

No, it's perfectly feasible. Particularly in the early nineties when the Bank Rate was still very high, you have to remember that up to the GFC it used to be easy to find instant access accounts paying 5%+ and savings bonds paying a bit more. Even when the GFC hit and deposit rates in general fell, for a few years you could still find 5% five year savings bonds plus various 3% to 8%+ instant access, current accounts, regular savers and savings bonds. I still have a ten year savings bond with a couple of years left to run that's paying 4%. 

So take £10,000, compound it at 5% for 30 years and it will come to £43,219. The only wrinkle will be tax, but on this amount it should have been possible to shelter it in a Tessa and Isa at a reasonable rate for a lot of the time.

Particularly post-GFC, don't take the data in the table below as gospel as it will include a lot of 'dud' accounts that drag the averages down but it gives an idea of how things were, particularly pre-GFC.

https://www.swanlowpark.co.uk/savings-interest-data

gt94sss2

Bluemax220 said:

So, what to do? The bank basically have said that they cannot/will not help as they cannot authenticate the origin of the money and it contravenes their policies. When I asked when these policies were brought in (and if they pre-dated 1995), they said they did not know, although that was unlikely.

If you want to pay it in to HSBC, many of their branches have machines in them which you can deposit money using an ATM card.

Putting in a couple of thousand at a time should be fine and you don't have to deal with staff.

Similarly, you can pay money into HSBC accounts at Post Offices - who again should be willing to accept a couple of thousand people in a deposit..

As others have said, you won't lose any value as the Bank of England will change them to the new design if you are stuck with them

Ballard

Paying cash into a machine, the post office or perhaps a different branch is fine but ultimately the banks systems could mark this as suspicious. It’s not just the staff that are on the lookout for potential money laundering, the software will also be on alert.

Using ways to avoid human interaction to get cash deposited could look very suspicious. 

VWPolecat

Having cash in teapots etc is not completely daft . The money we have in banks could become inaccessible in the event of Mr Putin chopping a few undersea cables or using an EMP weapon. Even a long strike by our own BT or power workers could upset things.   I suppose a robbery of the teapot is more likely but we live in crazy times.  

wmb194

VWPolecat said:

Having cash in teapots etc is not completely daft . The money we have in banks could become inaccessible in the event of Mr Putin chopping a few undersea cables or using an EMP weapon. Even a long strike by our own BT or power workers could upset things.   I suppose a robbery of the teapot is more likely but we live in crazy times.  

Sure, at a very outside possibly, but 50s still aren't a good choice as many people and shops don't want or trust them.