Limits on balances t’s&c’s

SJE89

I’ve been seeing a lot of what I hope to be scaremongering on social media about people getting updated terms and conditions from their bank about imposing limits or charges on people with funds in accounts that exceed an undisclosed limit. 

Alongside this is a lot of things being thrown around making comparisons to Greece (but I think they mean Cyprus) referring to when the government took money off people during a time of economic crisis. 

Is this a legitimate risk in the UK or is it conspiracy theorists getting worked up and posting stuff for clout? 

Wouldn’t normally be bothered by stuff like this but I’m at a pony in my life where my finances are healthy and I feel ever time things go well for me, something crops up to jeopardise my happiness i.e. this to cause me worry. 

I can’t find a lot of information about what happened in Cyprus nor whether people were remunerated for the theft of their monies by the government. 

I have found a government policy on bail-ins as I believe that’s what it was to say they any such things would be funded by shareholders. 

WillPS

The limit will be disclosed if and when they need to implement it. It'll be a limit on the amount you can hold, not the amount of your own money you can have.

There's nothing to worry about unless you've got a balance way in excess of the FSCS cap of £85k per bank, in which case the problem you have remains the same regardless of the T&C.

Daliah

SJE89 said:

Alongside this is a lot of things being thrown around making comparisons to Greece (but I think they mean Cyprus) referring to when the government took money off people during a time of economic crisis. 

Only the fools who ignored the €100,000 protection limit had taken money off them.

Similarly, only fools who ignore the £85,000 FSCS limit need to be concerned about potentially losing money above the FSCS limit.

In any case, the vast majority of people in the UK don't have anything like £85,000 lingering in cash accounts.

phillw

SJE89 said:

I’ve been seeing a lot of what I hope to be scaremongering on social media 

It is. When negative interest rates were thought possible, the bank of england asked banks to prepare for it.

https://www.ftadviser.com/regulation/2021/02/04/banks-given-6-months-to-prepare-for-negative-interest-rates/

But then Russia invaded Ukraine and caused negative interest rates to become a fantasy.

You could ask why it's taken the banks so long to actually send the new T&C out, though I have no answer for that.

Daliah

phillw said:

You could ask why it's taken the banks so long to actually send the new T&C out, though I have no answer for that.

Balance limits on accounts have been with us forever and a day. Just about all savings accounts have them. I reckon the LBC Group have a new lawyer who spotted that this is not reflected in their T&Cs, so they tidied that up. I am sure other banks had a  'max amount' clause in their T&Cs for eons, and nobody raised an eyebrow over it, ever.

Here, for example, is the Santander clause: