Made some cash by confronting my hoarding problem - what do I do with it?

Ballard

Do you have a credit card that you can pay over the counter with cash? Any other bills such as council tax? 

Presumably you have day to day expenses such as grocery shopping and petrol. Using cash rather than a card until you’ve spent it probably wouldn’t take that long. It’s not ideal by any stretch but these are possible avenues for you. 

Shakin_Steve

How did it get to this? £5000 is not pocket money, but it's not a huge amount to a lot of people. It was come by honestly, yet walking into a bank and explaining (having to explain) where it came from without evidence to back your story up, could cause you big problems. 

Made to feel like a criminal for holding five grand in the currency of the realm.

TheBanker

Most banks impose deposit limits at the Post Office in response to FCA concerns about money laundering. Generally they will accept higher amounts through their own branches (assuming you can find one that's still open!) because their staff can ask more probing questions than a PO clerk. 

According to this: https://monzo.com/help/payments-getting-started/cash-deposit-how-to Monzo's limit for deposits at a Paypoint terminal (not necessarily in a Post Office) is £300 per transaction, limited to £1,000 every 180 days for over 18s (£500 for under 18s). Note they charge a £1 fee per deposit. 

As others have suggested, it would make sense to reduce the amount of cash by using it for as much of your day-to-day expenditure as possible. This would include your shopping, entertainment, travel, you could even revert to paying some of your bills in cash through a Paypoint terminal. If you buy goods online (e.g. Amazon) then use your cash to buy their gift cards from a supermarket.

Combining this with regular £300 deposits to Monzo, and deposits to any other bank accounts you have, I think you'll get through the cash quite quickly. It is sensible to have a second bank account anyway, so if you only have a Monzo account then maybe open another account somewhere else (look out for minimum balance requirements though).

You may still be challenged, so be prepared to show proof of the source of the cash. Things like copies of the adverts for the goods (I assume you used something like Facebook Marketplace), copies of the message chains where you negotiated the price and arranged collection, etc, will help. So don't delete any of these as they may be needed. 

Nebulous2

That's well done. We moved home and raised about £2k from selling stuff, emptied our loft- and I thought we were doing well. 

Two years later we still have about £700 left, so that doesn't offer much help!

We paid the guy who fixed our roof in cash. I thought it would be attractive to him, but he wasn't fussed either way. 

I'd gradually whittle it down by transferring other spending to cash, rather than using a card, leaving your other money in the bank. 

WillPS

Pay for some supermarket big shops/petrol fill ups in cash.

Buy some gift cards with cash at a supermarket.

Either way this should be a wake up call to you about having only one account, particularly Monzo. Other banks would not have a problem if you could prove the source of the funds (sounds like you should be able to do this) and certainly would happily take more than £500 every 6 months!

That said I don't recommend you start paying cash in to a brand new bank account. Get a bank account where it'll pay a bit for normal usage, Santander Edge, Natwest Reward, Halifax Reward. Bank the benefits and know you're better protected next time.

Twistedpixel

Seems like there are a few options, thanks for the advice everyone. I thought it was £500 every 180 days with Monzo but I misread and that's for youngsters so I can actually pay in £1,000 total every 180 days.

Maybe the simplest is indeed just paying for things cash but I've always preferred to pay by credit card because you're better protected and also I get the AMEX points.

Maybe time to do another round of current account switcher for the incentives they are offering again and just gradually pay this into them.

It has become so difficult these days doing anything legitimately because of these frustrating laws trying to stop criminals. I'd like to see the statistics on how much crime they actually stop. I suspect "very little".

MACKEM99

Buy some things you have always wanted and pay in cash.  Pay in cash for all your spends.

Twistedpixel

Oh and to clarify as a couple of comments asked: no, I don't really have anything in the way of proof as I didn't really consider this potential problem until I had the cash. I just assumed I could deposit it. It was before I moved to my new place and I just told some of my friends and neighbors, they told their friends, etc. It sounds like I sold a lot but it was the wood furniture pieces that got the most attention and price as I'd taken really good care of it all, I just didn't have the space for it in my new house and knew it would have eventually been ruined by the ambient damp in the garage.

I didn't know anyone who bought the stuff - they just came, some bartered and we agreed a price. Was maybe not quite as profitable as eBay could have been but certainly much less hassle (until this cash problem, obviously) and I wanted it done before I moved. I recognized a couple of people as local so I suppose I could try to track down some of the buyers but that seems ridiculous effort to go to.

This has been somewhat of a lesson though: document any future offloading!

TheBanker

Twistedpixel said:

It has become so difficult these days doing anything legitimately because of these frustrating laws trying to stop criminals. I'd like to see the statistics on how much crime they actually stop. I suspect "very little".

The answer, I'm afraid, is not enough. And the real criminals are not going to be deterred by Monzo's £1,000 limit! 

username

I think the problem is the bank you are with, Monzo.

They are not set up for cash deposits, and the fact that they're implying in their FAQs that anyone paying in more than £1k over 6 months is somehow culpable of laundering money is laughable.

Why there's a cash deposit limit

Criminals can use cash deposits for money laundering. We’ve done a few things to mitigate this already, but adding a deposit limit helps to reduce that risk even more.

After getting feedback from customers, we think a limit of £1,000 over six months should work for most people. We'll review these limits when we have more data on how people use it.

Part of it no doubt is a restriction of the Paypoint infrastructure. Think about it, the Paypoint terminals often tend to be in little newsagents which are hardly the ideal place to be handling large volumes of cash securely and most likely there is ceiling on the amount of cash that can be kept on the premises for insurance purposes.

The main clearing banks in the UK probably wouldn't bat too much of an eyelid if you paid in £5k in one go, or even if you split it into smaller bundles say £1k each and dropped it in every few months.

They're used to people paying cash into their accounts and are set up and purpose-built for it. Obviously if you were rolling in with £5k everyday for a month they'd be wondering what's up - mind you if you're Prince Charles they won't any questions LOL.

In short, get another bank account with one of the big clearing banks and pay the money in, spend on the debit card.

It'll set you up going forward for a more suitable facility to deposit the cash into should you wish to have more clearouts in future.