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

Marchitiello

Middle_of_the_Road said:

….
I really wonder, is there an acceptable amount of cash to be in possession of?

Should there be a national recommended maximum figure, an amount that the everyday law abiding citizen is entitled to retain?

I suppose it won't really make much difference soon, as there'll be nowhere to take your ill gotten readies to. 

Although I am well aware there are not clear linked references to this, as we are legally entitled to carry in and out of the UK up to £10k without having to declare it to HMRC, I would assume you should be entitled to also be able to make a bank cash deposit up to that amount as a one off without too much scrutiny.. 

I have in the past deposited and also withdrawn large amounts as a for specific purposes, and never had to answer any question or caused any alarm bell with any of my high street banks.

TheBanker

Middle_of_the_Road said:

Twistedpixel said:

With all the current anti-money-laundering restrictions with banks, I've run into a bit of a problem.

Any suggestions of legal ways to get this money into my bank account?

Thanks!

As there has been no sign of the OP since the 4th, I'm hoping he's not been pulled in for a grilling about the £5k he may have foolishly tried to pay into his probably long standing current account. 

I think part of the OP's problem is that they bank with Monzo. Monzo's a great bank for digital functionality but they're not really set up to deal with cash - they're reliant on shop keepers and aside from any money laundering issues I doubt shop keepers will want to have to deal with the security issues involved in accepting thousands of pounds in cash. The shop keeper will also, presumably, have to bank the cash somewhere else. 

In reality, I think £5k cash paid in over the counter at a high street bank would probably prompt a question as to source of funds, but not much more if it was paid into the account of a 'normal' customer - i.e. one that receives salary credits and pays bills. If it was being paid into a new, or dormant account it might prompt more questions.

TheBanker

Marchitiello said:

Middle_of_the_Road said:

….
I really wonder, is there an acceptable amount of cash to be in possession of?

Should there be a national recommended maximum figure, an amount that the everyday law abiding citizen is entitled to retain?

I suppose it won't really make much difference soon, as there'll be nowhere to take your ill gotten readies to. 

Although I am well aware there are not clear linked references to this, as we are legally entitled to carry in and out of the UK up to £10k without having to declare it to HMRC, I would assume you should be entitled to also be able to make a bank cash deposit up to that amount as a one off without too much scrutiny.. 

I have in the past deposited and also withdrawn large amounts as a for specific purposes, and never had to answer any question or caused any alarm bell with any of my high street banks.

I don't believe there is any legal limit. A large cash deposit from certain types of business would not cause concerns, a deposit well below £10k from a personal customer probably would prompt questions, especially if it's out of character for the account.

When I worked in a bank branch (and this was 20 years ago, so I am not giving out any state secrets here), £10k was a limit which would prompt further questioning and a referral to the branch manager. This applied whether it was cash or a cheque, and was partially for Money Laundering reasons but also because we wanted to try to flog them a savings account!

When I was working in the branch, I can remember two cases which we reported. One was a newsagent paying in huge amounts of cash on a daily basis - far more than a small newsagents shop could realistically take in a day. He was convicted of money laundering (proceeds of drug dealing I believe). Another was convicted for tax evasion. Both of these cases were reported in the local press at the time.

Then you have situations like this: https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/natwest-fined-264.8million-anti-money-laundering-failures and this: https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-fines-santander-uk-repeated-anti-money-laundering-failures - so you can see why the banks ask questions when presented with a large amount of cash.

Nebulous2

Middle_of_the_Road said:

Twistedpixel said:

With all the current anti-money-laundering restrictions with banks, I've run into a bit of a problem.

Any suggestions of legal ways to get this money into my bank account?

Thanks!

As there has been no sign of the OP since the 4th, I'm hoping he's not been pulled in for a grilling about the £5k he may have foolishly tried to pay into his probably long standing current account.

Hopefully he might just be having a good old think about his next move, a convoluted plan, after digesting all the possible strategies this thread has thrown up.

It should be wholly acceptable for a person to deposit cash/pay for goods, with any amount of cash they see fit.

It now seems that people think, anyone possessing this amount of cash, is a drug dealing, people smuggling menace to society, unless they can prove otherwise.

A bank can see the normal transaction history of an account over time, and then because a customer unusually wishes to deposit cash, they immediately question why they have it.

They seem to consider, the person who has had a prosaic banking history for years, has suddenly gone to the dogs, because, heaven forbid, they've got too many BANK NOTES 

The banks washed billions without any scrutiny, but someone standing in a queue with a 
thousand or two are being made to feel they have no right to be doing so. 

I really wonder, is there an acceptable amount of cash to be in possession of?

Should there be a national recommended maximum figure, an amount that the everyday law abiding citizen is entitled to retain?

I suppose it won't really make much difference soon, as there'll be nowhere to take your ill gotten readies to. 

There are parallel worlds that vary quite a bit.

I've known hard-drinking, hard-playing people who ran their own businesses, that always carried thousands in cash. Partly, I always felt, to impress people in the pub, but also partly because they lived for a deal, and you never knew when someone in need would offer you a deal you cold quickly make a profit on. They seem to be dying out, and their successors appear to be hard-working, rather than hard-drinking, and much more discreet. 

There is still a lot of trading of highish value goods in cash. I'd go as far as say that a majority of  private deals for second-hand cars below £10k, where I live, would be settled in cash. 

That real world, often seems completely divorced from the MSE world, where I spend too much of my time. That has permeated my thinking to the point that as I said earlier I simply kept £2k I acquired in similar fashion to the OP. 

My job involves a lot of interaction with members of the public, and I've never heard anyone say they've had a bank account closed down. I've never heard anyone express concern about what to do with large sums of cash. I've heard people concerned about elderly relatives having too much in the house and trying to persuade them to put it in the bank or disperse it to family members, where they are concerned about exceeding a savings limit which would impact their benefits. 

I also think the move to plastic notes took a lot of hoarded cash out of circulation - people who had money acquired over a long time realised it would become increasingly difficult to use, and rather than swap it for plastic notes they paid it in or spent it. 

MACKEM99

A few years ago I had a lot of small change and put it in a machine at ladbrokes.  I then took the print out to the counter for a note.  The assistant said she would do it this time but I was not to do it again as it was suspected as money laundering.

The amount....£10. 😁

TheBanker

Nebulous2 said:

Middle_of_the_Road said:

Twistedpixel said:

With all the current anti-money-laundering restrictions with banks, I've run into a bit of a problem.

Any suggestions of legal ways to get this money into my bank account?

Thanks!

As there has been no sign of the OP since the 4th, I'm hoping he's not been pulled in for a grilling about the £5k he may have foolishly tried to pay into his probably long standing current account.

Hopefully he might just be having a good old think about his next move, a convoluted plan, after digesting all the possible strategies this thread has thrown up.

It should be wholly acceptable for a person to deposit cash/pay for goods, with any amount of cash they see fit.

It now seems that people think, anyone possessing this amount of cash, is a drug dealing, people smuggling menace to society, unless they can prove otherwise.

A bank can see the normal transaction history of an account over time, and then because a customer unusually wishes to deposit cash, they immediately question why they have it.

They seem to consider, the person who has had a prosaic banking history for years, has suddenly gone to the dogs, because, heaven forbid, they've got too many BANK NOTES 

The banks washed billions without any scrutiny, but someone standing in a queue with a 
thousand or two are being made to feel they have no right to be doing so. 

I really wonder, is there an acceptable amount of cash to be in possession of?

Should there be a national recommended maximum figure, an amount that the everyday law abiding citizen is entitled to retain?

I suppose it won't really make much difference soon, as there'll be nowhere to take your ill gotten readies to. 

There are parallel worlds that vary quite a bit.

I've known hard-drinking, hard-playing people who ran their own businesses, that always carried thousands in cash. Partly, I always felt, to impress people in the pub, but also partly because they lived for a deal, and you never knew when someone in need would offer you a deal you cold quickly make a profit on. They seem to be dying out, and their successors appear to be hard-working, rather than hard-drinking, and much more discreet. 

There is still a lot of trading of highish value goods in cash. I'd go as far as say that a majority of  private deals for second-hand cars below £10k, where I live, would be settled in cash. 

That real world, often seems completely divorced from the MSE world, where I spend too much of my time. That has permeated my thinking to the point that as I said earlier I simply kept £2k I acquired in similar fashion to the OP. 

My job involves a lot of interaction with members of the public, and I've never heard anyone say they've had a bank account closed down. I've never heard anyone express concern about what to do with large sums of cash. I've heard people concerned about elderly relatives having too much in the house and trying to persuade them to put it in the bank or disperse it to family members, where they are concerned about exceeding a savings limit which would impact their benefits. 

I also think the move to plastic notes took a lot of hoarded cash out of circulation - people who had money acquired over a long time realised it would become increasingly difficult to use, and rather than swap it for plastic notes they paid it in or spent it. 

That, and the pandemic. Remember we went through a period when even the smallest of shops didn't want cash because we were told it transmitted the virus. And a lot of people started using online/electronic payments because they couldn't leave their house to pay in or collect cash. 

Tradesmen used to prefer cash and would sometimes charge less. Now they seem to prefer electronic payments. I guess that's because evading tax by working in cash isn't as easy as it used to be.