General Discussion and Whimsical Banter

smiley2085

Anyone else have trouble logging in to their nationwide flex account using their card reader?
I'm trying to get money out!

ColdIron

Fine here 

Rudyson

Works fine here too

smiley2085

So it let's me log in OK but when I'm trying to make a payment to my other account its coming up with an error. That I should double check the card I'm using and making sure I put the code from card reader correctly. Which I'm pretty certain I'm doing right!
Update: it was the card reader that was the issue. I used my (new) natwest card reader to transfer the money and it worked. 😁

ircE

Would anyone be kind enough to explain "carpetbagging" in relation to building societies, and if it's anything ordinary members of any building society should be worried about?

Bravepants

ircE said:

Would anyone be kind enough to explain "carpetbagging" in relation to building societies, and if it's anything ordinary members of any building society should be worried about?

I think it pertains to a person attempting to sign up to a Building Society account in the hope that when the society goes public they get a portion of the free share offering. It was all the rage back in the day.

See half way down here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpetbagger

Bridlington1

badger09 said:

@Bridlington1
Exciting news re the house purchase. Hope it goes well.
Does that mean you’ll switch your focus to the House buying board? 

I’d like to be a fly on the wall when your conveyancer &/or mortgage lender does their AML checks on the source of your funds😳

Thanks, it's certainly been busy (the right kind though), 2024 always was going to be quite a year though. I have mentioned the scale of my financial affairs to my conveyancer and their response was what sounded like a slightly worried ``Aarrh". I'm dealing with them by email/phone and sent them 143 documents about a week and a half ago which covers the last 6 months of bank statements for accounts I currently have statements for along with an explanatory .txt file. They should be getting some more files from me later this week for other statements which I ordered at the time. All the files have been named as logically as possible and I gave them a list of my main nominated current accounts so hopefully, whilst rather long winded, it shouldn't be too difficult for them to trace the money.

Whilst I've been keeping an eye on the House buying board for some time, I'm by no means an expert in these matters. I'm a cash buyer purchasing a chain free property so I'm aware that my purchase will likely be one of the simpler ones. I may make the occasional post on that part of the forum in the future along with other parts but to be honest I can't see myself becoming one of the regulars there.

I anticipate I'll have some time on my hands over the summer and with a property owned outright (if all goes well) my savings focus will inevitably shift more towards saving for retirement. For a number of years my general long term financial plan has centred itself the logic of save hard now in order to get a property owned outright, which frees up a large chunk of money that I no longer need to pay in rent/mortgages that I can add to a pension. It would therefore make sense for me to read into pensions/investments in some detail over the summer given that it's an area I've neglected in the past with the exception of free investments that I've had (which have typically been sold at the earliest opportunity). For this reason the pensions/retirement planning board if anything is the most likely part of the forum I'd shift some of my focus to over the coming months/years, to what scale remains to be seen. 

I'll most likely stick to posting exclusively on the savings/investments and budgeting & bank accounts boards though. Savings accounts have become a particular hobby horse of mine, with squeezing every penny out of switching incentives, reward accounts and the best savings rates coming quite naturally to me. I'll also be doing some restructuring of the archived regular savers list over the summer as there's some accounts listed on there that nobody could possibly hold anymore so I'll be dividing the listings up. I shalln't remove any terms though just in case anyone else is interested in regular savers over the years.

elkiedee

@Bridlington1
Is your conveyancer charging you a fixed fee or per unit of time spent? Presumably you'll need to bring your money for the purchase together in one account to pay a deposit and then for the transfer of funds?

Bridlington1

elkiedee said:

@Bridlington1
Is your conveyancer charging you a fixed fee or per unit of time spent? Presumably you'll need to bring your money for the purchase together in one account to pay a deposit and then for the transfer of funds?

They're charging a fixed fee. 

I'll pool my funds in the 5.2% Santander account nearer the time but at the moment I'm keeping my money spread out over several accounts to maximise the interest whilst the legalities carry on in the background. I funded most of my regular savers on 1st March as usual as a result.

My savings accounts are set up in a way that I can empty most of my accounts quite quickly/easily though, the nominated accounts for the regular savers are deliberately evenly spread between Santander, Nationwide, Ulster, First Direct and to a lesser extent TSB so I shouldn't need to worry about faster payment limits and a couple of the lower paying branch/post accounts have already been emptied/closed. I've just transferred a Post Office Cash ISA that I opened to test their technical systems which I'd left with £1 over to Mansfield in order to retain membership, leaving me with the option to give my two remaining Mansfield regular savers the chop whenever I choose to etc.

Several other regular savers have been earmarked to be ``refreshed" in case they come in useful at a later date, among others I've closed the Principality FHS Issue 3, which I plan to reopen with £1 shortly before the purchase completes possibly along with the Bath Homestart RS as they both have long terms and have been fairly competitive in the past. The 5.25% YBS RS has also been closed, though since YBS's accounts usually disappear from Moneyfacts the night before they're pulled I'm hoping to reopen it with the minimum balance just before it gets pulled in order to hedge my bets a bit etc.

Bridlington1

BOE base rate held at 5.25%.

Edited to add:
8 voted to hold the rate, 1 voted to cut to 5%