General Discussion and Whimsical Banter

kuratowski

ircE said:

Yes, I imagine a lot of the 75% are extending the same logic for all of their savings: "why not keep it all together with my main current account, just in case?"

There's also the drag of needing to keep creating new logins with new institutions and keep track of them all.  Some people relish having dozens of different providers, but others prefer simplicity.

dealyboy

@Albermarle said:

dealyboy said:

masonic said:

caper7 said:

Just saw someone has "Bowlhead Rip" at the bottom of their post. 
I've looked him up and not much to be found. 
Was he banned, chose to leave, or has he actually died?

bowlhead99 was one of the most prolific and knowledgeable contributors this board has known. So naturally, he got targeted by others resulting in him being banned. He came back for a while as underground99, but after a while faced the same fate. One has to walk on eggshells to survive a long time here.

Indeed.

Although I'm not criticizing the mods (they have a very difficult job to do) I sometimes wonder what the [deleted] user did, we have lost so many. It seems to happen to the best of us.

I believe he overreacted in a personal message after being goaded by a troll . A good reason not to get involved with personal messages if possible.
I also understand he went through some kind of unexpected life/family?  event shortly after being banned, and decided not to continue/ try and get reinstated.

cc: @xylophone

You never know he might be reading this ... I would love to see a Son_of ... 

masonic

IvanOpinion said:

kuratowski said:

ircE said:

Yes, I imagine a lot of the 75% are extending the same logic for all of their savings: "why not keep it all together with my main current account, just in case?"

There's also the drag of needing to keep creating new logins with new institutions and keep track of them all.  Some people relish having dozens of different providers, but others prefer simplicity.

You can get around the multiple logins with products like Raisin or HL Active Savings, which give you a single log in and access to any products. May not be for everyone though!

Out of interest, what are access times like with those. I've only ever previously used Raisin, and for fixed term accounts. I recall that it took a while for money to hit my linked account. I've never tried them for easy access though.

flaneurs_lobster

masonic said:

IvanOpinion said:

kuratowski said:

ircE said:

Yes, I imagine a lot of the 75% are extending the same logic for all of their savings: "why not keep it all together with my main current account, just in case?"

There's also the drag of needing to keep creating new logins with new institutions and keep track of them all.  Some people relish having dozens of different providers, but others prefer simplicity.

You can get around the multiple logins with products like Raisin or HL Active Savings, which give you a single log in and access to any products. May not be for everyone though!

Out of interest, what are access times like with those. I've only ever previously used Raisin, and for fixed term accounts. I recall that it took a while for money to hit my linked account. I've never tried them for easy access though.

Having my access to many accounts via a single portal would make me nervous, single point of failure and all that, although I do note that sometimes attractive deals are only available via this channel.

Rather control my own access to each provider and take the hit of having to maintain the login details myself (not particularly onerous if you are comfortable with using a password manager).

Swipe

IvanOpinion said:

 (not particularly onerous if you are comfortable with using a password manager).

Everyone should really be using a password manager these days and auto generating strong unique passwords.

IvanOpinion

masonic said:

IvanOpinion said:

kuratowski said:

ircE said:

Yes, I imagine a lot of the 75% are extending the same logic for all of their savings: "why not keep it all together with my main current account, just in case?"

There's also the drag of needing to keep creating new logins with new institutions and keep track of them all.  Some people relish having dozens of different providers, but others prefer simplicity.

You can get around the multiple logins with products like Raisin or HL Active Savings, which give you a single log in and access to any products. May not be for everyone though!

Out of interest, what are access times like with those. I've only ever previously used Raisin, and for fixed term accounts. I recall that it took a while for money to hit my linked account. I've never tried them for easy access though.

Not sure about Raisin, but, from memory, HL Active Savings seemed to be pretty quick. I have a Fixed account ending in a few days will let you know how it goes.

LHW99

Swipe said:

IvanOpinion said:

 (not particularly onerous if you are comfortable with using a password manager).

Everyone should really be using a password manager these days and auto generating strong unique passwords.

Although I have encountered sites where my p/w manager generated password was accepted initially, but rejected subsequently because it provided too many characters. Not sure if that was for a banking site, but it has happened to me a couple of times.

masonic

IvanOpinion said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

masonic said:

IvanOpinion said:

kuratowski said:

ircE said:

Yes, I imagine a lot of the 75% are extending the same logic for all of their savings: "why not keep it all together with my main current account, just in case?"

There's also the drag of needing to keep creating new logins with new institutions and keep track of them all.  Some people relish having dozens of different providers, but others prefer simplicity.

You can get around the multiple logins with products like Raisin or HL Active Savings, which give you a single log in and access to any products. May not be for everyone though!

Out of interest, what are access times like with those. I've only ever previously used Raisin, and for fixed term accounts. I recall that it took a while for money to hit my linked account. I've never tried them for easy access though.

Having my access to many accounts via a single portal would make me nervous, single point of failure and all that, although I do note that sometimes attractive deals are only available via this channel.

Rather control my own access to each provider and take the hit of having to maintain the login details myself (not particularly onerous if you are comfortable with using a password manager).

Again, I can't comment on Raisin, but you get full FSCS protection with HL. I usually select fixed term accounts so they can't be tampered with until they mature - although that still leaves a few days of risk. I see it as no more risky than having multiple investments in my ISA on a single platform (possibly even less risky since investments could be sold at any time).

A password manager can also be seen as a single point of failure. I personally only use a password manager for low grade websites and data, all finance related passwords rely on my memory (never let me down yet, and when it does that is what the 'Forgotten password' option is for).

FSCS protection is not an issue for the concierge services (firms controlling your cash should have Client Money permission at a minimum), but failure could mean something more along the lines of a TSB-style meltdown, or worse. It is a very good idea to have accessible cash in a backup (completely separate) account. If HL suffers some kind of prolonged outage, you'd not want it to be holding all of your savings.

On password managers, if banks are meeting their Strong Customer Authentication obligations, no compromise of password information alone should lead to harmful consequences. Unfortunately the availability of a 'forgotten password' option is almost as bad as a compromised password, as it ultimately falls back to confirming basic details about the customer and the ability to receive communications on a registered phone number. Interesting that some savings banks do not even require the user to have a password.

Most of my bank accounts require me to log in using some form of random character scheme, so information is conveniently stored in a way that it can be made unintelligible. But they are rarely needed as I mostly use biometrics.

masonic

LHW99 said:

Swipe said:

IvanOpinion said:

 (not particularly onerous if you are comfortable with using a password manager).

Everyone should really be using a password manager these days and auto generating strong unique passwords.

Although I have encountered sites where my p/w manager generated password was accepted initially, but rejected subsequently because it provided too many characters. Not sure if that was for a banking site, but it has happened to me a couple of times.

In my experience banks are more likely to put such a limit in place, but also much more likely to check the chosen password meets requirements (they may also limit you to a case insensitive alphanumeric character set so that they can make you choose individual characters from a dropdown or secure on-screen keyboard). 

But I've encountered exactly what you suggest at a couple of lower security retail-based sites (though not recently). This latter behaviour is a strong indicator that the company in question is not storing passwords securely and customers would be at greater risk if they were ever compromised, as quite a number of companies have found out to their chagrin!

Bridlington1

In the interests of keeping the main EA thread on topic this is a continuation of a discussion surrounding account closures that first began in the main EA thread:

pecunianonolet said:

Bridlington1 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Bridlington1 said:

pokemaster said:

Metro Bank Instant Access Savings Account

5.22% (yearly compounded) 5.10% (Monthly)

From 10 November 2023, open a new account and deposit at least £500 within 28 days to earn a Limited Edition Rate (variable). If you don’t do this, you’ll receive our Standard Variable Rate of 1.65% AER*/1.64% Gross (variable)...... for 12 months

https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/savings/products/instant-access-savings/

EDIT: Can't find it on the app/logging into account online and when trying to get it through the website seems like you have to sign up to them all over again, even though I have a current account?

Well it's nice to know my knack for timing is still alive and well. Metro have launched their 5.22% EA account about a week after closing my Metro current account and giving me a lifetime ban in the process.  

How did you upset them? I've had two current accounts within three months of each other, both swapped elsewhere for bonuses. Still let me have the 5.22%.

I don't really know what I've done to annoy them to be honest. I've only ever had the one current account with them, which I opened in January 2023. I ordered a chequebook, switched a Halifax account to them when LBG gave me a lifetime ban and have used this account as one of my nominated accounts for my various savings accounts.

The only thing I can possibly think of is that the fact that as I'm a student, my income is very low, but have a large amount of savings and am very much a rate tart has led to my nominated accounts regularly seeing a large volume of money flowing through them relative to my income so that difference could have possibly spooked them? 

However if this is the reason for the lifetime ban then it's very concerning for me indeed since my Nationwide, Ulster, Santander, TSB and First Direct current accounts all now see similar numbers/volumes of transactions as Metro did and have most of them done so for a number of months. Unless I'm about to see the closure of most of my other current accounts, which to be honest the way my luck's going at the moment probably wouldn't surprise me, then there will probably be some other factor at play, the question is what?

Sad to hear you got another ban. Perhaps, in the interest of mitigating risk, it might make sense to slow down activities a bit for a while. Getting banned from other institutions might outweigh the benefit of a few pennies/pounds more interest? Or indeed, call them before you move larger sums to make them aware, offer source of funds info, etc. so you at least show them willingness of cooperation?

Since Metro have given me a lifetime ban I've ended up reducing my account activity across my current accounts in general by default anyway. Now that easy access rates seem to have flatlined I'm not moving my easy access savings from one EA account to another (this was most of the transactions). When savings rates were rising it was not uncommon for me to have move the contents of my easy access savings once or twice a week but now that movement has reduced considerably. On top of this I've now exhausted my EA savings accounts with my regular savers anyway so even if I did move my EA savings again I'd only be moving a couple a couple of hundred at the most compared with several thousand as it was before and I've recently opened a 95 day notice account with RCI, which has absorbed a chunk of the funds that were destined for my regular savers so even my monthly regular saver deposits over the next few months are now going to be much lower than what they were previously.

I doubt ringing a bank before making a payment would do any good though. If it did make a difference what do you think the fraudsters would do? 

dealyboy said:

@Bridlington1 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Bridlington1 said:

pokemaster said:

Metro Bank Instant Access Savings Account

5.22% (yearly compounded) 5.10% (Monthly)

From 10 November 2023, open a new account and deposit at least £500 within 28 days to earn a Limited Edition Rate (variable). If you don’t do this, you’ll receive our Standard Variable Rate of 1.65% AER*/1.64% Gross (variable)...... for 12 months

https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/savings/products/instant-access-savings/

EDIT: Can't find it on the app/logging into account online and when trying to get it through the website seems like you have to sign up to them all over again, even though I have a current account?

Well it's nice to know my knack for timing is still alive and well. Metro have launched their 5.22% EA account about a week after closing my Metro current account and giving me a lifetime ban in the process.  

How did you upset them? I've had two current accounts within three months of each other, both swapped elsewhere for bonuses. Still let me have the 5.22%.

I don't really know what I've done to annoy them to be honest. I've only ever had the one current account with them, which I opened in January 2023. I ordered a chequebook, switched a Halifax account to them when LBG gave me a lifetime ban and have used this account as one of my nominated accounts for my various savings accounts.

The only thing I can possibly think of is that the fact that as I'm a student, my income is very low, but have a large amount of savings and am very much a rate tart has led to my nominated accounts regularly seeing a large volume of money flowing through them relative to my income so that difference could have possibly spooked them? 

However if this is the reason for the lifetime ban then it's very concerning for me indeed since my Nationwide, Ulster, Santander, TSB and First Direct current accounts all now see similar numbers/volumes of transactions as Metro did and have most of them done so for a number of months. Unless I'm about to see the closure of most of my other current accounts, which to be honest the way my luck's going at the moment probably wouldn't surprise me, then there will probably be some other factor at play, the question is what?

Very sorry to hear the news ... if only we knew what the problem was, your fan club (you know ... us) could petition them. If it's a lifetime ban then it would suggest they believe it was misuse/misconduct rather than a commercial decision, if the latter were the case well people's circumstances do change.

You could ask for an SAR if you think you might have been faraged.

Thanks for reminding me, they still haven't responded to the DSAR I submitted to them on 31st August when they told me they were closing my only account in the first place.

It did come as a bit of a shock, particularly since after the LBG ban I took several steps to reduce the risk of receiving/the effect of other lifetime bans. I stopped making £1.01 debit card deposits into savings accounts for the Natwest/RBS round ups, I now don't stooze 0% overdrafts if I have savings with that bank so have resisted the temptation to stooze a £1.5k 0% student OD with Santander whilst having £4k in their edge saver and I've spread my nominated accounts out over multiple accounts, rather than having most accounts linked to one nominated account (previously Lloyds). This proved useful with the latest lifetime ban as I was able to stop using my Metro account immediately and let the others take on the slack immediately, even though the ban came on 31/8/23 and my accounts usually see a lot of activity on 1st. I haven't opened a single donor account solely for switching purposes since the LBG ban and I've also chosen not to make the 21 debit card deposits from FD to become eligible for their prize draw (@flaneurs_lobster's chances of winning now increase slightly more).

I must admit though after receiving lifetime bans from 3 banking groups since November 2022 I'm now at the point where whenever I receive a letter or email from a bank my first thought is usually something along the lines of "oh heck, I hope it's not another lifetime ban" and these lifetime bans are starting to get rather costly in financial terms. TSB haven't let me open any new current/savings accounts with them for over a year so I've been unable to get any of their switching offers or benefit from their 6% regular saver, not to mention the Halifax rewards and extra interest from the LBG regular savers that my LBG ban has deprived me of. If Barclays launch a switching offer after I've finished uni I won't be able to get that due to the 18 days of banking with them last November resulting in a lifetime ban. Whilst the LBG ban was pretty much inevitable and I've only myself to blame for that I can't help but think think the Barclays and Metro lifetime bans were a bit harsh and will likely become very frustrating over the coming years as I become unable to access more and more switching offers and high interest accounts in the future but it is what it is.