Dad gifted me £10,00 but it's cash!

la531983

CMT07 said:

p00hsticks said:

CMT07 said:

born_again said:

Echo the above. You will be questioned by the bank if you deposit it. So having proof will help (Just taking your dad, to say he gave it to you won't be proof as such)

Would I not be able to bank it as a gift for last year and this year (£6,000).  Would my husband be able to do the same.  It's such a headache!

It's got nothing to do with the IHT £3k gift allowance - your father can give you as much as he wants, it's not limited to 3k and as he's under the IHT limit anyway there would be no consequences if he died within seven years anyhow. 

The issue is that these days banks are going to very suspicious of people turning up with large wads of cash and no proof of where it came from or how it was acquired. there are very strict anti-money laundering rules. 

Thanks so what would be a way which they would see it is legitimate!  The spending it is one option but surely that would look suspicious too if we suddenly were spending so much less per month!

Not really, one day about 6 years ago I went from spending everything on my Halifax account to using a different one instead, I merely use Halifax for the paying in of my salary and direct debits, everything else is immediately shipped out to an account I get cashback on. They wouldnt bat an eyelid.

CMT07

Sea_Shell said:

Are they all valid current notes, or do they need changing to enable them to be spent?

I do have a credit card bill I could clear by paying the cash over the counter - would that be the same?  I believe some of them are old notes now actually you mention it!  Potentially £5000!

tacpot12

It might be possible to get your father to swear and affidavit to explain where the money came from and how it was accumulated. This might be harder if he didn't have a good insight to your Mum's income and expenses. However, if he knows that she was in receipt of substantial pension or benefit income and wasn't spending it all, this might be possible. His affidavit would probably need to be authorised by a Comissioner of Oaths.

You might check with your bank whether they would accept this. There's no point going to the trouble if they won't!

Spending the cash and/or drip feeding the money into a number of accounts is the more practical option. You will spend £10,000 in cash in a year if you stop using your credit and debit cards. I guess the best way to ensure that you get the benefit of this money is to move some cash from your bank account into a savings account every time you spend some of the cash. 

You might want to puchase a safe to keep that amount of money secure. Good safes are available second hand off eBay, but they really need to be fixed into the structure of your home, and ideally hidden from sight.

CMT07

tacpot12 said:

It might be possible to get your father to swear and affidavit to explain where the money came from and how it was accumulated. This might be harder if he didn't have a good insight to your Mum's income and expenses. However, if he knows that she was in receipt of substantial pension or benefit income and wasn't spending it all, this might be possible. His affidavit would probably need to be authorised by a Comissioner of Oaths.

You might check with your bank whether they would accept this. There's no point going to the trouble if they won't!

Spending the cash and/or drip feeding the money into a number of accounts is the more practical option. You will spend £10,000 in cash in a year if you stop using your credit and debit cards. I guess the best way to ensure that you get the benefit of this money is to move some cash from your bank account into a savings account every time you spend some of the cash. 

You might want to puchase a safe to keep that amount of money secure. Good safes are available second hand off eBay, but they really need to be fixed into the structure of your home, and ideally hidden from sight.

Thanks - all our accounts that we have are with the same bank so I assume that isn't practical either.  Is there an amount that they allow or wouldn't query or wouldn't we be able to bank any of it!  What a mess

CMT07

CMT07 said:

tacpot12 said:

It might be possible to get your father to swear and affidavit to explain where the money came from and how it was accumulated. This might be harder if he didn't have a good insight to your Mum's income and expenses. However, if he knows that she was in receipt of substantial pension or benefit income and wasn't spending it all, this might be possible. His affidavit would probably need to be authorised by a Comissioner of Oaths.

You might check with your bank whether they would accept this. There's no point going to the trouble if they won't!

Spending the cash and/or drip feeding the money into a number of accounts is the more practical option. You will spend £10,000 in cash in a year if you stop using your credit and debit cards. I guess the best way to ensure that you get the benefit of this money is to move some cash from your bank account into a savings account every time you spend some of the cash. 

You might want to puchase a safe to keep that amount of money secure. Good safes are available second hand off eBay, but they really need to be fixed into the structure of your home, and ideally hidden from sight.

Thanks - all our accounts that we have are with the same bank so I assume that isn't practical either.  Is there an amount that they allow or wouldn't query or wouldn't we be able to bank any of it!  What a mess

Would we be able between myself and husband open a couple of saving accounts and put say £2500 in each one?

Keep_pedalling

If they had a joint account I would suggest he talks to the bereavement team and explain that his wife had been hoarding cash and that he wants to deposit it back in the bank and is concerned about questions being asked. This won’t be the first time they have come across something like this. Hopefully that should make life easier getting the cash in the bank and then he can onward gift it once that is sorted.

Bookworm105

CMT07 said:

tacpot12 said:

It might be possible to get your father to swear and affidavit to explain where the money came from and how it was accumulated. This might be harder if he didn't have a good insight to your Mum's income and expenses. However, if he knows that she was in receipt of substantial pension or benefit income and wasn't spending it all, this might be possible. His affidavit would probably need to be authorised by a Comissioner of Oaths.

You might check with your bank whether they would accept this. There's no point going to the trouble if they won't!

Spending the cash and/or drip feeding the money into a number of accounts is the more practical option. You will spend £10,000 in cash in a year if you stop using your credit and debit cards. I guess the best way to ensure that you get the benefit of this money is to move some cash from your bank account into a savings account every time you spend some of the cash. 

You might want to puchase a safe to keep that amount of money secure. Good safes are available second hand off eBay, but they really need to be fixed into the structure of your home, and ideally hidden from sight.

Thanks - all our accounts that we have are with the same bank so I assume that isn't practical either.  Is there an amount that they allow or wouldn't query or wouldn't we be able to bank any of it!  What a mess

I suspect it will be much quicker and easier to just ask the bank directly than play guesses on here about convoluted alternatives

under Anti Money laundering rules all banks are legally required to "know" where cash paid in has come from. Doubtless there is a lower limit but rather than play around drip feeding just go and ask them what they would need if you did a one off lump sum in cash. Even if you drip feed, the computer will still see it as atypical of your account deposit history anyway.

it is not much different to deposits for house purchases being given to children by their parents. A letter from the parents explaining where their money came from is often all that is needed

you may find this informative of options...
How Much Cash Can Be Deposited in a UK Bank? - Review42

penners324

I'd stop off and deposit £500 in a couple nearby post offices.

Pay off the credit card bill at a bank branch (or post office if allowed).

CMT07

It’s crazy … what if people choose to save cash at home … you can’t … admittedly it’s at risk but surely a choice 

eskbanker

CMT07 said:

It’s crazy … what if people choose to save cash at home … you can’t … admittedly it’s at risk but surely a choice 

It still must have come from somewhere - if there's a credible story, especially if it can be supported, then there shouldn't be an issue with paying substantial amounts of cash into banks, but anti money laundering regulations are so much more onerous now than they used to be, with many banks fined huge amounts for weak controls, so it's unsurprising that there may be challenges when doing something like this.