Keep Physical Documents Says UK government

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82180565#Comment_82180565

Don't get me wrong - I absolutely get the value of retaining good records, for those reasons and others, but am challenging the notion that these are useful on a short-term transactional basis "when banking systems go down or you can’t access your account", i.e. in either of those specific scenarios, what can you actually do when equipped with statements that you couldn't do without them?

GeoffTF

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82180578#Comment_82180578

I agree. I believe that the interviewee could have given a better answer. I would suggest something like "I do not know about screen shots, but I do believe that it is a good idea to keep your past statements."

masonic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82180552#Comment_82180552

In such a scenario, things like fuel and tinned food are likely to be more useful for bartering. People focused on survival may not regard gold as particularly desirable.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82180602#Comment_82180602

I'd argue that it was the interviewer's fault for asking a rambling question about multiple measures, some of which are more relevant to improving resilience than others, but it's still a stretch from there to the minister's off the cuff response being interpreted as if it was a considered announcement of government policy!

So, my view remains:

Is it a good idea to retain local copies of statements? Yes

Is doing so likely to be useful in any practical sense when banks suffer outages? No…

subjecttocontract

What a laugh......I wasn't aware that the general public paid much attention to Government recommendations, they more usually ignore them and continue on their same merry way.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82180707#Comment_82180707

Not sure it's possible to extrapolate from this thread to what the general public as a whole thinks and does, but to my mind the recent publicity about emergency preparedness has gained some traction for a variety of reasons (wars, rogue state sabotage, prominent tech outages, AI scaremongering, extreme weather events, etc, etc), so some people are taking that on board, and likewise many aren't!

subjecttocontract

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82180717#Comment_82180717

There will always be a few, the newspapers have been full of it because it's interesting but the public at large ? I very much doubt many of them will pay any attention.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82180707#Comment_82180707

Radio news just reported that sales of wind-up radios are up 500%.

Although I've no idea what that 500% means in terms of actual radios.

Prompted me to dig mine out, still works if I crank but the rechargeable battery isn't. Might take it apart to see if the rechargeable is replaceable.

GeoffTF

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82180619#Comment_82180619

I looked up what happened in the TSB meltdown. I could not find a comprehensive account. The PIN system was down. The ATMs did not work. TSB branch staff were often unable to access their system to determine a customer's balance. Nonetheless, they do seem to have paid out cash. A statement showing a well funded active account may have had some value beyond just having a debit card and ID.

sgthammer

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82180176#Comment_82180176

It seems to me that keeping hard copies of ID docs is even more important than your bank account. It feels like about five minutes since Indefinite Leave To Remain went digital-only, and I remember the stink that caused after a similar issue with the Windrush files.

Bank statements are a useful way of proving that your sub-£120k "guaranteed" deposit ever existed in the first place, but they're not much use if a system failure at gov.uk turns you into an unperson.