The General Chat Room

[oddoneout]

The accounts I have all pay interest once a year. I just use whichever figure falls within the tax year in question.

Same here. My various savings accounts have different dates depending on what they are. The fixed term savings accounts are more likely to be linked to tax years, the others are a mix of September and December, but as most of them are ISAs now I don't need to account for them anyway.
That has reminded me that I have an outlier account for which I have made a guesstimate each year; it is a passbook account for a small northern Building Society(to do with the time I was handling my mother's affairs) that needs to be sent to the Building Society to be updated - I am not going to be physically in that part of the world again. They introduced online account registration last year so that in theory I could get the figure that way - except that the registration process didn't work even after several attempts and phoning for advice. Perhaps if I try again now it will do so. The money involved is small and the sensible thing to do would be to close it and put the money in one of my local BS accounts. However there is a certain amount of sentiment attached - they knew my mother, and were incredibly helpful during the Power of Attorney period and then after her death. When her accounts were finally closed there was a small amount of interest that it would have been silly to split between her beneficiaries, so it was given to their good works charity, and I had a lovely card back on behalf of the community group that had benefited. As a small independent BS it feels right to continue to support them even in a limited way such as keeping the account open, and there is also the fact that I don't like having all my eggs in one basket, even if in theory( as not large amounts) it is covered by the FSA compensation scheme, so this is another "basket"!

[Old Grumpy]

Baskets and eggs

Yes, one has to be careful these days not to presume one has accounts with separate institutions to then find they have the same parent institution - there are so many mergers/takeovers going on. Also joint account holders each have the right to the full compensation amount through the FSA scheme.

[Nick Armstrong]

Baskets and eggs

Yes, one has to be careful these days not to presume one has accounts with separate institutions to then find they have the same parent institution - there are so many mergers/takeovers going on.

Indeed… I had to change my current account a year ago, when the banking brand I’d been with for 20 years announced it was ceasing current account activities It proved to be a right old faff as the online ‘easy switchover’ scheme was defeated by the fact that the new account I wanted turned out to be under the same umbrella organisation as the defunct one (i.e. part if not all of the sort code was identical, which stymied the ‘easy peasy switchover’ function)

It necessitated a meeting in person at a none-too-convenient branch with a bank operative who clearly (and patronisingly) thought I was an online illiterate who had failed to use the system correctly… After a very boring hour of her tapping her keyboard and phoning colleagues, she proceeded to tell me precisely what I’d told her in advance of the meeting

All worked out eventually but that’s a couple of hours of my life I’m never going to get back

[vinteuil]

... sorry to be boring - but so far I've had no problems at all with Lloyds / Schroders

.

[Serial_Apologist]

Indeed… I had to change my current account a year ago, when the banking brand I’d been with for 20 years announced it was ceasing current account activities It proved to be a right old faff as the online ‘easy switchover’ scheme was defeated by the fact that the new account I wanted turned out to be under the same umbrella organisation as the defunct one (i.e. part if not all of the sort code was identical, which stymied the ‘easy peasy switchover’ function)

It necessitated a meeting in person at a none-too-convenient branch with a bank operative who clearly (and patronisingly) thought I was an online illiterate who had failed to use the system correctly… After a very boring hour of her tapping her keyboard and phoning colleagues, she proceeded to tell me precisely what I’d told her in advance of the meeting

All worked out eventually but that’s a couple of hours of my life I’m never going to get back

Does that mean you do everyday card payments and others such as direct debits from your new deposit account? Mine must always be from the current account, although, oddly, I can draw cash from cash machines on the deposit account - which is what I usually do.

[Nick Armstrong]

Does that mean you do everyday card payments and others such as direct debits from your new deposit account? Mine must always be from the current account, although, oddly, I can draw cash from cash machines on the deposit account - which is what I usually do.

No, only current accounts were involved in my little story

[Old Grumpy]

Does that mean you do everyday card payments and others such as direct debits from your new deposit account? Mine must always be from the current account, although, oddly, I can draw cash from cash machines on the deposit account - which is what I usually do.

We can do card payments, standing orders and direct debits only from our current account. We can set up a BACS transfer from our savings account, but for some reason cannot include a payment reference - which we can using the current account.

[gradus]

Yesterday I received an email from LV 'explaining' how their motor insurance claims costs have skyrocketed so that I should understand their predicament when it comes to renewing our car insurance. Today the predicament is resolved, all it takes is a 60% hike in the premium, never mind our so-called no claims discount stretching back to Victorian times. Yet more shopping around.

[Serial_Apologist]

Yesterday I received an email from LV 'explaining' how their motor insurance claims costs have skyrocketed so that I should understand their predicament when it comes to renewing our car insurance. Today the predicament is resolved, all it takes is a 60% hike in the premium, never mind our so-called no claims discount stretching back to Victorian times. Yet more shopping around.

Good luck is all I can say.

[Jonathan]

Just a quick message to say that my second novel, "The Ventos Conspiracy 2: Confrontation" is now available on Amazon as a Kindle version or a paperback.

[teamsaint]

Just a quick message to say that my second novel, "The Ventos Conspiracy 2: Confrontation" is now available on Amazon as a Kindle version or a paperback.

Good luck.

[Jonathan]

Many thanks!!

[Padraig]

Caught between a football story - there is a round ball, and making something to eat - there is a sandwich, I've chosen general chat. The link to the sandwich video is at the very end of the piece, if you get that far. I found it a lovely piece about a witty and charming man with whom I had not been previously acquainted

Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh: Best lines from a broadcasting legend - BBC News

[alycidon]

do people still use tippex ?

I thought it went out with typewriters, carbon paper, pennyfarthings, powdered egg, sock suspenders .................

I use it almost every day - sometimes more than once. At the age of eighty-one I find that I have a disconnect between my brain and my right hand when doing figures. The number of written errors I make is quite unbelievable!

[cria]

I use it almost every day ...

I sod up a biro every time I use it, so at about £1 per correction people can have their b'day cards with names misspiled