Reply to: Santander Safety

[petergriffin]

I couldn't agree more and even by some miracle you could get all that money out in cash and store it in your home it would be worthless because if one of the big 4 go bust now in the UK .. the financial system will break down, money will become worthless and it will be Snake Plissken time.

This is why in case of fiat currency collapse the only thing that you will be able to exchange is the hard metal that you will have stored in your safe.

[sbakoola]

All this 85K "protection" twaddle really only applies to the small operators.

If one of the big 5 were to implode, they would probably take the other 4 with them. Where would all these 85K's come from. Even Merv couldn't print the cash fast enough.

It's a bit like getting "humongous meteor insurance". Even if you could buy it - it would be worthless because any such strike would bankrupt the insurance company anyway.

I couldn't agree more and even by some miracle you could get all that money out in cash and store it in your home it would be worthless because if one of the big 4 go bust now in the UK .. the financial system will break down, money will become worthless and it will be Snake Plissken time.

[Eagle]

The biggest ball-ache is not (eventually) being able to admin all my accounts in one place. Might as well just move all my accounts to Santander...

[escapeUK]

What exactly is it NatWest have a monopoly on?

Monopoly money?

[d000hg]

Due to Natwest being owned by RBS, and being a monopoly with government money

What exactly is it NatWest have a monopoly on?

[escapeUK]

So I suppose as a business you had the same choice. Now you are best of finding another bank and moving your affairs.

No, you just do what I am doing. Pop into your local Natwest branch tell them how you really dont want to move to those Spanish shysters and they open you a new account and transfer all your standings orders over.

[SueEllen]

NatWest are moving all their online business accounts to Santander and I'm not best pleased.

Ah that's the fall out of the RBS sale.

Due to Natwest being owned by RBS, and being a monopoly with government money they have to sell of a certain number of bank branches and their associated accounts to a private group.

Unfortunately that group is Santander.

Personal customers have either:
1. Done nothing and move,
2. Closed their accounts,
3. Found the one of the Scottish branch of the bank in the London or found a branch in Scotland to move their account to.

So I suppose as a business you had the same choice. Now you are best of finding another bank and moving your affairs.

[Eagle]

NatWest are moving all their online business accounts to Santander and I'm not best pleased.

[sharclar]

I actually had this thought a few weeks ago.

Me and my partner set up one of their new 123 accounts and the rules for the account stipulate you pay a certain amount into the account. To be on the safe side we put in quite a lot above that amount.

In all honesty given the current situation I don't feel like continuing with the account at all, the savings we would make from cash back were only small, and not quite worth the risk.

[yasockie]

You can sell gold quite easily w/o a certificate - I did that when it was sky high recently.
The problem is the margins of course - given the difference in buying and selling price I barely made a profit so you need to know that you can keep it as gold for a long time.

[petergriffin]

Vastly simplying things, but...

Larger amounts of gold come with a certificate of proof that they are x% pure. But to keep that certification, you have to keep it stored in an approved centre.

The moment you take it out - it loses its provenance and the "value" of the gold drops considerably, because no-one buying it can be sure it is x% pure - unless you go to the cost of getting it analysed and recertified.

So if you store it at home, you either have to buy uncertified gold (which may or may not be real), or buy certified gold and lose the certification.

Are you talking from experience or are you just guessing? There's no such a s thing as certified or uncertified gold. What you are referring to is "assaying". If you buy gold bars from a reputable dealer they will come with their own certificate; if you sell this gold to the same dealer they will just pay the spot price minus something, no questions asked. If you sell it to another dealer, he/she might ask for it to be 'assayed'.

If you buy gold coins they don't need to be either certified or assayed because one knows already how much gold there is in a particular coin and it is quite easy to verify if a coin is fake or not just by passing it through a Fisch:
Don’t buy fake gold coins. Get the Fisch. Protect your gold investment.

[centurian]

I don't get that one. Can you not keep the precious metal at home in a safe? Do you trust a bank more than your own safe?

Vastly simplying things, but...

Larger amounts of gold come with a certificate of proof that they are x% pure. But to keep that certification, you have to keep it stored in an approved centre.

The moment you take it out - it loses its provenance and the "value" of the gold drops considerably, because no-one buying it can be sure it is x% pure - unless you go to the cost of getting it analysed and recertified.

So if you store it at home, you either have to buy uncertified gold (which may or may not be real), or buy certified gold and lose the certification.

[petergriffin]

Personally I am not going for the bullion option. I just don't trust it, I mean it's still not there with you, in front of your eyes is it?

I don't get that one. Can you not keep the precious metal at home in a safe? Do you trust a bank more than your own safe?

[eek]

Plenty of contractor accounts will have > £100k sitting there, allowing for taxation to be paid etc (which is still due if the bank runs off with your money!).

Personally I am not going for the bullion option. I just don't trust it, I mean it's still not there with you, in front of your eyes is it? So what's to stop the bullion provider to discount your claim to anything you have bought? Or to stop them going bust, or perhaps the government from seizing all the gold... it's happened before!

There was a time and a place for buying gold. That time was 4-7 years ago.

[mrdonuts]

shares

stick the money into shares