Vocal Voices

In January Barlays digital went down for three days. Today it is Lloyds, Halifax, Nationwide, TSB, Bank of Scotland and First Direct. These things always seem to happen on pay days.

People cannot get money out, transfer funds or pay for goods and services. It might no be so bad in a shop or supermarket where you can put the goods back, but what if you topped up in a garage. You cannot take the fuel back out. Then there are DDs which come out automatically, but if your pay has not gone in you could be driven into an unauthorised overdraft.

I have only ever been caught out once and that was enough. I now carry an amount of cash, but not in my wallet. It is folded behind my bus pass and that is in its own window wallet. And all my (few) DDs are scheduled for mid-month so that funds are always there.

My nationwide perfectly today

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We are TSB and had difficulty getting into our accounts. We tried a couple of times but eventually were able to log in and make our transactions.

Got £300 out of the bank today via the Post Office.

Cash - you can't beat it!

I always carry cash.

I know of several small shops and other busineses which will only accept cash or have a high limit to use a credit card.

Banks would like everybody to use credit cards as they charge the retailer for their use.

My other half always carries cash. He uses a couple of small shops for various things and also pays the window cleaner and someone who delivers his specialist teas.

I never carry cash and don't think I will go back to carrying cash. My purse/wallet is much better with the absence of coins. All my shopping for food etc is now done via my credit card since Covid, rather than using cash as I did before.

Mine is card online
Cash in shops

I invariably use cash at places I've never visited before or visited infrequently, i.e. petrol stations.

If you lived in the Birmingham area 20 years ago, there was at least one huge wake-up call. It was reported that the proprietors of a fairly major petrol station, lying between the City's outskirts and Coventry (I'll not give the location because the incident's now historic) - which I certainly knew and I think had used once or twice - ran a card terminal scam with information-cloning equipment and a camera positioned overhead to record your PIN. It was reported that hundreds of drivers had their cards compromised before the police put two and two together and found the common denominator .......

I've probably said this before, but in similar vein, I don't frequent establishments, other than major chain High Street stores / supermarkets, that are now "card only". I'll happily shop elsewhere. If I visit one for the first time and find it's card only, I'll use a credit rather than a debit card for added security, but I'll never go back there. If you're not prepared to accept the King's shilling, I'm not prepared to shop at your store!

There is a huge push on at the moment to get everyone to use digital services as well as banking. Santandar seem to be the latest. I think we're constructing a House of Cards, and it'll all come crashing down one day.

I will not use a credit or debit card for everyday shopping. I have a pre-pay card for those types of things and I load it up every Monday with whatever I think I will need that week. If I lose it or it gets stolen then whatever is left on it is the maximum I can lose. It does not have a sort code or account number as they are held by the card issuer so it is very hard to compromise. However, I do also carry some cash in an alternative to my normal wallet, just in case.

I see that the banks are now paying out £millions to those impacted by the latest 'system' failure. That suggests the problem was a lot bigger than reported at the time.