Randombankness

I think maybe I should explain my last post a little lest my adoring fans readers think I was up for sympathy. I'm not a "victim" of over-borrowing or anything like that. I was brought up to believe that if you can't afford it, you can't have it, so the only loan I've ever had was a mortgage (fortunately paid off a few years ago, thanks to my lovely Auntie J, who told me she thought the money she was going to leave me in her will would be more useful to me then rather than later).



No, my anger was about the irresponsibility of the banks and how I (and probably most citizens of the world) can't trust them any more. The thing is, the British Government has guaranteed an individual's cash (savings plus current account etc.) in any one bank up to £50,000, so if you've got more than that in your bank and it goes tits up bankrupt, hard cheese, you lose the rest. So my darling Mum died just over four years ago and me being her only child, she left me all her worldly goods, including her flat. There were complications in the sale (which I won't bore you with) and the proceeds were less than the flat's worth (::dah di dah, di dah di dah:: sang the violins) so it was only a few months ago I received the proceeds of sale. I put them in a savings account in my bank, as you do... They were more than £50,000...

A few weeks later I get a phone call from my bank. To put it shortly, it goes something like this: "Have you got short-term plans for this money?" "Possibly." "We have several packages which could ensure you... blah, blah, blah..." "Thanks, I'll just leave it where it is for now please and thank you."

A week or two later I get another call, ditto the above. By now I've heard stirrings about the possibility of the "Credit Crunch" not just affecting bad debtors and stupid, greedy American banks, but stupid, greedy British banks as well. "No," I thought, "I'm not looking for a loan and I don't owe nobody nuffink, so I'm probably okay". "How safe are my accounts?" I ask. "Oh, safe as houses, we are part of one of the biggest banks in Europe, there's no way we are in any trouble. But we can offer you a package that will give you a greater return on your investment blah, blah, blah..." "Well, I'm thinking of buying a bungalow or having my current house improved to make it safer for me as I can't see very well so I don't want this money tied up for yonks" "Okay, no problem, let us know if we can be of any... blah, blah, blah...".

Then the news comes that the bank who owns my bank has been bailed out by the government. Bearing in mind that only last year my bank, let alone the bank who owns it, declared net profits of, I think, approximately £10 billion, I'm stunned!

This has become a very long and probably extremely interesting boring shaggy dog story account so I'll leave it for now, but:






Still to come in a forthcoming episode (da dah!):

What I Learnt at the Bank!!!