QOTW: Would you consider switching to an app-based bank?

[ehhhhhhh]

Banks are obsolete. Bitcoin FTW!

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Banks are obsolete. Bitcoin FTW!

Tell that to a mate that lost millions in bitCoins cuz the company went bust!

It was all over BBC news A few years ago!

[Saracen]

Alot of stuff can only be paid my card

for instance i cant pay cash on sky tv and amazon prime!

Or give cash as rent!

scan, ocuk, amazon etc dont accept cash either.

OCUK accepted cash (in the shop) last time I went. But then, it was a while ago. Cash as rent? Well, last time I paid rent was at uni, and that was ... ahem .... in the Middle Ages. I paid by cheque. I'm not going to get too specific in a public forum but there are some things for which I pay by annual bank transfer, in advance. As long as your account remaibs in credit, that has, so far, worked.

As for Sky and Prime, I have no interest in Prime and don't have Sky. But if I had Sky and they insisted on me taking out onlibe bsnking etc to pay for it, I'd dump Sky in a heartbeat. I haven't yet, but I could comfortably revert to just free-to-air (and freesat) for TV, and it wouldn't take much to get me to drop even having a TV. And no, I don't watch TV progs or films via the internet. But for HEXUS, I'm not even sure I'd keep a broadband account since I don't use it for much else these days.

[peterb]

Although as taxation and other interactions with Government move increasingly online, some form of network connectivity is becoming essential - perhaps ISP services should be zero rated for VAT? (it will never happen!)

[j.o.s.h.1408]

OCUK accepted cash (in the shop) last time I went. But then, it was a while ago. Cash as rent? Well, last time I paid rent was at uni, and that was ... ahem .... in the Middle Ages. I paid by cheque. I'm not going to get too specific in a public forum but there are some things for which I pay by annual bank transfer, in advance. As long as your account remaibs in credit, that has, so far, worked.

As for Sky and Prime, I have no interest in Prime and don't have Sky. But if I had Sky and they insisted on me taking out onlibe bsnking etc to pay for it, I'd dump Sky in a heartbeat. I haven't yet, but I could comfortably revert to just free-to-air (and freesat) for TV, and it wouldn't take much to get me to drop even having a TV. And no, I don't watch TV progs or films via the internet. But for HEXUS, I'm not even sure I'd keep a broadband account since I don't use it for much else these days.

Yea you need direct debit for sky

Also I don't think you can pay cash on your Internet provider?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[Ozaron]

And no, I don't watch TV progs or films via the internet. But for HEXUS, I'm not even sure I'd keep a broadband account since I don't use it for much else these days.

This account is deceptively new, I've been here perusing articles on Hexus' home page for several years now and I'd like to thank you for not cancelling your internet service. Your (I hope you take this as a compliment) usually contrasting lifestyle /opinion is one of the features of these forums.

[Saracen]

This account is deceptively new, I've been here perusing articles on Hexus' home page for several years now and I'd like to thank you for not cancelling your internet service. Your (I hope you take this as a compliment) usually contrasting lifestyle /opinion is one of the features of these forums.

I do take it that way, and thank you. Glad to have been interesting. Sometimes.

It's (perhaps) interesting that my contrarian attitude to many aspects of modern life seem to increase in direct proportion to the prevalence of those trends. My wife described it well. What was it she called me? Oh yeah .... an awkward <bleep>er.

[Output]

This account is deceptively new, I've been here perusing articles on Hexus' home page for several years now and I'd like to thank you for not cancelling your internet service. Your (I hope you take this as a compliment) usually contrasting lifestyle /opinion is one of the features of these forums.

I completely agree.

Thank You Saracen, it's always interesting to see what you have to say.

[whatif]

Like a lot of others here - no chance at all.

The opportunity is already here in Australia, but I still like using cash whwenever possible.
So much easier to budget when using cash (banks hate it when people budget correctly), I get out my weekly allowance and I can see how much I am spending (or how little I have left). This is also a necessity as I am a disabled pensioner living solely on the pension. It is the only way I can save up for things like PC equipement.
When using any form of electronic banking (expecially with credit cards), unless you are diligent, you don't see it disappear. I do have a debit card and a credit card. The debit is for online purchcases and I only move the required money into it so I can make a purchase (even if my details are stolen, most of the time there is no money in it). The credit card is for emergancies and for over 25 years of having it, I have never used it.
I am not sure about other countries, but in Australia there is significantly more money owed on credit cards, than for house mortgages. Since we have so many unfair and grossly excessive fees, banks love this situation.

[whatif]

The serious answer is that you'll notice I said I don't need debit or credit cards, but they're occasionally useful. An inference of that is that I have them. However .... neither have been used for months, and I don't carry them around with me.

An alternative answer is ... prepaid cards.

Another alternative answer, though true, is that I don't remember last time I bought anything from Scan. Why?, Firstly, I avoid online buying wherever possible. Second, regular travel to a client in Stoke/Newscastle-under-Lyme puts me, oh, 10 mins from OCUK. Third, I have a REALLY good small, local supplier who nearly always matches both for price, and when he doesn't, the margin is small and I don't mind paying it. And fourth, you nay have seen my arguments in the past that a PC is just a tool for doing a job, and that the PC I bought (well, built from bits, some bought and some I already had) some years ago is perfectly adequate for doing everything I need of it, despite being kinda ancient by modern standards. I don't buy a new set of spanners every time something shiny comes out, when the current slightly battered, oily and lightly worn ones still do the job perfectly well.

Expanding your specific point to a more general case, the reason I said cards were "occasionalky useful" was for things hard to do without. The obvious example is car hire and hotel bookings. But, for personal reasons, I don't travel that much these days, and when I do go away, it's nearly always to a place where I have both house and car waiting fir me, so I don't need car hire or hotel reservations. It could happen, but hasn't for .... well, quite some years.

Over recent years, I have slowly simplified my life, step by step. For those same personal reasons I mentioned earlier, I'm reverting to a lifestyle reminiscent of the era of my childhood. Or putting it another way, stripping away most modern distractions down to what really matters - roof over head, good food, family, comfortable and warm clothing, and a moderate degree of home comforts. For example, no mortgage, no debts, absolutely no need for credit or desire to have any. Most utility bills can be taken care of by one annual payment, in advance, so I can sort out bill payments for gas, electricity, water, etc, annually in advance, in one go. Add necessary insurances to that. Cellphone? Strictly PAYG and rarely used, so I stick a few quid on it about once every five years. Council tax? Pay the bill for the year when it arrives. Yes, it means foregoing the interest I'd earn by keeping the money in my account for the year, but these days it's so minimal as to be irrelevant, and besides, is a price worth paying for hassle avoidance. I just keep a tally on balances when bills arrive, typically quarterly, to make sure I don't drop into arrears.

So, almost regardless of what might be substituted for Scan, I typically either either don't need it, or buy locally not online/mail order, or already have what I need.

The funny thing is that sone people probably regard that kind of stripped back life, albeit with adequate modern help in gadgets, but absent the horrid buzz of 24/7 contact, cellphones, social media, etc as paradise, while others shudder at the thought of being separated from their cellphone for more than 10 minutes. I'm in the 'paradise' group.

I watched a program recently called, IIRC, "Stripped Bare". It had three 'households', a girl living on her own, a bloke and a girl house-sharing, and two blokes and a girl house-sharing. And they were, other than the roof over their heads and very basic foodstuffs, "stripped bare" of all their possessions. And I mean "bare". Not a stitch of clothing, not a stick of furniture. Even washing machines, TVs and all the curtains were removed. They left the paint on the walls and utilities turned on, but that was about it.

All, and I mean ALL their possessions, were removed to storage containers about half a mile away, and each day (of the 21 day experiment) they were allowed to retrieve ONE item. On day three, after the weekend, they all had to go back to work, with ONLY what three possessions they then had.

Oh, and among the possessions removed was their money, wallets, bank cards, etc, so no sneaking out and buying a whole new clothing collection.

Challenge number 1 was how to get to their possessions, after the first day, half a mile away, butt-naked. One remarkably able girl made the dash by grabbing a bit of cardboard from a nearby bin, once she got to it, then retrieving a large roll of cloth as her item (she was a self-employed clothes designer). Will little more than her teeth and nails/hooks in the wall where her pictures had been removed, she made her own basic clothing, including twisting some cloth into a sort-of rope, and making basic rope shoes.

It was VERY interesting watching each victim agonising, especially in the early days, over WHICH single item to take, each day. And it seemed .... cathartic.

Anyway, my point is that being deprived of everything made them think very hard about 'want' versus 'need'. And after the 21 days, they just about all decided to "declutter", some very drastically. One decided that checking social media every few minutes was a huge waste of her valuable time, and she deleted most. One lad, in the group of three, decided he liked not having TV as a distraction because it meant he spent more time with friends, etc, but his flatmates overruled him.

I've gone through a similar sort of process, but much, MUCH slower. It's evolved over years .... and didn't involve much wandering around butt-naked. Not in public anyway. For which neighbours ought to be highly thankful, and that's another story anyway.

So the real answer to "buying from Scan" is .... pretty much, I don't, because I don't need to. Or even want to.


Sorry Josh, but you DID ask, didn't you.

As I am now a disabled pensioner, I try to use cash wherever possible, as i find it the best way to successfully budget. You actually see the money disappearing and how little is left. I do use a debit card occassionally, mostly for overseas purchases - it is normally left with about $50 (in case I am short) balance, until I go to buy something, when I deposit into it from my savings account. And I also have had a credit card for about 20 years which has never been used (for emergancy only). All are fee free.
Australia generally has higher prices and poor access to products. Example - about 3-4 years ago I wanted a Happaugge Dual Tuner USB dongle for my HTPC and they were not sold here (and still not sold here), had to buy it off a UK site. Or another - Razer Core has been sold for a while now overseas - also vouchers come with the Blade laptop - problem is it is still not available here - a lot of upset Australian voucher holders as they can only be used here. Still doesn't come up on Razers Aussie website except for a side note on certain laptop product pages. So if I need something particular, or just want something, I often find I can get it from overseas and as a added bonus for a lot less.

Plus as a pensioner, I am on a stripped back lifestyle now. Still like some creature conforts - big screen TV. But first time I went overseas, for the first 2 years in England (3 miles out of Potters Bar), I slept on the floor in (or on in summer) a sleeping bag in a small store room (7 feet by 5 feet), a place with a communal kitchen and bathroom (no lounge room, et cetera). My 2 luxuries were a bicycle and a radio - no TV, phone, room heating or any of those comforts - best thing, it was very cheap rent.
I am not much into reality TV shows, but the one you mentioned here sounds interesting - more like a science experiment (or torture).

I grew up back when phones (rotary dial - speed dialing was done with a pen or pencil) were atached to the wall and still feel that mobiles are for my advantage, not everyone elses (particularly social media) - so like you, I'm in the 'paradise' group and on a PAYG, receiving a bill every 6 months - last bill was relatively expensive due to all the calls I made - $0.84 Australian. Usually less than $0.50 and sometimes they come in at $0.00. :-)

Therefore, even though Ii recently got a 2nd hand Note 5 as a present which is very capable (my old phone is no good as 2G sevices are no more), I have no need, nor the desire, for phone apps to do banking.

[ehhhhhhh]

That was a Bitcoin exchange called mtgox.

Bitcoin is a decentralized, borderless and permissionless digital cash.

It's an opensource project, there is no central company or institution in control.

As for its exchange rate. Bitcoin went from $0 in 2009 to $1000 today.

If your friend lost money, it was because he didn't do his due diligence. A bitcoin balance on an exchange is not Bitcoin, but an IOU with counterparty risk.

[Moby-Dick]

I recently got a Monzo card for use abroad - as its prepaid, it minimises any risk from card cloning etc.