Someone, can't remember who, mentioned in a thread a some time ago that so and so many percent of all coins disappear with every generation, making a certain type of coin more and more uncommon.
I saw an article on the tellie the other day abot groups of people that are doing away with banks altogether. They run savings co-ops. They get a couple of hundred members putting money into a collective pool, then when one of the members wants a loan, they just withdraw it out of the co-op and then gradually pay it back. That means that their savings don't generate any income, but they don't pay any interst when they get a loan either. It is an interesting concept.
Me and my nine friends have it, but we pay back with 5pct interest which is less than any credit card and helps keep our savings a bit by kicking the ass of inflation of the pot value.
I of course have bank accs and stuff. But even in only last 3 month they have made me mad 3 times. Twice when taking money from ATM and money didn't come out... Money went off my account though and machine after that displayed out of service. First time was not too bad, money was back on my account automatically in 2 days. Second time it took 14 working days and several phone calls to get my money back onto my account. Phonecalls that I had to borrow someone else's phone cos my phone was out of credit and money for buying credit was no longer feckin available to me. Boy was I mad.....
And then bank manager rang me only to explain how "there is nothing more we can do" and "these are normal bank procedures".
So in the end... they used MY money that I needed for 14 days without paying me a cent of interest.
O yea, and many people's transactions in same bank were taken twice yesterday due to server error. They should have their money back by today afternoon though, but still. What if they needed this money yesterday?
Last year in summer there was a major clitch in one bank server (Royal Bank of Scotland and its smaller branch Ulster Bank).
It was impossible to see ur balance, take any money out nor do any transactions in or out... the only way to get money was to go to bank, queue for hours with other people and then try and prove that u should have money on acc because apparantly the bank people system was down too. It lasted for about a week for people in UK and about 2 weeks for Ireland. Disgrace. Everyone got poxy 25eur compensation for two weeks of disaster. Was abroad at a time with no access to my money. Great holiday, haaha.
No wonder people should try and find other means for emergencies. Banks can fail us any day and usually it happens when we most need the access to our money.
