Which banks are good?

[JR8]

Yes I'm on about foreign debit cards... though its still free for purchasing goods.

Probably won't surprise you to hear that Ryanair charge a fee (£10 per ticket) for you to pay using a debit card!

[ksl]

Yes I'm on about foreign debit cards... though its still free for purchasing goods.

Probably won't surprise you to hear that Ryanair charge a fee (£10 per ticket) for you to pay using a debit card!

Before Halifax became a bank, i transferred some cash to Taiwan and was charged £50, the reason was that they don't do transfers themselves and have to go through a bank and pay them too, I eventually got £25 back, though my bank in Denmark only charge £2 for the same amount of transaction Banks are the biggest rip of merchants ever, no wonder my ex army colleague set up his own Halifax branch years ago and sold it to buy a few toys, he used to have 6 different choppers. That's his in the background the one in front belongs to a London company that another colleague of mine is piloting



Though my mate had 6 choppers at one time after he left the banking business, bankers rarely lose their own money and to think the liability of a bank is ridiculously low.

£10 per ticket is worrying

[JR8]

Nice choppers! How did your mate open a branch of the Halifax, is it a franchise?

From my experience a lot of bankers lost a lot of cash. After all they are probably in the unusual position of being remunerated with a very high proportion of stocks and options. I know you hear people banging on about bankers recklessly only in it for 'this years profit' etc., but in my experience long term incentivisation (i.e. stocks, options and locked in awards) has been the norm for anyone above the junior ranks for certainly the 20 years I know of.

[ksl]

Nice choppers! How did your mate open a branch of the Halifax, is it a franchise?

From my experience a lot of bankers lost a lot of cash. After all they are probably in the unusual position of being remunerated with a very high proportion of stocks and options. I know you hear people banging on about bankers recklessly only in it for 'this years profit' etc., but in my experience long term incentivisation (i.e. stocks, options and locked in awards) has been the norm for anyone above the junior ranks for certainly the 20 years I know of.

Yes it was kind of a franchise back then, if you read the history of Halifax, this is how they managed to setup so many outlets. Yes I agree most were paid out in stock options, and have lost a fortune especially in the financial crash.

It's not that i have anything against them really, other than i have learnt to be a little more smarter over the years about investing. When i needed help with a very small loan i was let down, which really p----d me off back in the late 70's when i was importing cars from Europe.

I managed without them and from that day, I have been a little biased against them and insurance companies in the past, but I handle my own finances and investments since 2000. I actually used a Halifax investment book to learn about stockmarkets a little T/A and have never really looked back.

I just wish i had invested much earlier in my life, as i made a living in Taiwan in 2000 day trading. I still love the Taiex movement, though it's company mentality in Taiwan one must grasp. Actually I used to be on the motleycrew forum back in 2000, it was fun with lots of pro input and sharing of knowledge, I think I picked up ARM.L at 38 pence in 2003, I was only doing technology stocks back then. Business is Business I guess!

[JR8]

MotleyCrew, do you mean MotleyFool??

Doing tech stocks? If so you know of Bialystock and him chasing Marconi down the plughole. Now that would be funny!

[ksl]

MotleyCrew, do you mean MotleyFool??

Doing tech stocks? If so you know of Bialystock and him chasing Marconi down the plughole. Now that would be funny!

yes I was on the marconi thread under the name 121tw. TW for Taiwan Haha! yes I recall that.

[JR8]

Blimming hell, small world! That was like 12 years ago now. Centuries in internet time.

Bialystock was trading ARM too as I recall, and others. I was only really posting on property boards there. And on one hand we had him spouting off about what a god he alleged he was re: property, while observing him slowly, painfully, and surrealy chase Marconi down from something like 600 > 20p. Rarely have I witnessed an individual with such an apparent need for adulation from the internet (if SMS is reading this, this is the guy I mentioned who stalked me and summarised every little piece of personal info from my c. 10k post history, condensed it into one, and then dropped it publicly in front of me. Freaky!)

p.s. I won't post my username from TMF, as I have always used separate ids across forums - precisely due to freaks as above! If you did ever read the property markets/landlords boards though you would be familiar with me...

[ksl]

Blimming hell, small world! That was like 12 years ago now. Centuries in internet time.

Bialystock was trading ARM too as I recall, and others. I was only really posting on property boards there. And on one hand we had him spouting off about what a god he alleged he was re: property, while observing him slowly, painfully, and surrealy chase Marconi down from something like 600 > 20p. Rarely have I witnessed an individual with such an apparent need for adulation from the internet (if SMS is reading this, this is the guy I mentioned who stalked me and summarised every little piece of personal info from my c. 10k post history, condensed it into one, and then dropped it publicly in front of me. Freaky!)

p.s. I won't post my username from TMF, as I have always used separate ids across forums - precisely due to freaks as above! If you did ever read the property markets/landlords boards though you would be familiar with me...

Hi Repo,

Nice work and congratulations. With the benefit of hindsight, in during 1994 and out in 2006/7 in Wales is beginning to look inspired. I suspect that whatever future there is for BTL, that it will never be as profitable as what will probably seem like a halycon golden age, that you appear to have taken maximum advantage of. Pity it doesn't happen all the time, but it is lovely when it all comes together isn't it, and I would say that the way it came together for you was probably life changing. Well done.


Bialystock


He's back to haunt you haha! Actually he's still on the board I think!

[JR8]

Blimming hell, small world! That was like 12 years ago now. Centuries in internet time.

Bialystock was trading ARM too as I recall, and others. I was only really posting on property boards there. And on one hand we had him spouting off about what a god he alleged he was re: property, while observing him slowly, painfully, and surrealy chase Marconi down from something like 600 > 20p. Rarely have I witnessed an individual with such an apparent need for adulation from the internet (if SMS is reading this, this is the guy I mentioned who stalked me and summarised every little piece of personal info from my c. 10k post history, condensed it into one, and then dropped it publicly in front of me. Freaky!)

p.s. I won't post my username from TMF, as I have always used separate ids across forums - precisely due to freaks as above! If you did ever read the property markets/landlords boards though you would be familiar with me...

Hi Repo,

Nice work and congratulations. With the benefit of hindsight, in during 1994 and out in 2006/7 in Wales is beginning to look inspired. I suspect that whatever future there is for BTL, that it will never be as profitable as what will probably seem like a halycon golden age, that you appear to have taken maximum advantage of. Pity it doesn't happen all the time, but it is lovely when it all comes together isn't it, and I would say that the way it came together for you was probably life changing. Well done.


Bialystock


He's back to haunt you haha! Actually he's still on the board I think!

Hahahaha! Yep that was precisely his style. If he wasn't bigging up himself, he'd adulate and fawn over anyone that he thought was any kind of parallel for what he himself suggested he was doing at the time.

I still post there occasionally (though not on the Property Markets board!), but much more low key than I used to since now my investments are pretty sorted out and very long term...

[BigSis]

I'm with POSB. I don't have much of a problem with them apart from them charging people for putting money in their own bank accounts..........what a rip off that is, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's common with many banks around here.

The ATMs are all over the place and being able to use DBS too makes it even better. The only place I ever go where I can't find an ATM is Kallang Leisure Park which has, I think, a UOB ATM and that's all.

Counter service can be slow, especially if you end up going at lunch time or something, but I've had my account for about 9 years and I've only had to go into the bank 5 or 6 times during those years so it's not too bad at all.