QUOTE OF THE DAY. TRIPPS ORIGINAL

[Stanley]

Only modification I would propose is that he surely meant dead from the neck up! We are the 'neck down' and have a pretty good handle on what is happening!

[Tripps]

From 'This is Money' website today -

"Welcome to Isa season 2017, where NatWest genuinely has a countdown clock warning there’s only 21 days, six hours and 26 minutes to get a cash Isa with a 0.01% interest rate."

[Stanley]

That's not a joke David, It's a tragedy of our times. Do you ever get the impression that the main Raison d'etre for these 'instruments' is to generate commission and activity for the financial industry?

[Tripps]

I don't think I said it was funny - that's just how you read it, I think.
In the 1990's I think, got a rate of 16.05% interest on my savings from the Bradford and Bingley Building Society. Quite a contrast.

[Tizer]

I thought it was funny because it gave me an image of the countdown clock making unintended consequences for Natwest's attempt to be clever! It's shouting out to Natwest customer's "We won't give you any interest!" instead of encouraging them to come in and deposit their cash.

[Stanley]

Perhaps low interest rates on savings and the prospect of higher prices could be part of the drive in consumer spending and rising debt levels. Easy to persuade yourself that buying now saves money.

[Tripps]

Easy to persuade yourself that buying now saves money

Quite the opposite I'd say? In the 1970's we spent, because inflation increased the price of everything. Buy now and save money. In contrast today - waiting often makes stuff cheaper. Take Tiz's new printer for example. I once paid £200 for a dot matrix printer, now you can get a laser for a third of the price.

[Tizer]

It's almost impossible to predict where prices will go next these days. You used to be able to rely on collectable items going up in price but that changed with the 2007/8 crash. In the 5 years before that the more well-off Chinese starting collecting postage stamps and their value rocketed up. A knock on effect was that shares in Stanley Gibbons shot up too and got to around 400p. During the years after 2008 the Chinese stopped buying them. Shares in Gibbons are now about 10p.

[Stanley]

One thing is certain David. There is no incentive to save at the moment. If the banks had their way we would be paying them to hold our money......

[chinatyke]

If the banks had their way we would be paying them to hold our money......

It's coming!
In fact it is here already because a lot of bank accounts maintain a credit balance and the account holder still pays an account fee.
Imagine if 99% of purchases were done by cashless means. At the moment, even in the most cashless countries on Earth, like
France and the Netherlands, cash still accounts for 40% or more of all consumer transactions. Source
Then it is possible that vendors would make a charge for using cash instead of making a charge for using a "card" as some do now.

[Stanley]

[Tizer]

Many car dealerships already do something similar now. If you buy the car on credit you get a discount but if you paid cash without asking any further questions you'd pay the full price. Press them on it and there's a workaround whereby you take out the credit then close the loan after a month or so and by some financial trickery it works out the same as if you had a discount. But I wonder how many people don't know about the discount and don't ask questions and just pay up in full if they have the cash in the bank not earning any interest.

[chinatyke]

I remember buying a car from a Ford main dealer in New Brighton and they were going to charge me 1 or 2% (I've forgotten the exact figure) for using a card, because they had to pay that to Visa. I told them I would pay them cash and simply drew it out from the bank across the road. Then they had the work of counting the cash and putting it back in their bank. We take electronic payments for granted nowadays and in many cases cash isn't the preferred option. The danger is that if cash becomes redundant then banks or governments would have instant control of your "money" balance which they don't have if you keep your sovereigns stuffed under the mattress.

[Stanley]

35 years ago I was told I had to pay a premium if I paid in cash at Macey's in NY. I told them that in that case they could keep the goods. I got the normal price.

[Tizer]

China, I should have stated it more clearly but I didn't mean paying literally with coins and notes but by cheque. Mind you, I did draw out about £3000 from our bank in the 1980s to buy a classic car from a respected dealer. He only took cash because he could then go out and buy another car with cash in his hand. I felt would have felt vulnerable carrying that much cash in those days except for the fact that I took Mrs Tiz along as my bodyguard.

[Stanley]

What was the car?

[Tizer]

It was one of the last Series 3 Daimler Sovereigns, just before the design changed to the boxy shape of the 80s. In mechanics, body and performance they were the same as the Jaguar XJ6 but more plush inside...and they attracted a lower insurance premium because the insurers assumed a Daimler driver would be a lower risk than a Jaguar driver. But you still got all the benefits of the 4.2 litre engine (and the penalty of the high fuel consumption). People used to warn that they were expensive to run because parts were very expensive, but the original parts were such good quality that they seemed to last forever. Of course we were only doing low mileage in it and the only thing we had to replace during our ownership was the switch under the bonnet that changed over between the two fuel tanks. The car was low mileage and had been owned from new by a man who lived in Surrey and commuted to work in the City by train. He only used the car for social trips and to travel to Greece for his holidays!

It was identical to the car in this photo....

[plaques]

but the original parts were such good quality that they seemed to last forever

Not on my car they didn't. It was probably the worst car I ever bought. I got it from my next door neighbour who had spent endless amounts replacing virtually everything that turned. I thought 'what else can go wrong?' Everything. I gave it up as a bad job when the automatic gear box would only drive in reverse. Three miles home in reverse is something I can't recommend. One job that sticks in my mind was when the hand brake pads jammed. New pads only cost me £10 because the guy own ordered them backed out after he had read the official way of replacing them, re: drop the back axle and suspension along with numerous other major bits. My solution was to cut a panel in the boot floor, (inboard brakes)and attack them from the top. Mind you when it was running it drove like a dream.

[Stanley]

You've reminded me P that cutting the floor out was the best way to change a gearbox on a Standard Vanguard....... Wonderful what the brain contains......

[Tizer]

Plaques, was yours a Series 3 (pre-1980)?

[plaques]

Tizer, A 1975/6 I think. Sold it for the price of the tyres I'd just put on £120. Another memorable event was when I once opened the bonnet and the wind took hold, It dragged the bonnet completely off. The empty overhang at the front was totally rotten.
My pal and myself used to buy ex-RAF Standard Vanguard staff cars, run the best and sell the rest. We made a template for drilling holes in the bulkhead so that you could release the gearbox with a minimum of spanner work.

[Stanley]

P. Nice to have that confirmation that my memory was accurate.....

[Tizer]

We couldn't have afforded to run the Daimler as an everyday car and no doubt if we had we would have encountered problems and high expense. The only breakdown was when that fuel switch failed - and it happened in the middle of the Salford junction in Blackburn. People rushed to help us - they probably thought we were celebrities! But as an immaculate low-mileage 1979 classic car it was great fun and we got our money back when we sold it too.

[Tripps]

From the Manchester Guardian as was. . .

"It was a bad choice for an opening offensive. Healthcare reform is to American presidents what the Russian winter was to Napoleon. Obama got further than most but even then, the notion of an American National Health Service remained a distant dream."

[Stanley]

I still think of it as the MG David!