Withdrawing a LARGE amount of cash. How?

[Ceolas]

Tens of thousands to pay a tradesman . Presumably I don't just walk in with my suitcase under my pram one day?

bank draft?

Get a bankers draft, it's like a cheque but written by your bank and goes straight out of your account.

Don't do cash, VAT problems and all that

Bank draft or funds tranfer?

I would call up the bank to ask them how to do it. they will have to order the money in specially

presumably VAT "problems" are why she wants to pay in cash!
But also - paying in cash gives you no record of the transaction, the tradesman could dispute that you have paid in full etc.

yes bankers draft or direct transfer. your branch will advise.

Yes, CS you have it right but tis a family friend so no real worries I suppose...

get the tradesman to meet you in the bank once you have withdrawn the money, it means you aren't walking about with it.

It is reasonable for contractors to be completely above board and give you a discount for cash. It beats waiting for a month or so for their money.

You can simply go to your bank and withdraw the cash, getting it in 20s or 50s. I know that I have withdrawn £2000 fairly easily. If you need to give your contractor more than that, then negotiate smaller chunks. Unless they are paying upfront for materials, you can pretty much pay them daily for labour.

There probably isn't any discount for materials, so you might as well pay for those by cheque.

If you bank with First Direct, you will need to phone them and arrange to pick up the money at a branch of HSBC. Then, you need to take various forms of ID when you go (passport, driving licence etc.)

the op says it's tens of thousands. a small branch would certainly need notice for that amount to order the cash in.

If it's more than about 12K the bank will need to know why in view of Money Laundering Regulations.

"It is reasonable for contractors to be completely above board and give you a discount for cash. It beats waiting for a month or so for their money."

What does this mean?

its means - they might not be on the fiddle (re VAT or income tax) they might simply be giving you a discount for early cash payment.

It is also pretty naive, it is possible but it is also much more likely that it is VAT or income tax avoidance.

Thanks

I waltzed into my bank wanting to withdraw £9000 and they said I had to order it as it would leave them too short of cash - rofl - I thought a bank would have millions stashed in their safe!

Things are quite strict these days - as others have already said this is to try to prevent money laundering... or VAT fraud no doubt. We all pay for it in the end...

They are also bloody nosy and want to know what it's for. Why is that?

Well, because its out of the ordinary to pay for things with huge amounts of cash. People rarely do it. It is often associated with criminal activity. We may not like it, when we want to withdraw a large amount of cash quite legitimately, but its not all that onerous to comply with some questioning, especially with the terrorism alert so high. Imvho.

Any person with a little bit of common sense (unless tax avoidance is occuring) would not pay large amounts in cash for things like a car.

they won't actually ask what it's for exactly, that could be classed as 'tipping off' which is also illegal. so they'll just look at your account and see if there is a pattern of dodgy transactions.

Oh god. Have not actually committed to anything but did think it would be a bit troublesome to come by such a huge amount of money. I presumed there'd be a daily limit or something.