Major banking crash exercise

[Imsayingnothing]

Imagine you have a friend who is high up in a financial institution who tells you that in ten days time from now there is going to be a major banking crash worldwide.

The banks will bring in a credit freeze, meaning all bank account cards and credit cards will be frozen. You will not be able to use switch, cashless payments, online payments or even take cash out of a cash machine. All accounts will be frozen.

How would you prepare for this?

I seem to remember it was something about borrow as much as possible! I didn’t pay a lot of attention as I wasn’t dealing with that side of things.

I think if this was true then any BTL properties with mortgages would be very, very nervous. Under current law residential mortgages are protected by the law and banks, commercial are in a different area of credit and could be asked to be satisfied

What would I do? If I thought it really was legit

Stock up on food, water and everything else we would need.

We are already preppers on here so that would be standard

@LunaHeather I'd keep some as cash, say enough to pay for a few months expenses. The rest I would put into physical gold or silver.

@littlebillie there was an article a few months ago where sunak was discussing a capital levy. The article was suggesting taking equity out of mortgages.

[quote lightand]@GrumpyHoonMain Thank you.
Would that have been because HSBC is more of a worldwide bank than others? Though I suppose now, Santander is at lest two countries? I am much more out of the loop now, banking wise, than I used to be.[/quote]
No it’s because as an Asian bank it was always subject to stricter asian regulation when it came to keeping reserves (India and China both imposed regulation long before Europe and the UK did). So it never needed to be bailed out - though some would argue that it caused the financial crash in the first place due to HFC’s involvement in US sub prime mortgages.

[quote Imsayingnothing]@LunaHeather I'd keep some as cash, say enough to pay for a few months expenses. The rest I would put into physical gold or silver.[/quote]
Aren't the charges for gold or silver storage quite high? I always thought you'd need to have a huge amount of savings to be worth investing in gold.

@littlebillie

I think if this was true then any BTL properties with mortgages would be very, very nervous. Under current law residential mortgages are protected by the law and banks, commercial are in a different area of credit and could be asked to be satisfied

You mean landlords could be asked for their whole loan repayment upfront?

Glad you started this thread OP, it's really interesting.

DP had a really weird conversation with Halifax this week too, he just wanted to set up a direct debit to put his mortgage after a payment holiday. He was on the phone for an hour and the woman was being really weird too. Are you sure you aren’t trying to warn us, OP?

@AlohaMolly

DP had a really weird conversation with Halifax this week too, he just wanted to set up a direct debit to put his mortgage after a payment holiday. He was on the phone for an hour and the woman was being really weird too. Are you sure you aren’t trying to warn us, OP?

Was she trying to sell further mortgage holiday by any chance?

No, oddly enough! It was mentioned briefly but never again!

@AlohaMolly

DP had a really weird conversation with Halifax this week too, he just wanted to set up a direct debit to put his mortgage after a payment holiday. He was on the phone for an hour and the woman was being really weird too. Are you sure you aren’t trying to warn us, OP?

This was what I experienced too! They were very odd on the phone with me. Something is going on here.

I withdrew £250 out the cash point earlier too - will do this daily I think

Banks preparing for negative interest rates (which means savings and pension raids right?)

www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/04/uk-banks-given-six-months-to-prepare-for-negative-interest-rates

Well 10 days notice would be enough time to empty my bank accounts.

Luna yes, BTL properties are commercial so don't have the same consumer protections.

In Iceland when Kaupthing bank went down they were asking for mortgage satisfaction on the day as in Iceland they didn't have consumer protections. People lost their home it was very sad.

[quote leopardspotsdotdotdot]Banks preparing for negative interest rates (which means savings and pension raids right?)

www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/04/uk-banks-given-six-months-to-prepare-for-negative-interest-rates[/quote]
Only a raid on pensions if they hold excessive cash

@LunaHeather no I would never buy silver and gold coins for instance and keep them in a vault with the company I'm purchasing from, that would be the same as money in the bank.

In my opinion it's much safer to have the physical coins, say sovereigns, delivered to me to keep.

You don't have to have a lot of savings to buy gold or silver. You could buy one or two coins a month. They come in different weights so price ranges quite a bit.

We bought a high security safe for home just this week

Not with the aim of keeping cash or savings in but now I’m wondering if we take money out to store in there

This is a fascinating thread, thanks OP!

@AlohaMolly

DP had a really weird conversation with Halifax this week too, he just wanted to set up a direct debit to put his mortgage after a payment holiday. He was on the phone for an hour and the woman was being really weird too. Are you sure you aren’t trying to warn us, OP?

So what are the implications of this? I can’t work it out. Banks and building societies are being cagey?

Very interesting. We need to move house, but held off on the recent rush as I didn't think the inflated prices could sustain themselves for very long, and the stamp duty holiday wouldn't be enough to offset any potential losses. Our next move is a big one, and dont want to end up in negative equity for a prolonged period of time, especially if jobs are at risk.

No idea @ThroughThickAndThin01 it just seemed off at the time and then I read this thread

I would withdraw all cash if still possible, and make sure any medical appointments were done, and food, gardening supplies, and medical supplies bought.

Halifax is part of Lloyds. Wonder if Lloyds customers are having any problems?

@AlohaMolly

No idea *@ThroughThickAndThin01* it just seemed off at the time and then I read this thread

What was she actually talking about for so long?

If a large crash was imminent, I don't think that staff at that level would know, and if they did, it wouldn't make them spend too far long on a call.