Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Bank accounts are effectively free here so just create another one and use that as a mule account

This is soooo much easier than dealing with PP as the middleman and cheaper.

The only pain in the arse is having another damn column on my spreadsheet

Edit: have put £31,800 through ebay in the last 5 years. I've personally lost £91 in total out of that i.e 0.29%. It works fine:-//

[mnementh]

Not over here. (Reconsiders... well, not in the US. I really don't know aboot Canada, as we have a single joint account my wife manages... )

You want "free", you'd better be willing to keep several hundred to $1000 balance at all times, and/or some combination of that with deposits to an associated savings account with heavy restrictions, and/or a debit card with at least 10 or so transactions/month. No, online shopping and deposits usually don't count.

mnem
 

[bd139]

If you want a decent interest rate or your balls flossed you need to have £2000+ income every month similarly here. But you're entitled to a free basic account even if you're knee deep in financial shit and/or court judgements.

An account is just a row in a database really

But in the US, well pay to play everywhere.

[tggzzz]

Yes, fleabay is being objectionable, but I'm more relaxed about this than the "f**k off after May unless you give us your bank account".

As regards to their payment system, I have to say that so far I'm finding it very good. As soon as I enter details of the shipping and tracking info, they release your money directly into your bank and they deduct their fee at the same time, which at the moment as I'm using the £1 offer, means the full amount less the £1. There are no other fees coming off as there used to be with PayPal then taking their cut.

I know fleabay can, via one means or another, "deduct" money from my credit card. I can tolerate that. What I haven't assessed is whether they could do something similar with a bank account.

As several people have noted, the workaround is to have a new semi-dormant account solely for that. I haven't opened a bank account in decades, so that's currently an unknown for me. Given other things on my plate ATM, that ain't gonna happen soon

I really doubt that there is anyway that they can withdraw funds from your bank account. All I had to do was give them my account number, sort code and the name of the account which is the same info that you give anybody to make a payment to your account, i.e., your employer so that they can pay your salary directly to your account. I'm all for being cautious, but I don't see any need to open up another bank account just for eBay. If there is a dispute, then I suspect that they will hold back funds from future / other sales (assuming that you are a usual seller) otherwise they will expect you to honour the agreement otherwise they will more than likely shut your account down.

I would hope an expect that, but a recent conversation with a bank didn't enthuse me with confidence.

I and my brother are in the process of using a Limited Power of Attorney to operate my mother's account. The LPA states that we can operate it individually for amounts less than £X, but more than that and we have to jointly sign. Nothing special there. But they won't issue an ATM card or chequebook to us on the grounds that it would allow one of us to exceed £X. But surely their automated systems would simply prevent that? Not so, and they state all other banks are the same. I can see how that might be the case (presume all OK let transactions proceed, and clear up mess afterwards), but I don't like it.

My brother, X.Y.Z.Brother, is also having aggro proving who he is, since one of the credit reference agencies knows him as X.Y.Brother. Grrrr.

So I prefer to avoid trouble rather than clean up messes with a chatbot.

It creates a DD when you sign up. See attached screenshot.

You can of course cancel that. But they can request it again.

Ah, that's how they do it. Don't I have to authorise a DD before it can be done?

You may have noted on the TekScopes and HPAK group this anecdote about the US situation.

On 28/04/21 16:43, Dave Peterson via groups.io wrote:
>  Martin,
>
> Unless it happens to you it's difficult to believe.
>
> When you agree to use PayPal (or whichever latest flavor is currently popular) you rather explicitly allow them to reach into your bank account and take money out without notice.
>
> When we rented out our vacation condo we were required by PayPal to provide our rental agreement which allowed us to withhold deposits from our renters. We had a renter violate our agreement: overloaded the condo with guests exceeding its capacity, caused damage. This was only time we were compelled to withhold the deposit because the cost of damages exceeded the rental deposit.
>
> The renter fought furiously against us (the BBB is BS by the way) despite everything being very obvious and clear. (Seen the movie "Pacific Heights"?). Finally the renter had their credit card company reverse the charges on the rental deposit.
>
> We discovered this a couple of months after the fact when $250 disappeared from our checking account. That was the ONLY indication we got that the charge reversal happened.
>
> Despite our rental agreement in PayPals hands, PayPals documented charge reversal policies, and their very friendly and responsive customer service representatives, they never did a thing to challenge the charge reversal. To them it is vastly better to piss us off than the credit card company. The credit card company will always win and doesn't give a rats ass about you.
>
> When you use these services (in the US) you will always be required to "let them win". Your recourse is the courts, in which case you loose. Good luck if you're talking over $5,000. Your legal fees will blow that out of the water.
>
> I would also highly advise not linking your free credit union checking account to any other bank account. But that won't really protect you either. They'll just file the bill with a collection agency. Then the fun will really start.
>
> I like to say, I'm not cynical, I'm "woke".
>
> Sorry for the rant, but if you're going to sell on eBay, or deal with PayPal, or Venmo, you should be aware of what you're signing into.
> Dave

On a positive note, DD is being shot in a couple of years entirely. It’s going the way of cheques.

... and in about the same timescales as cheques disappearing! I'll bet on Last Dangerous Visions appearing first.

[SilverSolder]

[fleaBay] do not need any more than my credit card. For any fucking thing.  [...]

Aren't they just trying to drag everyone into using their own eBay payment system?  Given that hardly anyone seem willing to change away from PayPal...

I will continue to use PayPal no matter what eBay does...  because you just know, they are going to spin off the new payment system (just like they spun off PayPal) if they ever get traction with it! 

And that ship has sailed, PayPal has broad coverage and works well enough -  one of those things, "Why change something that works?"

[mnementh]

Well, no... they did not "spin off" PayPal... they bought into PayPal when their own first attempt at these services (BidPay I think) sank like the coprolite it is, and then both PP and eBay customers sued their asses off for conflict of interest. Aboot this time, PP took off as a financial services company in its own right, soon worth multiple times eBay, who had by then totally destroyed their credibility with the influx of overseas scammers.

Eventually PP bought themselves out of their usurious merger with evilBay, and are their own company again; party due to the lawsuits, and partly just to distance themselves from fleaBay, which association was damaging the PP brand.

There's nothing wrong with PP. It is and always has been eBay that was a millstone around their neck.

mnem
 

[SilverSolder]

Seems to me that eBay's motivation in getting your bank account, is to "nudge" people off PayPal and into their own payment system...

I mean, what other possible reason could there be?

Shake your money maker...

[bd139]

Ah, that's how they do it. Don't I have to authorise a DD before it can be done?

Well you have to give the creditor permission to tell your bank on your behalf. Obviously you can see where the chain of trust fails on that because it relies on the creditor always being honest or competent. Not something that always plays out. However if they take anything you can dispute it and then get into a worthless tri-party argument over who's fault the shit show is. Which is why it's going.

It's being replaced with a thing called a CPA which is based on your debit card and is somewhat more stringent as you have to explicitly hand over your details in the first place, the second factor on the back of the card and do a 2FA bounce through your banking app. They can't just lift your sort code and account number and create one like DD. You can also approve only a limited schedule rather than a variable one. This is incidentally why TalkTalk have so many customers - it's so easy to get enough information to set up a DD. Hell my mother fell for it in a supermarket and didn't even give them the sort/account number - they already had it available and just signed her up. That took me a month to sort out.

At that point, all these wonky asshat payment providers (that includes paypal) can fuck a duck. They're dead as there's no way to claw back cash.

In the short term the goal of opening a new bank account and keeping it empty is to stop the direct debit getting funded. If you have a basic account with no overdraft facility and no credit agreement with the bank then a DD will bounce when they request an arbitrary sum. If the bank honor it and put you overdrawn, then it's entirely their responsibility to unfuck it and not yours so they don't allow it.

More on this later though...

You may have noted on the TekScopes and HPAK group this anecdote about the US situation.

On 28/04/21 16:43, Dave Peterson via groups.io wrote:
>  Martin,
>
> Unless it happens to you it's difficult to believe.
>
> When you agree to use PayPal (or whichever latest flavor is currently popular) you rather explicitly allow them to reach into your bank account and take money out without notice.
>
> When we rented out our vacation condo we were required by PayPal to provide our rental agreement which allowed us to withhold deposits from our renters. We had a renter violate our agreement: overloaded the condo with guests exceeding its capacity, caused damage. This was only time we were compelled to withhold the deposit because the cost of damages exceeded the rental deposit.
>
> The renter fought furiously against us (the BBB is BS by the way) despite everything being very obvious and clear. (Seen the movie "Pacific Heights"?). Finally the renter had their credit card company reverse the charges on the rental deposit.
>
> We discovered this a couple of months after the fact when $250 disappeared from our checking account. That was the ONLY indication we got that the charge reversal happened.
>
> Despite our rental agreement in PayPals hands, PayPals documented charge reversal policies, and their very friendly and responsive customer service representatives, they never did a thing to challenge the charge reversal. To them it is vastly better to piss us off than the credit card company. The credit card company will always win and doesn't give a rats ass about you.
>
> When you use these services (in the US) you will always be required to "let them win". Your recourse is the courts, in which case you loose. Good luck if you're talking over $5,000. Your legal fees will blow that out of the water.
>
> I would also highly advise not linking your free credit union checking account to any other bank account. But that won't really protect you either. They'll just file the bill with a collection agency. Then the fun will really start.
>
> I like to say, I'm not cynical, I'm "woke".
>
> Sorry for the rant, but if you're going to sell on eBay, or deal with PayPal, or Venmo, you should be aware of what you're signing into.
> Dave

Yeah that's about right. On the US side of thing the legislation is somewhat less progressive. Compliance standards are recommendations with escape clauses and the objective of all compliance operations is to work out where the holes are and absolve the org of as much risk as possible. There is no consistent statutory legislation as well which means that as a federal system, most of the orgs or proxy orgs are hosted in the most friendly state business-wise. As always this turns into a race to the bottom and you end up with a concentration of predatory practices which maximise shareholder return only. The customers are a resource to be tapped not an asset to be retained. In fact some of the objective risk profiling is done based on "how far can we piss off a customer and still gain money".

... and in about the same timescales as cheques disappearing! I'll bet on Last Dangerous Visions appearing first.

Well there's a technical and compliance issue hiding behind the removal of DD as well. Firstly the thing is a shit show mess of EDI and settlement tennis over legacy god-knows-what sticky-taped to the side of BACS. But really the banks don't want it because it costs them money to administer it and raises the risk profile of their transactions. Secondly PSD2 which is EU security regulation applies to us, which defines SCA (Strong Customer Authentication) which is roughly two-factor authentication. DD is the antithesis of that - any mug with a SUN can steal money from anyone and any mug can get one. I mean look they gave local councils SUN codes and they are epic scamming bastards.

Anyway this is my day job so I'm done now as it's 17:30

[cyclin_al]

Not over here. (Reconsiders... well, not in the US. I really don't know aboot Canada, as we have a single joint account my wife manages... )

You want "free", you'd better be willing to keep several hundred to $1000 balance at all times, and/or some combination of that with deposits to an associated savings account with heavy restrictions, and/or a debit card with at least 10 or so transactions/month. No, online shopping and deposits usually don't count.

mnem
 

You can get "free" bank accounts very easily in Canada.  However, you first have to have a regular account to link with. 
The free accounts do not provide all the same services as a regular account, but work fine for online transactions, which is what we are talking about in the realm of PP and FleaBay.
It does provide a layer of separation, but as noted is not foolproof.

In Canada, the most common offerings are from Tangerine (formerly ING until Scotia bought them out...).

EDIT:
Look out for the service fees for anything that bounces.  It costs for a bit of protection...

Cheques are still very much a going thing here.  The electronic systems used in Canada have no way of dealing with a transaction that requires two authorizations.  The only way to do that here is a cheque with two separate signatures.

[bd139]

Seems to me that eBay's motivation in getting your bank account, is to "nudge" people off PayPal and into their own payment system...

I mean, what other possible reason could there be?

Shake your money maker...

No it's not even that. Adyen is just a payment processor not an arbitration service. They wanted off paypal so that they could have a single outcome of arbitration i.e. theirs which means they can protect sellers and buyers. The only reason anyone uses ebay is because of the protection in place and there are other platforms out there which they have to compete with (finally) so they focused on that. Also Adyen takes less of a slice of sellers margins which means that the platform is competitive with other platforms like Amazon, Banggood, Aliexpress on small price products. ebay is a storefront so low margin operation is a business win for everyone.

I think it's about simplification and consolidation rather than a policy of making more cash because they probably aren't making anything more other than failing to lose the costs from running paypal integrations.

[Cerebus]

Yes, fleabay is being objectionable, but I'm more relaxed about this than the "f**k off after May unless you give us your bank account".

As regards to their payment system, I have to say that so far I'm finding it very good. As soon as I enter details of the shipping and tracking info, they release your money directly into your bank and they deduct their fee at the same time, which at the moment as I'm using the £1 offer, means the full amount less the £1. There are no other fees coming off as there used to be with PayPal then taking their cut.

I know fleabay can, via one means or another, "deduct" money from my credit card. I can tolerate that. What I haven't assessed is whether they could do something similar with a bank account.

As several people have noted, the workaround is to have a new semi-dormant account solely for that. I haven't opened a bank account in decades, so that's currently an unknown for me. Given other things on my plate ATM, that ain't gonna happen soon

I opened a new current account with Santander a few weeks back and it was trivial to do, all from a seat on the sofa. They even had a tick box option to say it was a "secondary account".

I was keeping all my money with the local credit union but had to get a new secondary bank account in short order to dump some of my money from the credit union into because the credit union had to reduce the amount they have on deposit versus their capital reserves. First time ever that I've had a bank say to me "You're loaning us too much money for free, please take some back".

[bd139]

Yes mine's with Santander as well. It was approved and available on my online banking within 5 minutes of applying. Dead simple.

Not seen anyone using a credit union for a while!

[Specmaster]

Reading between the lines here, it sounds like a minefield to me, perhaps as bd139 is involved in the finance sector, he could write a short piece of dos and don'ts and a brief explanation of these and the reasons for them, Im sure that we all would welcome something along those, sorry bd, I'm trying to dump everything on your shoulders here, but I can't think of anyone better qualified to steer us through the minefield, unless someone else does?

What is this 2FA that you speak of, is the security 3-digit number on the back of cards? If so then, once you have given them that number, they can record it and reuse it again at their leisure surely?

I recall that Amstrad had a range of Emailer phones at one time that had a built card reader slot specifically for on-line transactions that I don't recall ever actually being used, wouldn't something like that be a better bet, it requires you to have the card in the reader and then enter a code? I also remember the banks (I still have a couple) of card readers that were small pocket devices that would generate a unique authorisation code each time, are heading back down that pathway?

[Cerebus]

Not seen anyone using a credit union for a while!

Seemed a better place to leave my cash where it might underwrite some social good rather than in the sticky mitts of some morally bankrupt financial institution. UK Credit Union accounts enjoy the same £80k statutory deposit protection as other bank accounts and they're modernising, so come with debit cards, online banking and all the usual frills nowadays.

[AVGresponding]

On The Bench This Morning:

   AiO CPU Cooler Periodic Maintenance

Y'all may have noticed the dwagon hasn't been around stirring sh...tuff up this morning... I've been a little busy.

Since I have the CPU out of my PC anyways, I figured now was a good time to do periodic maintenance on the cooler in my Gaming/VR machine

This kind of nonsense is why I built my own.

It's been running for quite a while now, and since I use auto coolant, corrosion isn't an issue. Evaporation is glacially slow, I looked at the header tank the other day and it looks like I may need to top it up in a few more years.

It was also much cheaper.

Every word of this is just... wrong.

Auto coolant is not proof against corrosion; where in the world did you get that idea...? This cooler uses common household ethylene glycol automotive coolant, with very little dilution.

The jelly boogers are a byproduct of this kind of coolant, and they happen in any motor vehicle, any liquid-cooled device that uses it. Your cooler will need exactly this kind of periodic service as well, or the cooling block and several other places in the system will clog up. If you use the pink/orange OAT coolant, it is even worse for making those jelly boogers.

I've been doing liquid-cooling of PCs for decades... going back to the original Pentiums and Athlons, so I know exactly how much it costs to DIY this stuff, even if you start with a junkyard heater core for a rad. I highly doubt you built your own for "much less" than $60. 

Cheers,

mnem
*beginning to think that "sharing" wasn't such a good idea...*   

Please re-read what I actually said.

I said corrosion is not an issue, and it isn't, and it won't be, for the life of this system. I did not say it was "corrosion proof".
Why?
Because this is a PC cooler, and not a car. The environment in which it operates is completely different.
The temperatures and pressures are considerably lower than in a car, and it is those conditions which are the primary cause of coolant degradation.

As for cost, I used a £15 pump with integrated header tank, a £7.99 80x80 radiator, icr the cost of the CPU block, but it was probably around £10, the food grade silicone tubing was £7 for 2 metres iirc. I don't know what the cost of the coolant would be; it's too small an amount to worry about (if you already have some due to car ownership etc).

The only problems I have had, are when I first filled it, I spilled some coolant because I wasn't expecting the system to fill as quickly as it did, and the sensors for the cheap eBay digital thermometers sometimes fall off since I only stuck them on with insulation tape.

The only maintenance it has needed so far has been to have the radiator vacced out when it gets choked with fluff. That's in a period of 8 years or so.

I don't care how long you've been building liquid cooled PCs, this is how I built mine, the cost and reliability are as stated, and the only input to the design that wasn't mine was to run the pump at full speed and only run the radiator fan on PWM. Most of the time it is so quiet as to be inaudible.

[AVGresponding]

Not seen anyone using a credit union for a while!

Seemed a better place to leave my cash where it might underwrite some social good rather than in the sticky mitts of some morally bankrupt financial institution. UK Credit Union accounts enjoy the same £80k statutory deposit protection as other bank accounts and they're modernising, so come with debit cards, online banking and all the usual frills nowadays.

Ditto. The Northern Shithole Council I work for is closely associated with one, and I use it for savings and loans.

Being at the counter while someone else is umming and ahhing about whether they can afford to draw out £3 is a sobering and saddening experience.

[Robert763]

Yes, fleabay is being objectionable, but I'm more relaxed about this than the "f**k off after May unless you give us your bank account".

As regards to their payment system, I have to say that so far I'm finding it very good. As soon as I enter details of the shipping and tracking info, they release your money directly into your bank and they deduct their fee at the same time, which at the moment as I'm using the £1 offer, means the full amount less the £1. There are no other fees coming off as there used to be with PayPal then taking their cut.

I know fleabay can, via one means or another, "deduct" money from my credit card. I can tolerate that. What I haven't assessed is whether they could do something similar with a bank account.

As several people have noted, the workaround is to have a new semi-dormant account solely for that. I haven't opened a bank account in decades, so that's currently an unknown for me. Given other things on my plate ATM, that ain't gonna happen soon

I really doubt that there is anyway that they can withdraw funds from your bank account. All I had to do was give them my account number, sort code and the name of the account which is the same info that you give anybody to make a payment to your account, i.e., your employer so that they can pay your salary directly to your account. I'm all for being cautious, but I don't see any need to open up another bank account just for eBay. If there is a dispute, then I suspect that they will hold back funds from future / other sales (assuming that you are a usual seller) otherwise they will expect you to honour the agreement otherwise they will more than likely shut your account down.

A bigger worry is SWMBO finding out how much money is going on TEA . She does not see my PayPal account  .

[tggzzz]

(many useful points snipped for brevity)

Ah, that's how they do it. Don't I have to authorise a DD before it can be done?

It's being replaced with a thing called a CPA which is based on your debit card and is somewhat more stringent as you have to explicitly hand over your details in the first place, the second factor on the back of the card and do a 2FA bounce through your banking app.

In the short term the goal of opening a new bank account and keeping it empty is to stop the direct debit getting funded. If you have a basic account with no overdraft facility and no credit agreement with the bank then a DD will bounce when they request an arbitrary sum. If the bank honor it and put you overdrawn, then it's entirely their responsibility to unfuck it and not yours so they don't allow it.

And with that we arrive at Dave Peterson's point...

You may have noted on the TekScopes and HPAK group this anecdote about the US situation.
On 28/04/21 16:43, Dave Peterson via groups.io wrote:
> I would also highly advise not linking your free credit union checking account to any other bank account. But that won't really protect you either. They'll just file the bill with a collection agency. Then the fun will really start.

... but at least you will still have the cash in your account.

... and in about the same timescales as cheques disappearing! I'll bet on Last Dangerous Visions appearing first.

Well there's a technical and compliance issue hiding behind the removal of DD as well. Firstly the thing is a shit show mess of EDI and settlement tennis over legacy god-knows-what sticky-taped to the side of BACS. But really the banks don't want it because it costs them money to administer it and raises the risk profile of their transactions. Secondly PSD2 which is EU security regulation applies to us, which defines SCA (Strong Customer Authentication) which is roughly two-factor authentication. DD is the antithesis of that - any mug with a SUN can steal money from anyone and any mug can get one. I mean look they gave local councils SUN codes and they are epic scamming bastards.

Ah, so 2FA is the reason for stopping DD. That isn't directly applicable to cheques and so avoids the political hot potato of banks stopping granny using a cheque to send a birthday present to little Johnny. Hence I can believe DDs might disappear.

I've always been very wary about authorising DDs, and won't miss them. But decades ago I saw a secretary repeatedly have money sucked out of her account and the bank couldn't stop it neither could they figure out who was doing it. After being asked they promptly refunded the money and eventually found it was due to a data entry error in some small merchant bank!

[tggzzz]

I opened a new current account with Santander a few weeks back and it was trivial to do, all from a seat on the sofa. They even had a tick box option to say it was a "secondary account".

I'm hopelessly behind the times. What's a secondary account?

[cyclin_al]

Yes mine's with Santander as well. It was approved and available on my online banking within 5 minutes of applying. Dead simple.

Not seen anyone using a credit union for a while!

Credit Unions are alive and well in the great white north.  Here, they are quite modern and offer the same services as regular banks.  However, they have somewhat different rules and are better suited to individuals with financial challenges.  I am also part of a local association; the credit union accounts are very well suited to the limited finances of the association.  The main difference has to do with maintaining a minimum balance and the fees associated with that.

The one credit union in this province also offers an okay performing investment with a noteworthy tax rebate.  It would still be worth it for the tax rebate even if the investment was flat.
They also offer decent investment services, which are independent from the big conglomerates flogging only their own products.

[Cerebus]

I opened a new current account with Santander a few weeks back and it was trivial to do, all from a seat on the sofa. They even had a tick box option to say it was a "secondary account".

I'm hopelessly behind the times. What's a secondary account?

Simply in the sense that it isn't one's "primary" current account, such as most people would have their salary, pension, stipend or whatever paid into, but is yet another current account.

[bd139]

Reading between the lines here, it sounds like a minefield to me, perhaps as bd139 is involved in the finance sector, he could write a short piece of dos and don'ts and a brief explanation of these and the reasons for them, Im sure that we all would welcome something along those, sorry bd, I'm trying to dump everything on your shoulders here, but I can't think of anyone better qualified to steer us through the minefield, unless someone else does?

What is this 2FA that you speak of, is the security 3-digit number on the back of cards? If so then, once you have given them that number, they can record it and reuse it again at their leisure surely?

I recall that Amstrad had a range of Emailer phones at one time that had a built card reader slot specifically for on-line transactions that I don't recall ever actually being used, wouldn't something like that be a better bet, it requires you to have the card in the reader and then enter a code? I also remember the banks (I still have a couple) of card readers that were small pocket devices that would generate a unique authorisation code each time, are heading back down that pathway?

Not really a minefield. It was historically. Banks were very late to the party when it comes to information security.

2FA is “two factor authentication”. This is basically a mechanism for proving you are who you are and not pretending or have stolen details. Realistically without going into the mechanism too far you’d have an app on your phone or a stand-alone security token which you have to enter the code on or authenticate the transaction with as well as your usual details like user name and password. This is “something you have” which most attackers can’t easily get hold of as they’d need the tangible token as well as your username and password. This stops credential theft dead which is the main vector for attacks against your finances.

A good example of this is when I pay my Sainsburys credit card. It goes like this:

1. I enter the card details on Sainsbury’s web site.
2. They inject a Santander form into the page which tells me to open my online banking which I open on my phone.
3. I open that and it authenticates me with FaceId
4. I can approve or decline the transaction from the phone
5. When I approve it the transaction on the web site continues.

The key difference here is that if you leave your card in the street or get it skimmed  no one can transact using it.

[ch_scr]

[...]
mnem
You know you're a slave to Lady Heather's mesmerizing beat...

*Tick* *Tock*
Ohh look, wiggly lines! 
DAC 1.5% means I'm at the verge of locking no more as it has almost reached end of tuning range? 
Edit: Hmm, only downside is I can't close my window now...

[bd139]

Not seen anyone using a credit union for a while!

Seemed a better place to leave my cash where it might underwrite some social good rather than in the sticky mitts of some morally bankrupt financial institution. UK Credit Union accounts enjoy the same £80k statutory deposit protection as other bank accounts and they're modernising, so come with debit cards, online banking and all the usual frills nowadays.

I’m not sure I like the idea myself. Having worked extensively with smaller financial organisations I’m almost certainly sure I’m against using companies with less staff than a clearing bank’s QA team with the same risk profile for me. As much as I hate it, the bigger the bastard, the more holes they’ve already fixed.

FSCS will cover you up to £85k but if you’ve got a few thousand people with a hosed credit union, expect not to see anything for 2-3 years. It’s not very straightforward exercising your rights. Better to avoid it first.

Edit: on the last point, that's the old prevention is better than cure idiom and that always applies to everything involving more than about 50 quid I find 

Edit 2: worth reviewing collapse of Northern Rock as example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Rock  ... they were an actual bank with a higher profile than credit unions with 75 physical branches.

[SilverSolder]

[...]
Edit: on the last point, that's the old prevention is better than cure idiom and that always applies to everything involving more than about 50 quid I find 

The full idiom is, ISTR, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Thanks to modern technology, we can actually value this advice more scientifically!  -  using the fact that 5 U.S. quarters weigh exactly 1 ounce, we could say that an ounce of Prevention (or Prudence) is worth $1.25  -  and, since there are 16 ounces in a pound,  an ounce of Cure must therefore only be worth 8 cents!