For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
#1612781
rikur_ wrote:..
Advice clearly not written by someone who has tried to withdraw more than £1000 in cash from a personal account in branch. Most banks have a limit of between £1000 - £2000 for cash withdrawals - in part because they don't hold that much cash in branch, and in part for 'policy' reasons.


Article in Saturday's "Times" is on the effect on crime of Sweden having gone almost 'cashless'. Bank (and major cash) robberies are now very rare, but there has been a big boost in other villainies eg 'nature' crimes, such as poaching or smuggling wildlife.

Back to cars (but not quite to aircraft :oops: ): For those newly arrived to work in US, it may time and effort to achieve a 'credit rating', without which ordinary economic and social life can be very difficult. Also, use of a car is almost essential. To take out a loan to buy a car, then pay it back reliably and promptly is a good way to get a good credit rating. But it may be difficult to get a US bank to lend to a newly arrived foreigner with no US credit history ..

Fortunately, the DoD establishment where I worked had an employee Credit Union (much better than US banks even before the Reagan deregulations). Also another Brit there had married a salesman at a local car dealer. There was an informal arrangement whereby a Brit newly arrived on the RAF flight to Dulles on a Friday could go to that salesman at the car dealership on the Saturday, choose a brand new car, get a 'fair' but possibly not 'bargain' price, insure it with a call to a similar tame insurance agency, and drive it off the lot with new 'temporary tags', no money changing hands. On the Monday the Brit would go to the DoD office, go to the Credit Union branch in it, hand over a few $s to open an account, immediately apply for a loan to buy the car, which was immediately granted, details being 'phoned through to the dealership. Brit would get a cheque payable to the dealer, and take it there on the way home. With the first cheque book the insurance could be paid. With the bank account established, money including pay cheques via the Embassy and transfers from UK, could be deposited. I was told it was very 'unAmerican' for institutions to be so trusting, but no DoD Brit had ever let the Credit Union or the car dealer down, and the dealership probably sold quite a large numbers of extra cars that way every year. Once the first loan repayment had been made, getting store and back credit cards was not problem.
#1612981
stevelup wrote:I bet that will set 'money laundering' alarm bells ringing...


In my car sales experience noted previously the bank simply wanted a form signing and a copy of the receipt with sellers/buyers deets. No alarm bells just due diligence and a bit of paperwork.

When an old relative found a couple of grand in out of circulation twenty pound notes (stuffed into a pair of boots :roll: ) the bank accepted the cash with no quibble - although that would be a pretty long-winded way to launder money!
#1613030
profchrisreed wrote:It's a trust thing, not a status (police) thing. I think it depends on the local society you live in.

I'm in rural Suffolk, and a couple of years ago my car died definitively at about 4pm. My garage put me in touch with a chap with an old Merc for sale, and after a drive we agreed terms. But the bank was closed and I had no car.

So he let me drive it home. I was vouched for by the garage proprietor, I'd been at school with one of his mates, he knew where I lived etc. He kept the logbook and popped round next day to collect the cash. That's how it works here. I wouldn't try it in a city, plausible though I might be.

Aviation is much the same. Years back I bought a parachute for my glider, and the seller just couriered it along with an invoice, knowing that if I didn't send a cheque he'd put the word out and I'd never fly gliders again.

The network is the important thing here, and I guess if you're new to it you don't get the benefit. Once you've been around a year or two you'll be known to someone I trust, so I can trust you (or I definitively know I can't, of course!).


Your stories are completely different - they are a matter of networks and personal trust.

The one I commented on was someone unknown to the vendor expecting their cheque (or their son's cheque) to be treated as cash simply because they were a policeman.

I've no problem with the discounts retailers may choose to offer policemen, that's their decision. What irks me is the idea of a policeman expecting a car vendor to effectively loan them a sum of money for the time it takes a cheque to clear on the basis of their occupation.

View it as negativity if you like, I view it as a sensible approach to not getting ripped off. I don't offer five days' credit to people I don't know, regardless of their occupation.