I cut up my credit card voluntarily today...

[StephenFord]

Today I learned that Coutts bank are owned by NatWest. We bailed NatWest out in the 2008 banking crisis and still own 1/3 of it.

Coutts have prevented Nigel Farage from banking with them because, 'his political views do not align with their values'.

This is simply an untenable position. 2 years ago, the Canadian government froze the bank accounts of truckers who protested against their Covid lock down laws. Controlling your bank account is the stuff of communist China/Korea, not a democracy. (Goodness knows what the supporters of a cashless society are thinking)

I could care less if it was Nigel Farage (right wing), or Owen Jones (left wing), the principal of being denied a bank account because of your political opinion is just wrong.  How would you feel if your bank account was removed just because of the way you think?

Anyway, I cut up my NatWest credit card which I have owned/used for decades, and I hope the CEO of NatWest, (Alison Rose on a £5 Million salary) reconsiders the decision that she endorses...

[alanfp]

52 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Today I learned that Coutts bank are owned by NatWest. We bailed NatWest out in the 2008 banking crisis and still own 1/3 of it.

Coutts have prevented Nigel Farage from banking with them because, 'his political views do not align with their values'.

This is simply an untenable position. 2 years ago, the Canadian government froze the bank accounts of truckers who protested against their Covid lock down laws. Controlling your bank account is the stuff of communist China/Korea, not a democracy. (Goodness knows what the supporters of a cashless society are thinking)

I could care less if it was Nigel Farage (right wing), or Owen Jones (left wing), the principal of being denied a bank account because of your political opinion is just wrong.  How would you feel if your bank account was removed just because of the way you think?

Anyway, I cut up my NatWest credit card which I have owned/used for decades, and I hope the CEO of NatWest, (Alison Rose on a £5 Million salary) reconsiders the decision that she endorses...

Sadly, I don't think she will care, even if she finds out.  I doubt that she's checking on your account.... unless you have a high social media profile that extends beyond this forum. Or maybe you have a million followers on tiktok???

[Eric Bloodaxe]

53 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

I could care less if it was Nigel Farage (right wing), or Owen Jones (left wing), the principal of being denied a bank account because of your political opinion is just wrong.  How would you feel if your bank account was removed just because of the way you think?

Lol, me and the Mrs (herself an ex-bank employee though getting ashamed to admit it these days) were just having a rant about the same thing and 100% agree.

[StephenFord]

6 minutes ago, alanfp said:

Sadly, I don't think she will care, even if she finds out. ...

She will care when a wave of protest hits NatWest, and her £Millions bonus is effected 🤣

[unofix]

2 hours ago, alanfp said:

unless you have a high social media profile that extends beyond this forum.

What do you mean !!

@StephenFord is a "Grand Master" I'll have you know 🤣

[StephenFord]

3 hours ago, alanfp said:

Sadly, I don't think she will care, even if she finds out. ...

Aahhh ye of little faith. Alison (NatWest CEO) has just released a statement issuing a full apology for Coutts actions over Farages account. Of course I'm sure she wasn't influenced by my 'credt card' action, but the government promise to introduce legislation to prevent repeats of 'political' discrimination may have helped 😀

[unofix]

11 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

the government promise to introduce legislation to prevent repeats of 'political' discrimination may have helped

and the destruction of your credit card just tipped her over the edge 🤣

The whole episode has been disgusting from beginning to end, lets hope for a 'Bud Light' boycott of all companies that involve themselves in woke behavior. Only when the public start voting with their feet will this nonsense end, otherwise we are doomed to a Chinese style communist  regime.

First thing tomorrow I'm going to open an account with NatWest just so I can close it on Monday in protest 🤣

[Eric Bloodaxe]

30 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Of course I'm sure she wasn't influenced by my 'credt card' action

You're far too modest!😀

[Turvey]

Our mortgage is with NatWest! I'm gonna rip it up straight away! 🤔😃

[StephenFord]

2 minutes ago, Turvey said:

Our mortgage is with NatWest! I'm gonna rip it up straight away! 🤔😃

Just say you voted for Brexit, they'll rip it up for you 😂

[Eric Bloodaxe]

4 hours ago, Turvey said:

Our mortgage is with NatWest! I'm gonna rip it up straight away! 🤔😃

 

From what I've seen in the media recently, you'll be re-mortgaging with a Norwegian bank shortly anyway!😀

[MarksST]

You cut up their credit card, meaning you can’t spend their money, I’m sure the shareholders are quaking in their boots, still if it makes you happy.

[StephenFord]

2 hours ago, MarksST said:

You cut up their credit card, meaning you can’t spend their money,

That would be true had I only possess one credit card (though the NatWest was the one I used daily, others are 'back up') - who owns only one credit card? 🤣

Obviously, a 'protest' by me alone won't mean a hill of beans, but if enough did it, it would.

I'll cite the example of, 'Bud Light', who recently embarked on a woke advertising campaign not in keeping with their brand. Customers stopped buying the product in their 10s of 1000s. It wiped off £20 Billion (!) from the market value of the parent company, Anheuser-Busch. It all started with one guy saying, enough is enough...

[MarksST]

2 hours ago, StephenFord said:

That would be true had I only possess one credit card (though the NatWest was the one I used daily, others are 'back up') - who owns only one credit card? 🤣

Obviously, a 'protest' by me alone won't mean a hill of beans, but if enough did it, it would.

I'll cite the example of, 'Bud Light', who recently embarked on a woke advertising campaign not in keeping with their brand. Customers stopped buying the product in their 10s of 1000s. It wiped off £20 Billion (!) from the market value of the parent company, Anheuser-Busch. It all started with one guy saying, enough is enough...

A lot more people cared about how their favourite beer was heading than care about a millionaire having his account closed.

if you cut up the NatWest card the my comment still holds, Who only has one credit card? Lots probably, I don’t have one at all, don’t feel the need.

[StephenFord]

38 minutes ago, MarksST said:

A lot more people cared about how their favourite beer was heading than care about a millionaire having his account closed.

if you cut up the NatWest card the my comment still holds, Who only has one credit card? Lots probably, I don’t have one at all, don’t feel the need.

Sadly, you've missed the point. If a bank feels they have the moral authority to close his account, they can just as easy shut your account if they don't like your latest twitter or FB post... It's a reprehensible action which has repercussions for us all, not just 'millionaires'.

[MarksST]

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

Sadly, you've missed the point. If a bank feels they have the moral authority to close his account, they can just as easy shut your account if they don't like your latest twitter or FB post... It's a reprehensible action which has repercussions for us all, not just 'millionaires'.

His views are widely known, doubt they’re going to look into my or your views on anything anything soon.

He’s also gone below their criteria of how much is in an account, they’ve handled it badly that’s all. 

Bet there’s celebs, commentators etc who’s views you don’t like, that if the same happened to them, you wouldn’t care one bit, definitely not enough have your little protest.
 

 

[StephenFord]

1 hour ago, MarksST said:

He’s also gone below their criteria of how much is in an account, they’ve handled it badly that’s all.

Again, sadly, you have let your own prejudice cloud the issue. I already stated it wouldn't matter who it was that had their account cancelled, I would oppose the action whether I agreed or disagreed with their politics.

As for the 'criteria', it has already been admitted that Coutts never did it because of the bank balance. (Farage obtained a 35 page report from them following a 'subject access report) which stated that it was his political views that caused closure.

After the initial exposure, numerous Coutts  customers came forward to state that their money NEVER reached the 'criteria' that was publicised, and they had never been threatened with account closure.

Again, if you'd bother to read the initial post, The Canadian government froze over 200 protestors bank accounts, simply because they had the audacity to protest against their government. Yes, Canada, not North Korea.

You are advocating that we simply sit back and accept something that could potentailly happen to any one of us.

A vicar (The Reverend Richard Fothergill) a few weeks ago had his bank account shut (Yorkshire Building Society) because he had the audacity to write to them and query why his local branch was now bedecked in numerous Pride flags.

If you don't take a moral stance on these issues, when it becomes your turn to be persecuted, there will be no one left to support you...

[iantt]

I've only got 1 credit card. (Every little helps)🤣

[Eric Bloodaxe]

49 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

If you don't take a moral stance on these issues, when it becomes your turn to be persecuted, there wi'll be no one left to support you...

As Pastor Niemollers famous words:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

[StephenFord]

18 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

As Pastor Niemollers famous words:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

I know that quote off by heart LOL Didn't want Mark to think I was being pretentious, but appreciate you publishing...

[Eric Bloodaxe]

29 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

being pretentious,

Lol, hope I'm not being pretentious either! First heard that many years ago via my absolutely brilliant English teacher. It's always resonated with me (I've seen several variations over the years) but I doubt I would be as brave as him, though amazingly he survived Sachsenhausen and Dachau and  lived into his 90s.

[StephenFord]

2 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Lol, hope I'm not being pretentious either! First heard that many years ago via my absolutely brilliant English teacher.

I also heard it 1st many years ago at school, was told to us by an Auschwitz survivor, still haunts me to this day, and very apt for what Coutts have confessed to doing.

[monkey×wrench]

On 7/20/2023 at 2:08 PM, StephenFord said:

Today I learned that Coutts bank are owned by NatWest. We bailed NatWest out in the 2008 banking crisis and still own 1/3 of it.

Yeah... that's the year Bitcoin got invented...

the idea behind it was noble.. decentralized ledger..cut out the middle man..the trust authority - banks. 

Send money effortlessly peer to peer without control and power to seize or block, anytime sunday afternoon - no problem.

The blockchain has all of the history of transactions written in it.. transparent, can be trackable...but it's pseudoanonymous.

But it caught a bad name from being used a payment method for illicit activities...

..well...just like cash, mostly USD..:D  

 

but in these years of thousands of cryptocurrency projects evolving, good projects, bad projects and many many scam projects,, but still it's not sure what the future of the blockchain technology will be, what will prevail. Surely, governments and banks want controll.. and they can cut the wings on promising technologies.. 

They'll probably use the tech to build an orwellian economy...thanks to the blockchain, which was concieved with the total opposite intention in mind - for the people which participate in a economy to be FREE.. ,     they'll be able to track literally where every cent you spent, went.

But cash will not be dissapearing so soon...

 

Yeah it sickens me too! Last year i've been notified by the media witha popping article that banks profits are have the time of their life! This years news are old news - record profits... 

the system is rigged...

 

[StephenFord]

10 hours ago, monkey×wrench said:

They'll probably use the tech to build an orwellian economy...thanks to the blockchain, which was concieved with the total opposite intention in mind - for the people which participate in a economy to be FREE.. ,     they'll be able to track literally where every cent you spent, went.

But cash will not be dissapearing so soon...

I have a very modest amount of BitCoin, bought about 8 years ago as an experiment to see what everyone was talking about. 6 years ago, 'Blockchain' suffered a consistent DNS attack and was offline for the best part of 10 days. That meant I had no access whatsoever so my account. No biggie, as it was not my 'current' account, however, it did show me how vulnerable 'electronic' money is, and no one will persuade me that there are not intelligent enough hackers to anonymously steal funds.

I still have around £20 in the account as I can't work out how to withdraw it LOL At the time it fell through 'minimum transaction' rules...

 

[Pedro Suarez]

On 7/20/2023 at 1:08 PM, StephenFord said:

Today I learned that Coutts bank are owned by NatWest. We bailed NatWest out in the 2008 banking crisis and still own 1/3 of it.

Coutts have prevented Nigel Farage from banking with them because, 'his political views do not align with their values'.

They closed his Coutts account because he no longer meets this requirement

https://www.coutts.com/become-a-client/private-form.html

To open an account all UK clients and expats are required to save £3m+ or borrow (such as through a mortgage) or invest more than £1m with Coutts.

I haven't seen anything from Nigel Farage disputing that he does in fact meet these requirements. 

 

The comments they apologized for weren't the reason they closed his account, which is why they have only repeated the offer to let him bank with NatWest instead of Coutts. Which should be ok for "man of the people" Nige.

Ironically he is criticizing them for holding views that aren't illegal, while also saying that people should respect his controversial views that aren't illegal. It seems Nigel Farage's free speech motives, only go as far as his own.

The legislation won't change anything. The banks will just be more careful what they put in writing & Coutts will no longer override their requirements in situations where they want to retain a customer who may temporarily have gone below them.