Banks - safe spaces for the abused ?
June 2022 I went to Elstree a couple of weeks ago: right outside the station there was a poster: *** In my youth I banked with Barclays; in 1988 they closed a savings account of mine - which held a modest sum, perhaps £10 - without telling me, because I had not used it for a long time. I wasn't happy with this, so moved my account to Midland Bank and was with them, and HSBC, for a further thirty years or so, before going back to Barclays. The reason for leaving HSBC at that time is more complex than that for leaving Barclays in the 80s. I shall explain. *** It was a coincidence, but in 1988 I also met my future wife. From the outset I realised she had some problems with financial management, but the ‘optimism bias’ in me kicked in and we married in 1990. Within months we started to have financial ‘hiccups’ - there would be less money to last out the month than I had expected, I would have to raid the savings account for some ‘one-off’ bill or expense. I found myself unable ...