It gets harder to spend, justify and sometimes prove money is yours to spend these days. HSBC and First Direct have previously regularly asked me ‘Where did you get this Money from’ [I had a reassessment of investments some time ago - and moved around some largish amounts ]. Each time I told them I’d rather not say - thinking it’s really none of your business ! I expected to be questioned further / investigated etc - and had legitimate proof if required…..I thought I’d just be semi awkward because I could. They processed all of them in the end.
On the flip side - the small Town where I work only has one bank left I think (Barclays): and one of my co-workers wife went in to withdraw £5k to pay for some work on their house. The Bank flatly refused I believe and wouldn’t hand it over until they came back with an official quote on headed paper with a VAT no on it.
Is every bank now an offshoot of the tax man and HMRC ? I mean £5k wouldn’t buy anything like a new car, would barely cover a top quality Sofa set, certainly wouldn’t cover a new kitchen. It takes sone saving sure - but it’s really not that much these days. And they wanted proof of his spending in order to hand over his own money 😳