Basic Banking Terms Explained

Happy Friday!

Does anyone else agree that there are sooo many technical terms when it comes to personal finance? :see_no_evil:

To help some of our slightly less knowledgable Emma users, I’ve just published a blog post that talks through ten basic banking terms.

I cover things like the difference between credit and debit, why direct debit and standing orders are different things, as well as explaining a little about interest rates and net worth

Would love if you could have a read through :grinning:

https://bit.ly/34mCSEA

Have had a look through and it is nice, concise, and (imo) clear, for the less knowledgable reader/user.

Under Debit, I noted the sentence:
Every time you spend on a debit card, money will be deducted from your own account.

You may wish to add that "if the money is not deducted from your own account, this may be known as fraud" :grin:

I think you are brave to cover Credit Score as I am one of many people who see this as simply a fictional number, created by Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs), to sell additional products or services to those who seek the perfect score.

Lenders will have their own criteria and customer demographic profiles upon which eligibility is based and the CRA credit scores may sometimes cause confusion among consumers when their application is rejected. I have seen numerous posts on the internet from people who claim that they have been rejected for this credit card, or that loan, despite having a score of 999 on Experian.

Pleased to see that you also use the term credit rating, as it is your credit history that is important to focus on (among other things such as being on electoral register) to make you attractive to lenders.

All the above is just feedback :grin: , no criticism intended.

:+1: blog

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Overall I think it is good and helps most people. I’d avoid saying Direct Debit allows a ‘person’ to take money from another person’s account. DD requires a SUN (Service User Number) which can only be obtained by a business, not an individual.

Also, I think it’s important to note the distinction that a DD is controlled by the receiving party (you referenced dynamic amounts in Standing Orders, but not DD itself) whereas Standing Order is setup and controlled by the sending party.

I think you’ve done well to tackle some complicated areas that still many people do not understand. I would love to see more people understand APR/AIR and calculating these, preferably in school :slight_smile:

Haha re-naming the article to “basic banking terms and how to steal money” :joy::joy:

This is an interesting perspective - do you not really check your credit score then?

Thanks for picking up on this - I’ll amend in the blog post :blush:

Would love to see some of these things being taught in school!

And yeah I think these terms could go into a more advanced glossary of banking terms - when suddenly everything becomes an acronym (AER, APR, EAR, RPI) :see_no_evil::joy:

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Score? No

Reports for fraudulent activity or incorrect data? Yes

Check all three.

Scores do not bother me.

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I nearly included all of this in my response, however, did not wish to come across as negative, or make the Basic Banking Terms Explained become complicated. :grin:

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I’m thinking of doing a “basic investment terms explained” blog post in the coming weeks!

Any suggestions for what should be included? :raised_hands:

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Dividend payments, rights issue, general principles (you will lose if you sell at a loss but not if you keep the low performing share and just keep it), and finally maybe a little about different classes of shares but that may be getting too technical for some.