7 Ways British and American Banking Terminology is Very Different
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- Опубліковано 2 чер 2024
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In which I outline some of the differences in banking terminology since moving from Britain to America.
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I was born in England, but raised in America. My parents spoke English English, while my friends and school spoke American English. I consider myself bilingual.
lol!
If I learned Australian English, I'd be a polyglot.
@@derekbootle8316 I like to joke I've learned English four times -- Canadian, New Zealand, American, and then Canadian again. 🤣
I tried to refresh my French but all I could find is Paris French. I grew with Quebec French. Two different languages.
Nice!
My word issue was not international, but interstate. Growing up in Wisconsin we called ATMs "Tyme Machines". They gained that name because the network used to verify the transactions was named Tyme. So, I was a junior in high school going to look at colleges in Illinois, my first time traveling a distance alone in my own car. I stopped to fill up with gas and wanted to get some cash so pay for it and some other items. I walked up to the clerk and asked him where I could find a Tyme Machine... not an uncommon question to ask in any gas station near my home... but this guy looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. Shocked, he uttered, "Ummm, they don't exist." We quickly worked out that I was seeking an automated teller... I felt so dumb walking out of that store.
Sorry,TYME stood for "take your money everywhere"
We had NYCE machines… (New York Cash Exchange) but they started popping up in other states. It was nice because it gave us cash 😂
We just call it the money machine.
Western Pennsylvania had MACs (Money Access Centers).
Yes Scott! 😂 Living in Wisconsin I remember not too long ago referring to ATMs as TYME machines.
For the record, a bellwether has nothing to do with weather. A wether is a castrated ram who often would serve as the de facto leader of the flock. You would but a bell on him to know where he was. By shepherding him specifically one way or another, you could largely direct the flock.
To further confuse - There are different terms for accounts at a Credit Union to a Bank.
Checks are called Share Drafts.
Savings Accounts are Share Accounts.
Interest is called dividends.
Why? Because in a Credit Union, you are a member not a customer.
Federal oversight for a bank is FDIC while at a Credit Union, it is the NCUA.
Source: Worked for NCUA for 7 years. First thing I was taught was the proper terminology.
Though that terminology isn't 100% consistent, even in the U.S. I was a member of a credit union that and I had checks, a checking account, and a savings account. So, yeah, banking terminology is weird. (Probably, if I'm being cynical, -but also probably right- it was an attempt to help keep common people out of the loop and thus out of the banking industry.)
I belong to a credit union, and I write checks, not share drafts.
@@gregb6469 YOU call them checks, but the NCUA calls them Share Drafts.
@@TimeLady8 -- My credit union (Community America) calls them checks.
@@gregb6469 So does mine, but they're not the NCUA, which is the governing body.
To further confuse matters note is also a term in American finance and it means a loan; so if you have a bank note that means you have a loan with the bank.
Good point!
You are thinking of a promissory note. Banknotes are the literal bills. Also, most banks call them unsecured loans nowadays.
@@LePedant I still know a lot of people (mostly older) that refer to a loan as a note
@@lap723 Yeah, it's short for promissory note. Which is what unsecured loans used to be called.
Interestingly, "Cashpoint" is trademark of Lloyds Bank, and "Hole in the wall" is a trademark of Barclays Bank.
If one actually looked at the US currency, one would find that they are, indeed, called "notes". As in Federal Reserve Notes.
As true as this is, Americans (and Canadians) still call them "bills", not "notes" (although the Canadian ones I just looked at don't appear to have either on them).
Yep, or FRNs, to distinguish them from Silver or Gold Certificates (which are still US legal tender, though good luck finding them in circulation nowadays...)
I have one that is a "certificate" instead. I was surprised to come across it and immediately took it out of circulation.
the only time i remember be confused using a ATM in the UK was at the end of my transaction and the machine asked me if I wanted advice...which in the states would refer to consulting about investments, but what that referenced was a paper receipt of the transaction.
In the UK that could be referring to what we call a mini-statement, which shows you the last 10 or so transactions on your account without going into detail but helps you have a quick check that everything looks ok on your account.
It's still funny, Laurence. People in cities probably all have credit cards that have the chip in them, so they don't ever need checks for 99.9 percent of transactions. For those who might not know this, rural people often still have to write checks or use cash because local small businesses won't always take credit cards or they'll give you a discount for using cash because of the fees for credit transactions.
Same with Asian business in LA. By in large cash oriented. No pun Asian friends. Lol
Paying by credit card is a terrible financial practice if you are living anywhere close to your income. You can easily allow yourself to let the balance slide at the end of the month and wind up with a large principal balance that you are paying interest on. Modern financial apps, perhaps like the sponsor’s, can help you keep track of your daily purchases to keep them reigned in to your ability to pay off the principal at the end of the month. A best practice is to limit your credit purchases to those things that remind you of your obligation by their presence in your life. Avoid paying for meals on credit, for instance. By the time you get the bill, the sewage treatment plant has disposed of the evidence.
@@busimagen Debit cards and credit cards are two different things. Debit cards have very few protections against fraud or attachment versus credit cards in the US. You might have to cancel your checking account in order to prevent some entity from draining your account in perpetuity with a debit card.
In the UK and most of Europe, 99.9% of transactions can be done using a card, even street buskers and market stalls use them here.
Even in the city, you should, whenever possible, pay your local service people by check. This SAVES THEM the credit card processing fee and percentage grab the credit card company charges merchants.
My 87 yr old aunt still uses checks and if she wants to transfer money from checking to savings accounts she mails the transfer slip for the to the bank, (which is less then a mile from her home, and she drives and can walk around just fine and smokes, and will, I'm sure out live me) I'm not criticizing, It's simply what she is used too, I'm 59 and widowed she's my godmother and a widow and has no children and she still sends me Christmas and Birthday money, usually a month and a half late, Thank you Mr Brown for another informative and enjoyable video
1:35 Because:
1. Good and services are consumed in the CURRENT financial period (April 1 as a cut off point, unless otherwise specified)
2. Any liquefiable assets can be turned into cash in the CURRENT financial period.
I almost choked at your "cockney rhyming slang" quip about the word "banking." : D You kill me!!
About a year ago a woman at the grocery store actually paid with a check. I was getting quite impatient let me tell you, and the cashier was fumbling around not sure what to do with it. When the customer finally buggered off I said to the cashier that’s it’s been a long time since I saw anyone write a check at that store, and the cashier said this was the first time she had to deal with it 🤣
When my elderly mother was still able to shop for herself, she always paid by check because she didn't want her credit card balance to get too high. She didn't understand the idea of a debit card, and never used one. Now that I get her groceries for her, I pay with my credit card and she reimburses me with a check.
My landlords still insist on an actual check. It's literally the only payment I use checks for!
Back when this was common practice, the considerate payers would write everything out (on the small table sticking up which is now used as a mounting point for the card reader), except for the amount, while the cashier (or "checker", just to add to the confusion) was ringing everything up, then hurriedly scribble it in once the total was announced.
@@angelique_cs Me too. Fortunately my bank's bill pay function writes and mails them for me
OK, I'm old, so I still write a check from time to time. I recognize that the young whippersnappers think taking my 90 seconds to write a check is a HUGE and INSULTING impedance to their more important errands, so I do write everything but the amount out while my stuff's getting added up. I refuse to use debit because I need to have a record of my own about how much money I've spent. It would just be too easy to forget to write it down in my check register, which is where I keep track of my checking account balance.
Lol. His quick sucking chuckle right after puns is so hilariously British.
Thanks to the British programs on Public Television, I think I know what the Cockney rhyming slang for “banker” would be. You are a fun dude Laurence!
My first ATM Card was called a 'MAC' Card. (Money Access Machine) and was like that for years. Then it was starting to be called just an ATM Card as MAC was also a Network of ATM's that linked many different banks. It is now defunct and no one really knows much about MAC Machines these days! (Interesting Tidbit)
MAC is/was "money access center" -- a money access machine would have been yer mam.
Oh! There was this ATM network in Wisconsin at least in the 1990s and early 2000s (probably somewhat earlier as well) called TYME, so you'd actually hear people using the phrase "TYME machine," which is a little surprising if you can't hear the spelling.
Are you by any chance from PA or the NE USA. MAC was how I referred to an ATM for ages.
I called it a MAC machine for years after they were no longer called that! And I am from the northeast US.
@@pepintheshort7913 I'm from NW PA & called them MAC machines until I moved to VA in 2000. Had to get used to using ATM because nobody here knew what the heck a MAC machine was.
The "Cash Machine" used to be ubiquitous in Chicago as the First National Bank of Chicago trademarked the term and branded all of their ATMs as Cash Machines. Everyone in Chicago used Cash Machine to refer to any ATM even if it belonged to another bank and had a different brand name. But when Bank One bought out First Chicago, all the Cash Machine branding went away. And we started to slowly call Cash Machines ATMs. There are still some Chicagoans who use the term Cash Machine. (Just like: Sears Tower, Comiskey Park and North Western Station.)
Edit: I was just reminded these ATMs were called Cash Stations, not Cash Machines. D'oh!
I was totally going to bring this up because Milwaukee's atms were managed by a company called Tyme. Which while catchy and made for great slogans (Tyme is money) also made for the phrase Tyme Machine. Even though Tyme hasn't had the stranglehold over Milwaukee's atms in decades Boomer Milwaukeeans will still ask where the Tyme Machine is which when traveling places like Chicago make them sound crazy. The best example I have where I use to work had an ATM and people would just throw the receipts on the ground. My boss told the new guy to sweep up around the Tyme Machine. He was a recent immigrant from Mexico and was very confused he came to me asking if we really had a time machine.
Yea I remember calling them cash stations too in the NW suburbs.
Similar idea in England. "Cashpoint" is the trademark owned by Lloyds Bank, and people use that to describe similar machines from every bank.
In Scotland, the Royal Bank of Scotland trademark theirs as "Cashline", and people use that to describe ATMs from other banks.
In Western NY state we call them either cash machines or ATMs. I think it 'might' be more common to say cash because ATM seems a little awkward.
Here in Canada, banks generally call them ABMs -- Automated *_Banking_* Machines -- but people call them ATMs.
LMAO in Wisconsin we had the first ATM identified as TYME machines! "Take Your Money Everywhere" ! A few years back a house mate who lived mostly in California was mixed up when I said I need to find a TYME machine. Thought I was wanting to travel through TIME. 🤣 We had a big discussion about how it was just an ATM with a different name!🤣🤣🤣
It’s that blue box over there. Yeah, I know it says “police” on it-that’s just to keep people from stealing the money. As for how they fit all that money in there, it’s bigger on the inside. TYME and relative dimension in space.
I valled ATMs TYME for a while after leaving WI! 😅
I totally just commented about our Tyme Machines on someone else's posts. Tyme is money. #MilwaukeePride
yup I was just going to comment about this. Wisconsins Tyme machines. I still catch myself using the term!
I'd say you only use the term "bills" in regards to money when talking about specific tangible items. Otherwise, if you're just talking about a general mode of payment, it's usually "cash" instead.
Bills is slang, though
@@LindaC616 Bills is not slang. Cash is for bills and coins together.
Bills refer to the paper money and not coins.
"That job pays 3 bills "= that job pays $300 (even if it's not in tangible cash, but in a direct deposit, check etc)
@@LindaC616 One dollar bill vs one dollar coin.
So you don't pay your bills then?
In Canada we have an interesting conflation of the two terminologies. We write cheques to pay bills. We have bridge financing but bank notes. I guess it’s all part of being in the commonwealth but influenced by the big neighbour to our south.
I wonder if the people who named "True Bill" know that when a person is indicted by a grand jury, they have what's called a "true bill".
In the US, having a loan can sometimes be referred to as carrying a note. So, we pay our notes with bills also !
I opened my first bank account at 18, having moved to GB (London) at 17 1/2 to attend University (LSE). When I moved back to the States (NYC) in '78, I had to re-learn the whole flippin thing.
hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!
I lived in Denmark for two years and the strangest thing for me was the different sizes and color of the money. Not to mention the coins. I'd have what I thought was a pocketful of "change" only to count it and find out I had a few hundred Kroner in my pocket.
Huge shock for me when I got there, I would have a 20 kroner coin and be so weirded out when I went to get a drink for 4 Kroner and pay with one coin.
I made that mistake in Ireland with euros. I stopped for tea and a scone at a lovely bakery. When the clerk handed me a handful of coins I dropped them in the tip jar thinking it was all of seventy five cents. Turns out it was something like four dollars.
@@Laura_G the Euro coins got me too. In the US I'd empty the change from my pocket into a jar at the end of the day, maybe a dollar and a half. We went to Italy and I had to get some Euros. I'd pay for stuff and just put the coins in my pocket. After a few days my wife told me to start using the Euro coins because we can't exchange them. I said "it's just change." My wife then counted it and told me I had about 75 Euros in "change."
This used to be the case in the US. My dad always told when he was a kid how everything cost a nickel. Coke was a nickel, Hershey bar was a nickel, corned beef sandwich was a nickel, movie ticket was a nickel. You could take a date out with a one dollar bill in your pocket. We need to get back to this as it would save tax dollars, and outlaw bills under $100.
@@themoviedealers I hate coins. They fall out of pockets, they are heavy, and should be eliminated. I pay with cash almost exclusively and always drop the coins in a tray as soon as I get to the car. I will not walk around with coins in my pocket. Canadians use a dollar coin and my Canadian friends, I live near the border so Canadian interactions are a daily occurrence, often complain about having too much money to walk. A stack of bills is never difficult to carry. I've always hated coins. When my grandfather would give me quarters I would bring back the previous three and ask him to take the next quarter and add it together and change it for a dollar bill. This was at eight years old. Mom would go to the banks and I would give her coins I collected to be changed for bills. I still don't waste time trying to count out exact change. It all goes into a jar and is forgotten for years at a time. If the change is going to be more than fifty cents I switch up to my debit card so I don't need to carry change.
I grew up in the USA and it has always confused me as to why you ask the waiter for your check please, then pay the check with a check. I think it should be bill, but then you could pay the bill with bills. So either way, it's crazy!
Well I suppose in the UK, we pay our restaurant bill with either a cheque or cash or a card (most popular one). We don't refer to the actual money as notes, except when talking about specifics like "I only have a Ten Pound Note", when you only need to pay 50pence.
"and that's not because we use fruit as a currency (currantcy?), anymore." That so very brief pause, not worth ellipses in time and with a comma looking late to the sentence, is everything. Love the often end of sentences quick wit added with that fast pause. And cheque reminds me of how many of my science colleagues don't understand queue is not spelled que.
Someone once said that the word "queue" is just the Q, followed by 4 silent letters.
Previously American Currency was referred to as Certificates (silver) and you could demand conversion to actual silver coins. When the Silver content in coins was diminished and we went off of the "Gold Standard" they became "Notes" no longer requiring an equal gold deposit to paper value. They then became "Promisory Notes" and Inflation became normal
"Promissory Note" also has another meaning-it is the thing you must sign to memorialize a loan. God knows I've signed enough of those over time.
My dad turned in his Silver Certificates for bars of silver!
@@xo2quilt He must have done this before 1968 (I think that was the last year for exchanging silver certificates for silver bullion). Really, though, Silver Certificates in good condition have numismatic value greater than their value as legal tender--perhaps several times greater if the certificates are in 'uncirculated' condition.
@@kenc2257 I know he exchanged them before that time because he sold the silver bars to pay for law school 1966-1969. I haven't thought about those Silver Certificates in ages!
I'm American, and I've never heard of a bellweather stock. Thanks for teaching me things every time I see your videos!
As an American banker, cash machine typically refers to the machine behind the teller line that dispenses cash for people who actually come into the branch
You gotta quit eating them cold cuts ....this channel is an international treasure... the fact I can't find any standup comedy is a international tragedy. You are hilarious!
Now days it's just about impossible to write a rubber check. I remember how I used to float a check paying my bills through the mail long ago. I was just squeaking by some months and to make my check not process super fast I would fold the paper check in half with a nice sturdy crease as the automated check processors couldn't feed them correctly to where they had to be manually hand fed one by one usually at the end of the week. I still don't trust ATMs to deposit money.
Use a check at Wal Mart's pharmacy, and they feed & endorse it on the spot, sucking the cash directly from you account. (Then they had the dead check back to you).
I think I've only deposited cash thru ATM once
Depositing cash at the ATM is fine. Get both a print and email receipt if you do not trust it. I have a side hustle that nets me cash payments that makes me more money than my part-time job. Look it up in your account the next morning. It will be there.
My dad took advantage of check floating for years. He would argue that as long as he mailed a check and it was received by the payee by the due date of the payment, he had made his payment on time. But he would postdate the checks thinking they couldn't be deposited until he had funds in the bank to cover them. Some payees honored this, but that changed gradually over the years. Nowadays, the date at the top of the check just reflects the date on which it was written, and it will be deposited/cashed as soon as it is received by the payee. In other words, you can no longer postdate a check to delay a payment. My dad still refuses to use automatic payments though.
What surprises me is not the variation in terminology but how antiquated the US banking system appears to be. I've lived in New Zealand for 12 years and have never owned a cheque book in that time, and even in the UK I did not use one for several years. I also rarely carry cash, there is no need to do so.
Debit cards are the order of the day for purchases of as little as a few cents to several thousand dollars depending on the limit set by your bank. Bills are paid by direct bank transfer online, and even when I purchased a vehicle this was the method requested by the dealership.
Some businesses now refuse to accept cash transactions, eliminating the risk of having large sums of cash on the premises.
The only time I actually visit the bank is if I want to amend a loan agreement, every couple of years.
And this is not that far from what I do...but I also CAN pay paper checks. Sometimes, it is the most convenient!
It has to be more than 30 years since I've written a cheque here in the UK. Though companies still use them to issue certain payments as it keep the money in their accounts longer (earning them a little more interest). Edit: the UK banks in general don't issue cheque books for current accounts and haven't for many years.
@@Thurgosh_OG True. I just use em cause it's occasionally convenient & I'm not really a fan of purely mobile banking. Not a fan of running my card through my phone.
There are still businesses in the US that don't accept credit or debit cards but will accept a written paper check. Mostly in rural areas where small business owners can't afford the credit card surcharges for transactions. I have to carry cash when I am in the rural areas. I haven't written a check in years and my storage building fees are payed by a cashiers check or money order. They won't take a credit card.
Lots of folks don't use debit cards because if someone gets hold of your info they can wipe you out. With a credit card you can dispute the charges and they can investigate for fraud.
I thought (or incorrectly reasoned) that the English spelling of "cheque" was derived from "exchequer." When the Normans conquered conquered England the official language for government was French. I saw on a history channel that the official who counted the royal funds was called the exchequer. This method (imported from Normandy) was installed in England by King Henry I, a Norman. The Exchequer had a kind of checker board cloth and each square on the cloth represented a shire from which was the royal revenue was due. Maybe (and this is totally made up by me) the exchequer might ask after his tally "did we get all the cheques in?" Or perhaps "is that cheque paid?" That may be way off base, but I still suspect there must a connection starting with Henry I in the 1100s and the word exchequer, instead of being introduced by James William (Bill, ha ha) Gilbert in the 19th century per the above.
There was an old 1960s US cartoon series called "Rocky & His Friends," it had a feature called "Peabody's Improbable History." Perhaps that's what I'm trying to do, but I think the word and how it is used is probably dated about eight centuries earlier than you site.
Your explanation of why we use Cheque sounds more plausible to me.
We still have the "Chancellor of the Exchequer". Who is the person in charge of the country's finances.
I read the exchequer having been from a checkered cloth on the table where the cash was counted and sorted, when finished was off the cloth. Business done , exchequer.
LitP wasn't discussing etymology, but orthography. Clearly check/cheque is derived from French. That isn't the issue. Cheque became assimilated into English spelling as check just as thousands of other French words also adjusted their spelling.
In the 80s and early 90s if you were traveling you would go to the bank and get travelers cheques here in the US. So Gen X might be the last in the US to have used these out of your viewers.
I used those about 14-15 years ago, by which time they had mostly fallen out of favor. I can't remember why, but I just know I always wanted to try them.
For my one trip to England (summer of 75) I purchased travelers checks, then over time I gradually cashed them in for pounds. Of course, the amount I received kept fluctuating.
I think you're right (Gen X here)
Only American Express, as far as I know, calls them "travelers cheques". All the other companies spell the word "checks".
I went through an ordeal cashing a bunch of these I found a few years ago.
When I moved from an EFTPOS card to a Debit card, I often forgot to use the CHQ button instead of SAV, that was the only way I remembered, because banks in NZ has been phasing cheques out, even before the pandemic hit, and unlike many countries, we use cards far more than cash. Sidenote: Bus drivers no longer accept cash, but taxi drivers (excluding Uber or Ola or Didi) still have surcharge on card transactions, that's bizarre to me.
I had two transaction accounts and put the second one into CHQ - that account was also the account the home loan draws from and we didn't want a mistake with the "credit" account - which was Visa debit and linked to the same account as SAV - to cause an overdraft or similar.
Here's some more banking lingo for you. I work in a bank, and when speaking with customers, we will use the term checking account with them. However, we actually call them Demand Deposit Accounts, or DDA for short. This is to separate them from the Money Market (MM), Savings (SAV), and Certificate of Deposit (CD). Now yes bridge loans can refer to different things at different institutions. It might be an overdraft account if you say don't have enough funds to cover a check you wrote, for a small fee/interest rate, the bank loans you the money and clears the check. Or in real estate terms, customers apply for and get a short term loan so they can make a deposit on a real estate purchase, utilizing their currently owned property as collateral, and when they sell their original property, the bridge loan is paid off.
The word Cashpoint is actually a trademark of Lloyd's Bank. Because Lloyd's had the largest network id machines initially, everyone called them Cashpoint machines even if they belonged to other banks It just stuck in general vocabulary, a bit like Hoover for vacuum cleaner.
To avoid using Lloyds' trademark, they are often called Cash Point machines
I think NatWest called them service tills at first I know their debit/cheque guarantee cards were called servicecards
@@pedanticradiator1491 Cashpoint is a trademark.
The are some cash machines outside my local supermarket, the sign above calls them Cash Points
@@jillhobson6128 I never disputed that Cash Point is a trademark
America must have called bills notes at one point because printed on them is "This note is legal tender". I think the term Bank Note arose from people writing a note to their bank instructing the bearer of the note say a Mr. Bloggs to be paid a sum of Sovereigns. The words Pay and Bearer still appear on Bank Notes in the UK.
The words on a Cheque are similar with Pay, space for name, or order the sum of. A crossed Cheque can only be cashed at a bank to the person named on it. These days they have printed crossings with the words Account Payee and can't be exchanged for cash only paid into an account. Here in Ireland our banks still issue Cheque books with uncrossed cheques as standard and one can still cash one made out to oneself in a shop and it can be paid into an account with a different name to the Payee. Just has to be countersigned on reverse by the named Payee.
I lived in the UK for three years. Trying to get a bank account was so much more challenging than anything I’d encountered in the USA. Took me over four months and I couldn’t get a cell phone until I had the UK bank account.
Omg
Why is it so hard to get a bank acct. over there?
That's what happens when a country starts leaning the wrong way. Lots of red tape. Hopefully we don't get that ridiculous but we're heading in that direction.
@@samanthab1923 It might have been due to needing to prove identification or if you haven't lived at your address very long, they might have needed to do additional checks. It's to do with preventing money laundering I think. Or perhaps it was because some banks used to specify that you needed a certain monthly income to deposit and some people couldn't afford that. There is more choice for people on lower incomes now.
Same as in many places in Asia (the wife is foreign-born, and we travel to Asia yearly--except during this pandemic). In her home country, to get a bank account, you must prove your identity, permanent address, and verify your employment/salary/pension (or status, if you're a student/retired, etc.). Many Asian countries are overly bureaucratic, compared to the USA. On the other hand, anyone--even a tourist--can get a pay-as-you-go cell phone (or mobile phone, if you're in the UK).
And to make things more confusing, when I worked at a bank we abbreviated checking accounts as ND - negotiable draft.
This caused me SO much confusion when I moved to the UK! Before purchasing auto insurance, I was totally confused. "Excess" - good grief, what's that? I finally asked the agent to explain it as they would to a teen and learned "excess" is the deductible!
Churchill was right: we are two people separated by a common tongue.
I always think of one thing when it comes to discoveries between Britain and the US, and that's DNA. It was first used in a criminal case in Leicestershire, England and actually exonerated a man before being used, in the same case, to confirm the guilty man. Considering the time elapsed between the separation of two countries, it's actually amazing to me how similar we still are.
The UA-cam award is reflecting some light and glowing. It is overwhelming the camera.
In the US, the United States Postal Service delivers the mail.
In the UK, the Royal Mail delivers the post.
I need to verify the pressure in my tyres.
I work at a credit union so I found this context very interesting 🙌🏻
I'm British and haven't wrote a cheque out for years and very rarely use cash except for taxis and small purchases, even on the local bus I use my debit card especially since the start of the pandemic
I pay cash for as much as possible, and avoid using my debit card as much as possible, because every use of the card puts me at risk of ID theft and account hacking. It also gives persons I may not approve of the ability to track my spending habits. Cash is ID-theft prove, and entirely untrackable.
I don't want to hear anyone whining about not doing anything they don't mind being known; who knows what activity will in the future become socially unacceptable, or even verbotten? Would anyone a few years ago have guessed that refusal to undergo a poorly-tested, experimental medical procedure that has caused a large number of serious adverse side effects would cost you your job and get you banned from many public establishments (and get you banned from social media platforms for even raising questions about said procedure)?
To my great amusement, when you were talking about different spellings of "check," UA-cam auto captioning interpreted one instance into "Czech."
Many people say “ATM Machine” so it’s the Automatic Teller Machine Machine?
There’s an old bit from the animated TV series “King of the Hill” where the lead character Hank Hill is going through his mail, “Bills, bills bills… Why do we keep getting Bill’s mail?” (Bill was his friend and neighbor.)
We call them 'bellwether' because they put a bell on a wether, (castrated ram), and it leads the flock. Therefore, the analogy is similar to that of a 'barometer,' in that it indicates the movement of a larger group.
Thanks for another great video! A very interesting topic to cover!
In Canada, we use the British / French spelling of cheque, but use it in the American term of chequing account. Non-American spelling of a word used in an American term…
The restaurant bill/cheque think is nice, but as you said, now archaic since hardly anyone any longer uses cheques/checks. However, it's still true that in the UK the Royal Mail delivers the post, while in the US the Post Office delivers the mail. Err - though that's also probably now archaic In both countries, amazon delivery everything.
Shops in England rarely accept cheques anymore. What is now used as a debit card was originally a cheque guarantee card that would give shops and businesses confidence to take the cheque as the bank would pay even if there was no money in the account. Over time the card became a dual purpose cheque guarantee card and debit card and eventually just a debit card. All businesses now accept cards. Card readers are very cheap to the point that even mobile burger vans and taxis use them. I cannot think of anything that I would need to use a cheque for any more- cards have rendered them obsolete in the UK
The only reason I use a check is to pay my father for informal loans... because it's simply the easiest way to do it.
Some small businesses and local traders don't have the facility to accept card payments so will only accept cheques.
@@jillhobson6128 Very true.
@@richardsbrandon5027 in the UK that would now be done by online bank transfer and process in a matter of minutes.
@@taraa3456 And that's more than likely done here, especially with online check depositing. But it's easier to write a check than mess with the app!
Laurence, you need a can of dulling spray for your YT plaque. It's the stuff they spray on mic stands and other shiny stuff when there are bright lights reflecting off them.
As an eternal learner of English, this is one of your videos I have enjoyed the most, not only for its content, but also for the answers in the comment section. They are priceless. Only problem is that my banking knowledge is so poor even in my own native language. But even so, I have found the bill/note mingle very entertaining and amusing. Thank you Lawrence and commenters for all your input. Greets from Spain.
Hola!
@@richardsbrandon5027 ¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?
@@CruzSanchezRipa Uhhh... what does that mean?? LOL, :)))
@@richardsbrandon5027 It means "How are you?" in a very friendly tone. ☺
@@CruzSanchezRipa Nice, :))) Estoy muy bien & amor life.
Y tu?
As a Real Estate Appraiser I believe I've heard the British term for the profession is Royal Surveyor. Since we primarily work to assist mortgage lenders this would certainly fit in with this banking theme.
@Nicky L yes, it seems I confused that from the 'Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' Cheers for the correction.
I initially found the Surveyor part more perplexing as that is a profession dealing with topography and boundaries. But it actually relates well.
In NZ: National Bank was the final bank that use the word "Cashpoint", but after ANZ took over, every bank used ATM instead. This was the reason why I didn't open a bank account with them when I started university. Now I wished that I did.
Bear in mind: NZ's spelling of words are mostly British spelling except for many medical terms, but we are quite mixed in terms of vocabulary.
Agreed. Now in NZ, we are very near to a cashless society. I look at people who are queueing up to use the ATM and wonder, why?
As a Canadian, my primary bank account is my checking account, but I write cheques. (well, not any more)
I still use checks to pay bills by mail.
@@elultimo102 same
My Canadian bank calls the account where we (used to ) write cheques a chequing account.
Always fun to watch you!
I was looking forward to that bill/check joke at the end; it absolutely had to be there!
Hey Lawrence your commercial got interrupted by a commercial! Gotta love UA-cam!
Several years ago, I worked on a project in London for my American company, which paid me in Travelers' Cheques, which I deposited in my ordinary account at the local Barclays branch bank, where I withdrew banknotes to pay my bills, including an occasional shepherd's pie at the local pub.
Hi Laurence, I live in Alabama and most of the people around the area I live call the ATM card, a debit card now. Most of the time, everyone pays with a debit card. Very seldom does anyone pay with a check. Some still do. The "bills" are now just cash, unless someone is specifying a certain amount of money. Then we say, one dollar bill, ten dollar bill, etc. This is also the case for coins. We just say we have change in our pockets unless someone is asking for a certain amount.
The account used by a debit card is usually still called a checking account
@@pXnTilde I was talking about the card itself.
"Very seldom does anyone pay with a check. Some still do."... I was in a grocery store a couple of years ago and the person in front of me wrote a check. The cashier, a young lady, didn't know what to do with a check and had to call someone to help.
In Australia we use the modern UK/French spelling: cheque. That said, it's pretty unusual to write or receive a cheque these days. Transactions are cash or electronic.
Never heard of bellwether stock, bridge loan, or common stock. We learn so much from you Lawrence.
At age 69, I have heard the term "cash machine" often. I have lived in New Jersey, PA, Vermont, and Oregon.
In my area of the country, many people call an ATM a Tyme (a brand name) Machine. When you are away from home, and are looking for an ATM, and ask somebody "Where is the time machine?", you get the strangest stare.
I’m Welsh & I always almost called it ATM but I do say cash point aswell.
Love watching you and thank you.
If I recall correctly we don't call cash banknotes because we did have bank notes. This was currency issued by the Banks and not by the federal government. Your note and it's value was tied to the issuing Bank.
Wow, an ad that i already use. I mainly use it to keep on track with when my next bill is.
Excellent video! One thing I wonder about with British banks is people having an overdraft. I see it all the time in older 20th century literature, so is it that they secured their bank account with collateral. If I wrote a bad check I would pay a fee to my bank and to the business.
Banks in the UK offer an overdraft to anyone with good credit and a regular income. It is a buffer of anywhere between £200 and £5000 and used to allow you to spend more money than you had every month at cheaper rates than loans or credit cards. Over the last few years Banks have actively discouraged the use of the facility to the point that all banks now charge something like 40 % annual interest on an overdraft so most people would only use it in an emergency and for no more than a few days. Interest rates are very low and it is very easy to borrow substantial unsecured amounts at below 3% a year so many people have weaned themselves off the overdraft drug
@@nigelgear6012 Overdrafts start as low as £50 and several Banks and Building Societys charge little to nothing in the way of interest on approved overdraft use. It is only when you go over the limit or don't have one that the high interest rates apply.
The overdraft with British Banks is an agreed amount that you can go overdrawn by. With my bank I can go up to £100 overdrawn without paying interest or fees. With an additional £250 emergency reserve that does charge 35% interest. Any cheques that that take the amount over that will not be payed and a fee is charged.
@@grahamsmith9541 That's interesting. I'm American and I bank at the State Employees Credit Union. If we overdraw our checking account they will just transfer the money from our savings account to cover it automatically. They only charge 50 cents to do this, so it's a nice deal.
You make my day with your humor
Noah Webster probably wouldn't have gone for cheque, ever had he known about it. He was an advocate of simple spelling of words and in fact was responsible for taking the "u" out of words like colour, harbour and valour.
I think that "overdraft" is different in the US from the UK, at least based on all the BBC procedural dramas I watch, where the detective talks about a person of interest carrying a 50,000 pound overdraft. US banks generally wouldn't allow a customer to carry any overdraft, at least not without "protection" and, even then, It's expected to be remedied very quickly. I'd love to understand how that works in the UK!
So in the UK "overdraft protection" is an "arranged overdraft" and an "overdraft' is an "unarranged overdraft" it all works in the same sort of way. If you have an arranged overdraft or overdraft of protection you have a revolving credit facility.
At one point, I had a checking account at my local bank in the US and a current account at Lloyds Bank in Britain. I wrote checks for purchases in the US and cheques for books I ordered from Blackwell's in Oxford. Thank God for plastic!
In Scotland, the ATM is called a puggy machine in the Scots language.
I’m on the east coast of Scotland and the puggy machine is that wee gambling machine you get in the corner of a pub.
Highlander here and I've never heard the term puggy machine, so it's not a 'Scotland' thing just your local bit.
In Canada it’s cheque too. I tend to say ATM though, although I recall the initialism ABM. We call the currency bills, and we use them to pay the “bill” in a restaurant.
I'd love an explanation of Postal Banking in the UK.
It seems like a much better option for lower income folks than the predatory payday loan and check cashing shops here in the US.
What is postal banking?
@@agoogleuser4443 A system where government gives a place for citizens to put away a few bucks and use them without predatory banking charges absorbing any interest due to fees or charges on the account. Sounds like a fantasy, but it's been done.
@@chuxmix65 So is it actually banking done within the postal service itself?
@@agoogleuser4443 As I understand it, yes but I don't know much more about it. Hence my inquiry.
I am not an expert in any way but as far as I understand "banking services" at post offices in the UK are extremely limited. You can pay a check in take cash out and have a cash card, but I don't think they offer electronic services never mind more sophisticated services.
Hey Lawrence (hopefully that is the correct spelling, dreadfully sorry if not) American Express uses (or at least did as recently as the 2000s) the UK spelling for their "Travelers Cheques", back when those were still a thing.
I'm a time traveler here from the 20th century and I totally understood that reference.
Grew up in New York and the term cash machine was in very wide use certainly in the 80s and beyond. But recently it isn't heard quite as often
Great video! I would also add another difference. "I have a bank note" which (in Britain, apparently) means you are holding the cash/currency in your hand. But in the US it would mean you still have a loan outstanding with the bank on which you still owe. ("Note" short for Promissory Note.)😀
@ Lost in the Pond Laurence, we've always called them ATMs here in the UK, especially in banks and building societys. Bank 'Tellers' were a thing here going way back and the nickname cash machine, came in later.
Also hole in the wall a term never heard these days. . At one time back in the last century. Barclays had theirs labelled as hole in the wall.
I'd never heard the word "teller" until Americans started calling cash machines ATMS. I thought what on earth is a teller?
Ỳou mention that ordinary shares are called common stock in America
which means that shares in general are called stock, eg. preference shares are called preferred stock.
It gets even more confusing because the thing we call stock is called bonds in America.
I don't know why we call them bills here in the USA, because it clealy states on the money, "This Note is Legal Tender for all Debts Public and Private".
There's also a hidden difference: the penny. While we all use that name for the smallest-value American coin that's not actually it's name. Officially the coin is called a cent, to be confused with its value which is one cent.
Wow. I didnt know first atm was opened in U.K. love your channel!
When I moved to Alabama in the mid-90s, my new step-family thought that ATM stood for "Any Time Money".
Here in Australia, my dad worked for Westpac for many years. Their ATMs were called "handybanks" in which you would use your "handycard" to withdraw money. (Their EFTPOS network is/was called handyway) it took a long time for my dad to call them anything else after he was retrenched. We mostly use ATM these days, even if we follow the British in other terminologies and spelling.
Very good, old chap!
Speaking of "panatlantic" and "lost in the pond," all of these economic terms are from maritime law, because the law of the sea is international. Fitting, because the global bankers are the ones who rule the world.
For further confusion, there's a line of banks in Wisconsin that decided to call their ATM's by a special, trademarked acronym - TYME. It stands for Take Your Money Everywhere. Wisconsin natives call these otherwise identical automats for cash "TYME machines." And yes, it sounds like they're saying "TIME machines." Which, of course, prompts those not from Wisconsin to ask if Gallifreyans are fans of the Green Bay Packers or if they came for Wisconsin cheddar.
The first ATM I remember was Tilly the Teller. I was 18 at the time so it’s been 41 yrs now.
Lol! Another good one. We use credit unions which I believe England calls a building society.
I had to deal with this strange conflict between British and American English when I lived in the then British Colony of Hong Kong in the late 1980s. Everything Lawrence says here I had to learn in the reverse!
Props for the screenie of the Federal Reserve Note, also known as a greenback (despite the fact that the Federal Reserve system didn't exist yet at the time the term came into use) as well as a "bill".
USA currency used to be a much brighter green color. Also the bills were much larger (look at the size of wallets in old movies).
We didn't have ATM's in my little podunk town until I moved back in the 1980s. We didn't even have them in the little podunk capital of Texas when I left there.
Since the beginning of the Pandemonium, most transactions here in London are by Credit or Debit card using Chip & PIN. However, on amounts less than £100, you don't need the PIN. I haven't seen a cheque in years, as most people pay direct by online bank transfer, using the recipient's account number and sort code. You can easily get by without any cash at all.