One thing mattresses have to recommend them are that the banks and the taxman can't get their hands on your money. But your under-the-mattress money is still at risk from inflation and burglars.
A reader, Mr L du Preez of Bothasig, wrote to Personal Finance to say he had paid cash for travellers' cheques he bought from an Absa bank, where he also holds a savings account.
While he was away, the bank contacted his wife and said they had undercharged her husband by R17,45 and asked if they could take the money from his account. She told them to wait until her husband returned, but when he did, he found they had taken the money out of his account anyway.
He wrote to complain and they responded that they had put the money back into his savings account. "No apology," he added.
"Can they deduct money from a savings account without authority?" he asked.
J P van der Merwe, Absa provincial general manager: Western Cape, said the error of undercharging Mr Du Preez was only discovered at the end of the day's business and the branch took it upon itself to recover the shortfall.
"This course of action was indeed a mistake by us as without the client's authority we were precluded from debiting his account," he said.
"We would only be in a position to recover from the client had there been a contract between us as to price and we undercharged the client. In this instance the contract price was what the client paid and we were, indeed, not authorised to debit his account. The debit was subsequently reversed."
What this means is that if the bank had a contract with Mr Du Preez that said he owed them R50 and he only paid them R40, then they could have taken steps to recover the R10 owing from his account. But if the contract said he owed them R40 and he paid R40, but they found later they should have charged R50, they cannot recover the R10 difference from his account.
In Mr Du Preez's shoes, I would also be annoyed because, if a man off the street bought travellers' cheques and was undercharged, the bank would not be able to recover the money by debiting his bank account without his permission. It was only because Mr Du Preez also happened to be a client of the same bank that they were able to (let's be blunt) abuse the relationship. But Absa has agreed that they made a mistake. So if it happens to you, know your rights.
Another disturbing example of how money can ebb from your bank account without your permission and without it being regarded as fraud is in the powers granted to the Receiver of Revenue.
Personal Finance has been assured by the South African Revenue Services on more than one occasion that the taxman is unable to take money from your bank account without your permission. So, they said, you can safely provide your bank details on your tax form so possible refunds can be deposited there instead of being posted to you.
But thanks to a question put to Trevor Manuel, Finance Minister, in Parliament recently, it now appears that there is in fact a section of the Income Tax Act that enables the taxman to appoint a bank as an agent to collect taxes on the government's behalf.
If a taxpayer owes the Receiver of Revenue money and all other avenues of collection fail, the Receiver can appoint the taxpayer's bank as an agent and the money owing will be deducted from the taxpayer's account by the bank.
Will the taxpayer's permission be asked in advance? No. What would be the point of alerting the defaulting taxpayer to the fact that his bank account is about to be plundered? It would only encourage him to move his assets.
This is not about whether you should pay your taxes or not. It is a similar issue to that raised by Mr Du Preez. Don't believe that your bank account is sacrosanct.