Banks.......sheeesh!

[Grandpa Shooter]

I believe under the Patriot Act the magic number is $2500 now.  That is why my bank questioned a transfer of more than $2500 between my accounts.  Anything above $2500 is suspect.  The post office has also been instructed to not forward any bank correspondence if you move and give them a forwarding address.  If you don't notify your bank and they send something out in the interim, it is returned to the bank.  I found this: Under the Bank Secrecy Act, banks and other financial institutions must report cash deposits greater than $10,000. But since many criminals are aware of that requirement, banks also are supposed to report any suspicious transactions, including deposit patterns below $10,000.Oct 25, 2014

[K Frame]

"That is why my bank questioned a transfer of more than $2500 between my accounts. "

I frequently move that much money between my accounts and I've never been questioned on it.

"The post office has also been instructed to not forward any bank correspondence if you move and give them a forwarding address.  If you don't notify your bank and they send something out in the interim, it is returned to the bank."

That's not entirely true.

Anything sent first class will be forwarded, or by law, should be unless it's from a state or Federal government agency.

There's no exemption for bank correspondence unless it's sent under a bulk carrier frank (as are most statements, marketing mail, etc.), because the reduced price bulk rate doesn't include forwarding.

Individual letters outside of regular statements will have a first class postage frank on them and those will be forwarded.

[K Frame]

Here we go... article on the car dealership money laundering scheme I mentioned...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/02/16/5-guilty-6-cleared-of-money-laundering-in-car-sales/df8c9a75-2a16-4225-a9d1-c65c306a0a79/


When I moved down here in 1990 and was looking for a new car a number of people told me to avoid Rosenthal (they called it Rosenthief) at all costs.

[fifth_column]

If you do the math, it means if I take out $100, I am paying $6.50 to the banks.  That's a 6 1/2 % surcharge to get my own money.  If I use one of the ATM's independently owned, they charge $3.00 and my bank charges $2.50 so that is still 5 1/2%.  Nice money in their pocket.  The way to get your own money without using an ATM is to get cash back after a purchase at a large store.  They don't charge me anything, although I imagine they get charged by my bank.

My bank will charge a $2 service fee if I make more than a certain amount of debit transactions in a month. This includes making a debit purchase at a store. You might want to check with your bank about that.

[MechAg94]

Here we go... article on the car dealership money laundering scheme I mentioned...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/02/16/5-guilty-6-cleared-of-money-laundering-in-car-sales/df8c9a75-2a16-4225-a9d1-c65c306a0a79/


When I moved down here in 1990 and was looking for a new car a number of people told me to avoid Rosenthal (they called it Rosenthief) at all costs.

They might be crooks or scammers, but in this case, all they did was sell cars for cash.  It sounds like they knew they were selling to criminals (presumably), but the only illegal part was not reporting the cash sales.  Were I on the jury, I doubt I would vote to convict.  Up to 20 years seems like a lot more than this crime deserves. 

Seems to me the investigators and prosecutors spent a lot of hours on this case which could have been spent on more important things.

[Nick1911]

A bank putting a hold on funds availability of a cash deposit is unacceptable, IMO.  The purpose of a hold is to ensure that funds actually exist when they are transferred from another place using some kind of mechanism, like a check.  In the case of cash, the bank knows the funds exist the moment you hand to the cash over to them.

[RocketMan]

A bank putting a hold on funds availability of a cash deposit is unacceptable, IMO.  The purpose of a hold is to ensure that funds actually exist when they are transferred from another place using some kind of mechanism, like a check.  In the case of cash, the bank knows the funds exist the moment you hand to the cash over to them.

The holds allow banks to make short term investments with your money, thereby increasing profits.

[K Frame]

They might be crooks or scammers, but in this case, all they did was sell cars for cash.  It sounds like they knew they were selling to criminals (presumably), but the only illegal part was not reporting the cash sales.  Were I on the jury, I doubt I would vote to convict.  Up to 20 years seems like a lot more than this crime deserves. 

Seems to me the investigators and prosecutors spent a lot of hours on this case which could have been spent on more important things.

IIRC the prosecution showed pretty convincingly that they A) knew they were engaging in criminal activity and B) were receiving direct payoffs from the criminals to provide this service.

So yeah. They knew.

[kgbsquirrel]

The holds allow banks to make short term investments with your money, thereby increasing profits.

Beat me to it.

[Grandpa Shooter]

The bank we intend to leave also marks my Social Security and my Federal Reserve deposits as "Pending" even though they come in at midnight before the day they are due to hit my account.  They don't credit my account until they have stacked up all the bills paid and purchases made, and debit transactions for the day, at 4 pm.  I presume that is so they can catch me short and rack up NSF's and collect their exorbitant fees.  I don't let things get that low in our account, but I am certain they catch others who are not as careful as I am.  For awhile they were putting a hold on all accounts for the amount of the mortgage payment 2 days prior to the due date on mortgages held by bank customers.  I'm sure that caused a raft of NSF's too.  I think they got sued over that one and stopped doing it.  There are other reasons to leave, but the ones I've detailed are enough to drive me off.

[kgbsquirrel]

The bank we intend to leave also marks my Social Security and my Federal Reserve deposits as "Pending" even though they come in at midnight before the day they are due to hit my account.  They don't credit my account until they have stacked up all the bills paid and purchases made, and debit transactions for the day, at 4 pm.  I presume that is so they can catch me short and rack up NSF's and collect their exorbitant fees.  I don't let things get that low in our account, but I am certain they catch others who are not as careful as I am.  For awhile they were putting a hold on all accounts for the amount of the mortgage payment 2 days prior to the due date on mortgages held by bank customers.  I'm sure that caused a raft of NSF's too.  I think they got sued over that one and stopped doing it.  There are other reasons to leave, but the ones I've detailed are enough to drive me off.

And you wonder why some people loved the bank robbers of the 20's and 30's.

[cordex]

Interestingly, two banks with which I do business have started depositing and making available my paycheck two days early.

[K Frame]

Here's a good article on various types of holds that financial institutions can put on deposits.

https://www.thebalance.com/avoid-a-hold-on-your-checking-account-2386127