4 ms·

In the US major banks will sometimes ask you that if you withdraw a large sum or take out a cashiers check. I always tell them it’s not their business and I get

• rchaud 5y ago
  They ask because most large checks of this kind are real-estate related, and they want to sell you the mortgage on that deal.
  • orwin 5y ago
    They ask because a fith of 3k to 10k withdrawals are used to pay scammers.
• duxup 5y ago
  Community bank near me does it because they had a number of folks who were getting scammed via some scam calls (family member in jail scam, fake IRS scam, obvious scam 'investments' and so on). They've stopped a handful of scams just by asking the customer what they're doing. For a few of the folks involved the amount of losses would have been devastating financially and certainly emotionally (they're elderly with very limited finances). I know the usual 'the bank wants to sell you something' lines will come up, but it's not hard to just say no, and the teller there might not be Snidely Whiplash...
• vmception 5y ago
  This is all a psychology game and it works better if you understand their psychology. Banks do not care. They don’t want you to make them care. It is also true that they employ compliance officers whose job is to care and be skittish. So don't say drugs, terrorist financing or poorly understood things like crypto. Make up anything else such as you are filling up a pool to swim around in it like Scrooge McDuck. For more leniency, use a bank that took a “criminal non prosecution agreement”, like Wells Fargo, where they remember that Compliance Officers are at-will employees too.