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It's not about private companies. I have an account at a private bank and am not afraid of something like this happening at all. Because to the bank I'm not jus
by cousin_it 5y ago
It's not about private companies. I have an account at a private bank and am not afraid of something like this happening at all. Because to the bank I'm not just an abstract "username and password": the account is tied to my real world identity, so in the last resort I'll prove to the bank that I'm me using state provided means. I'm getting more and more convinced that online accounts important to people's livelihood (like gmail where you have tons of important stuff) should work the same way, as a contract tied to your real world identity, and in doubt resolve things by webcam call or personal appointment.
- pchangr 5y agoThat is until the bank happens to be 100% online.. they can’t verify your identity so they close your account and you can’t access your account nor contact the bank because you don’t have an account so you try to create an account to inquiry about your other account and they tell you you already have an account so they can’t open you an account and now you’re stuck with no way to contact the bank and no funds and noone able to help you. This is an extremely common scenario with banks in Germany.
- 650REDHAIR 5y agoI see you haven't been a victim of identity theft yet. It doesn't take much to hijack a bank account and eventually you will regain access, but it isn't as simple as you might imagine and a fair amount of damage can be done in a short period of time.
- bduerst 5y agoMost banks/CUs/payment processors automatically have insurance for these types of bad actors, even if it takes months to claw back your identity. Credit reporting typically takes much longer to fix but GP was referring to their bank.
- nopenopenopeno 5y agoAll of these things work well for the rich, but the number of unbanked working Americans is astronomical. They cash their checks for fees. Try visiting the customer service counter at a rural Walmart in the U.S. on a Friday and you will see what I mean. The line snakes back to the rear of the store.
- scarface74 5y agoExactly how does commerce happen without banks at any scale? Banking has been around a lot longer than social media.
- throwaway946513 5y agoThe unbanked Americans are people who either are unable to open an account, or have been denied opening accounts. To cash their checks, keep their income, etc..., they have to pay much more in fees. Historically (in the U.S.) it was rooted in racism post-U.S. civil war. Now, less so. The history is still there, and the inability of poor people to obtain an account still exist. It excludes people from getting mortgages, loans, investing, etc. Cash App has become a digital bank for many of the unbanked. Before Cash App, decades ago, we had the U.S. Postal Service providing some banking services to Americans. (No, the USPS attempting to help Americans in this manner is not new, we've done it before)
- throwawayboise 5y agoI call BS. Anyone with proper ID and payroll income can open a bank account. Most big employers (e.g. mine) will even require it -- payroll is made by direct deposit. There may be minimum balance requirements and/or fees but if you shop around a bit (look especially at local credit unions) they are not onerous and are almost certainly lower than what check-cashing services will charge. They do demand a bit more management and responsibility compared to a wad of cash in one's pocket, but that's the way life is.
- iypx 5y agoBy "proper ID" you mean the right kind of country ID, I assume? Cause I've been denied by two banks, the third bank even had two countries blacklisted.. that's right, on their official website they wrote: "we are currently unable to accept government issued IDs from X and Y" or something along those lines.
- astura 5y ago
- elliekelly 5y agoThe bank doesn’t do that for you. The bank does that because regulators require them to as a condition of being in the banking business.
- iypx 5y agoThis only works if you fit that stereotypical definition of what a "normal" person looks like or does. As soon as you deviate even a little from the norm, suddenly you got problems. I had to do two interviews with a bank to open an account in UK because their automated systems were giving them "errors", apparently, when they're trying to check me. Normal people have to complete an online form (5 minutes) and will receive everything through post. A year later I had to phone paypal support four times as it wouldn't accept neither of my two cards. On my 4th try I finally managed to get an actual English guy to answer my phone, who finally managed to understand every word I was saying without having me to spell anything letter by letter.. Last week I wanted to buy a plane ticket. I had no problems doing that until now (I had an old laptop with windows 7). Now, since running Linux, I open the website, as soon as I click search to find a flight, suddenly captcha! Every 3-5 minutes a new captcha... This is a nightmare!
- astura 5y agoI mean... banks are the worst in this case. Banks are known to irreversibly close accounts if they think you triggered some random algorithm, you have the same name as a terrorist, you have the wrong job, they don't like how you're using your account, or any other completely random reason. The decision is final they'll usually even refuse to tell you why they closed your accounts. I had a bank (BMO Harris) close an account because the only transactions I had for about a year or so was "received directly deposited paycheck -> transfer entire amount to other bank account." At least they actually told me the reason.
- withinboredom 5y agoBanks have to report accounts with low balances after a certain number of days (45 IIRC). That reporting costs them money unless they’ve gotten it 100% automated.