3 ms·

So people were handing over suitcases containing millions in cold hard cash!? Is there ever a legitimate reason to do that?

mike_d 3y ago
Well there is no reason you shouldn't be able to. Think about how large purchases were made before banking networks existed. My friend worked for an insurance company that would regularly receive double digit thousands cash payments on policies from pot farms because they can't have bank accounts.
shellfishgene 3y ago
The law was enacted last year to more effectively enforce sanctions against Russian oligarchs...
someplaceguy 3y ago
Yes. One of my banks forbids making bank transfers of over 10,000 EUR. The other is not far behind. Even then, sometimes they simply decide that they're not going to allow you to make bank transfers to certain perfectly legitimate accounts. There is no way to override that. For the past couple of days I've been trying to set up an automatic monthly transfer for paying my rent and my bank is not allowing me because it's "exceeding the allowable daily limit", even though I haven't done any transfers or significant payments lately, and my rent is way below the 10,000 EUR limit. You also can't withdraw large sums of money easily. Furthermore, even when they allow these large transfers (which presumably would require you to physically visit a branch which might be in a different country or even continent), it's not uncommon to charge a not insignificant percentage of that money as a fee. This is significantly more common for large transfers than for small ones. Large inbound transfers can be even more of a hassle, as banks often require you to provide documents justifying why you're receiving that money, which not only might be difficult in some cases (even when you're not doing anything illegal), but also invades your privacy and can be a significant security risk in some situations. All of this basically makes banks a prison for your money, which not even you can access easily. And besides, all that is assuming that you are even able to open a bank account. There are many reasons for why opening a bank account is hard or even impossible in many cases. And believe me, this doesn't happen in just one or two banks, it's quite common procedure in practically every bank, and increasingly so.
- shellfishgene 3y ago
  Where is this? I doubt that it's legal for a bank to actually prevent you from transferring money. Yes, I also have a limit, but if I call my bank and tell them I need to transfer 500,000 to buy a house they will allow it. The limit is there is to prevent fraud.
  - someplaceguy 3y ago
    > Where is this? It's in the two countries in Europe where I've lived. > if I call my bank and tell them I need to transfer 500,000 to buy a house they will allow it What you're saying is not possible in the banks I've used. To buy houses in recent years, I've had to set up appointments and physically go to the central office of one of the banks, and to a local branch of another. They provided me with a special bank-issued cheque for the transaction. In one of the cases, this required me to travel to another country just for this purpose. It was a significant hassle and even then I was lucky that this was in an adjacent country. It could have easily been in the other side of the world. > The limit is there is to prevent fraud. Right... fraud... of course! Is that why one of the banks only allows me to set up a 5 digit password (yes, only numbers) to access my account? And why the other one only allows me to set up a 6 digit password (again, only numbers)? Is that also why they require me to dictate this same password (as well as other personal details) over the phone when I want to make a large transaction? So that other people who are physically near me can hear the password easily? And that's even assuming I typed their phone number correctly in my phone, otherwise I would be giving my password to strangers unknowingly! Look, I really don't care if it's fraud, or money laundering laws, or because the Pope mandated it. I've never been a victim of fraud, it's extremely unlikely for me to ever be a victim of fraud in the future, I'm not doing anything illegal and it's my money. There are many other ways to deal with fraud, such as having most of the money locked (e.g. in a separate account, with more restrictions or delays), providing notifications, using two-factor authentication, calling the customers to confirm the transaction, etc, etc. And yes, I know in many banks (including mine) they also do a subset of these, but even then the restrictions are still there. I'm sorry, but fraud alone does not explain what's happening, unless the banks are extremely incompetent (and yes, it's quite possible that they are). Regardless, the end result is the same: I simply cannot use my money easily, period.

mike_d 3y ago

Well there is no reason you shouldn't be able to. Think about how large purchases were made before banking networks existed. My friend worked for an insurance company that would regularly receive double digit thousands cash payments on policies from pot farms because they can't have bank accounts.

shellfishgene 3y ago

The law was enacted last year to more effectively enforce sanctions against Russian oligarchs...

someplaceguy 3y ago

Yes. One of my banks forbids making bank transfers of over 10,000 EUR. The other is not far behind. Even then, sometimes they simply decide that they're not going to allow you to make bank transfers to certain perfectly legitimate accounts. There is no way to override that. For the past couple of days I've been trying to set up an automatic monthly transfer for paying my rent and my bank is not allowing me because it's "exceeding the allowable daily limit", even though I haven't done any transfers or significant payments lately, and my rent is way below the 10,000 EUR limit. You also can't withdraw large sums of money easily. Furthermore, even when they allow these large transfers (which presumably would require you to physically visit a branch which might be in a different country or even continent), it's not uncommon to charge a not insignificant percentage of that money as a fee. This is significantly more common for large transfers than for small ones. Large inbound transfers can be even more of a hassle, as banks often require you to provide documents justifying why you're receiving that money, which not only might be difficult in some cases (even when you're not doing anything illegal), but also invades your privacy and can be a significant security risk in some situations. All of this basically makes banks a prison for your money, which not even you can access easily. And besides, all that is assuming that you are even able to open a bank account. There are many reasons for why opening a bank account is hard or even impossible in many cases. And believe me, this doesn't happen in just one or two banks, it's quite common procedure in practically every bank, and increasingly so.

shellfishgene 3y ago
Where is this? I doubt that it's legal for a bank to actually prevent you from transferring money. Yes, I also have a limit, but if I call my bank and tell them I need to transfer 500,000 to buy a house they will allow it. The limit is there is to prevent fraud.
- someplaceguy 3y ago
  > Where is this? It's in the two countries in Europe where I've lived. > if I call my bank and tell them I need to transfer 500,000 to buy a house they will allow it What you're saying is not possible in the banks I've used. To buy houses in recent years, I've had to set up appointments and physically go to the central office of one of the banks, and to a local branch of another. They provided me with a special bank-issued cheque for the transaction. In one of the cases, this required me to travel to another country just for this purpose. It was a significant hassle and even then I was lucky that this was in an adjacent country. It could have easily been in the other side of the world. > The limit is there is to prevent fraud. Right... fraud... of course! Is that why one of the banks only allows me to set up a 5 digit password (yes, only numbers) to access my account? And why the other one only allows me to set up a 6 digit password (again, only numbers)? Is that also why they require me to dictate this same password (as well as other personal details) over the phone when I want to make a large transaction? So that other people who are physically near me can hear the password easily? And that's even assuming I typed their phone number correctly in my phone, otherwise I would be giving my password to strangers unknowingly! Look, I really don't care if it's fraud, or money laundering laws, or because the Pope mandated it. I've never been a victim of fraud, it's extremely unlikely for me to ever be a victim of fraud in the future, I'm not doing anything illegal and it's my money. There are many other ways to deal with fraud, such as having most of the money locked (e.g. in a separate account, with more restrictions or delays), providing notifications, using two-factor authentication, calling the customers to confirm the transaction, etc, etc. And yes, I know in many banks (including mine) they also do a subset of these, but even then the restrictions are still there. I'm sorry, but fraud alone does not explain what's happening, unless the banks are extremely incompetent (and yes, it's quite possible that they are). Regardless, the end result is the same: I simply cannot use my money easily, period.