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I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

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Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it actually legal? In France, a bag in a public place is deemed to be a bomb and the military has to come, secure the area and destroy it. Happens on a routine basis, not even worth the newspapers. You don’t have such laws in Washington DC?

In the UK it's generally the same too. People are always cautious and told to look out for unattended baggage for that reason.

It's certainly not illegal to inspect unattended items in the UK. An assessment is typically made of whether or not it should be deemed a threat.

If the item is not hidden, not obviously suspicious, and is typical of the environment in which it was found, then it's unlikely to be a threat and can be inspected further.

Unattended bags are found all the time. There's no need for the military to be called in for all (or even most) of them. And even then, that's mostly the responsibility of the police than the armed forces.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You bank account information is written on your bank cards, which are in your wallet.

Not always! My debit card # is not the same as the checking account # with which it's associated.

We don't really do checking accounts in the UK anymore, so I don't know about them.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#143
post #9
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the very least with european SEPA transfers and their predecessors, but I would have assumed pretty much all bank transfers where you send money support some way to put a message - how else would you map incoming transactions from previously unknown senders to what they're for?

In the US, AFAIK the only metadata you get with a direct / ACH deposit is the sender's "name", usually the company name. I assume that you can't easily change this per transaction. US banking infrastructure is decades behind the rest of the world in many areas. You can include a memo on a paper check though.

It does seem crazy, take this for example:

https://www.usbank.com/online-mobile-banking/transfer-money....

This says I have to pay a fee, and then wait 2-3 days to send somebody money. That's not caused by "infrastructure" that's caused by greed in the absence of effective government to tell them to get their shit together.

Even better it tells me the size of that fee is included in a "Fee Guide" the link for which is a 404. Excellent work.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#144
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Transfer wise does forex not traditional bank transfers like this

Plenty of people here who are paid or pay someone else in foreign currency. Myself included.

TrasnferWise saved me thousands already, even if Interactive Brokers are half the price, but not an easy UI.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t have such laws in Washington DC? Funny you should ask. A few years back my wife and I were stuck in Reagan (an airport in D. C.) for a super-long layover. As I'm watching my first ever episode of Archer , I notice the family a row over gets up and walks down the concourse, leaving their bags. Now, I've heard a bit of their conversations as I've sat there, and I gather they're American and probably self-cent…

If I'm going to take a piss or dump in the WC I'd like to think I can leave my suitcase for a few minutes without people deciding I'm a terrorist. Deciding I might be a terrorist because I went to the bathroom? That's what is absolutely batshit insane .

Are you not the least bit worried about your suitcase being stolen?

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#146
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Transfer wise does forex not traditional bank transfers like this

Sure, but 150k users liked and 30k users retweeted a deep-dive engagement into the intricacies of how hack-ey the current money transfer system is. Some percentage of those people who deal with this stuff on a weekly or monthly basis will say "yeah, this is f'd, there must be a better way..."

Where is there a "deep-dive engagement into the intricacies of how hack-ey the current money transfer system is" at the link? I see a tweet with a fun story that's about no negative part of banking and bunch of replies about how this is cool or how the commenter also has a story about lost property. If it's deeper I didn't scroll far enough down, and I doubt very many of those interacting with the tweet did either.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#147
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I’m the guy who lost his wallet! I agree it’s a convenient overlap and understand your cynicism but I assure you that it’s genuine. I can even provide you with the receipt from me riding a jump bike around for an hour looking for my wallet! :) EDIT: spelling + I did pin the tweet about transferwise after it blew up, and I also changed my bio to share my small side project: Podmast.com - check it out :)

You're making it worse. Anyone can conveniently lose a wallet, but one with a bank card with no identifying info in it anywhere? A finder who went to bizarre lengths to make Faster transactions to your bank account to send you a message? Absolutely no other identifying information in the wallet? A plan to ride a jump bike around to prove you looked for it with receipts? Before sending someone pennies with context in…

In the UK the details needed to transfer money into an account are on most bank cards (Account Number and Sort Code), so that's enough identifying info.

That would also mean someone can send you money if your card is blocked or cancelled. Account number and sort code don't change when you get a new card.

Also, "Faster Payments" is the name of the normal system to transfer money between accounts in the UK. It doesn't cost the sender anything other than the money they send. It's called "faster" because the old system was a lot slower (because it was based on paper I think?).

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#149
post #72

Coincidentally, I was able to return four peoples' IDs and other cards just this afternoon. Yesterday I was walking in East Oakland and found a pile of credit cards, debit cards, and IDs. Oakland Police Department wouldn't take them so I brought them home and started googling names and addresses. Of the four IDs I found three belonged to adults; the third was a state ID for a minor related to one of the adults. I was…

> I wish OPD had taken an interest in the theft

Been there, in a different city, a few times. Police are somehow in collusion with the crime syndicate.

Don't trust police. Ever. All police are corrupt and can not be trusted. Are there exceptions? Only to the extent they don't actively commit crimes but stay silent and refuse to go against their criminal "brothers in blue". Which makes them complicit as well. As I just said, all police are corrupt. Including anyone replying to this to tell me they are the one exception.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#150
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Follow-up stupid American question - what's "bank cards"? Is it like a business cards with your banking information on it that you give to someone so they can send you money?

...it's a card that you use to pay for things in store, taking money from your bank and giving it to the store, and to get money from ATMs, taking money from your bank and giving it to you in cash. I know for a fact you have them in the US. A 'debit card' maybe? It uses the Visa or Mastercard payment networks, supports chip, contactless, swipe, or you can enter the numbers online, and also has useful information like…

Yeah, debit card or ATM card.

I didn't know that bank account number was writen on it in Europe, thanks for the info.

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